[Home Free]

This is a brief bio I wrote for another site in a series called Catching the Moment -- obscure catchers who, mostly, failed to reach the majors but were in MLB camps long enough for Topps or teams to capture their moment. I have done 36 of them so far, 31 of them exclusively minor leaguers.



In addition to the remarkable story of Owen Johnson, the story behind Catching the Moment No. 35, Gil Stafford, is easily the most extraordinary tale we've found.

We should say, Rev. Dr. Gil Stafford. But he was "just" Gil Stafford when the Astros drafted him in the 17th round out of a Phoenix high school in 1971. Only a part-timer in the Houston system, the Brewers brought him into camp for 1973, and he reached the big league side in '74.
But Stafford never rose above AA and never earned No. 1 status, so the Brewers released him after the 1975 season. He returned to the Phoenix area and began coaching high school baseball while attending school at Arizona State.
By 1980, he had already earned a doctorate in Christian education, and he was hired to be only the second head baseball coach at NAIA power Grand Canyon University at the age of 27. He would coach the Antelopes from 1981-2000, winning NAIA national championships in 1981, 82 and 86. And in 1991, he on board when Grand Canyon became the first athletic program to jump all the way from NAIA to NCAA Division I.
Among the several major league players he helped develop, the Angels' Tim Salmon paid for a new clubhouse for the team.
Subsequent financial problems at the school meant GCU would step back to Division II status.

His final three seasons as baseball coach, Stafford also served at the school's executive vice president. Then, in 1981 at the age of 46, he was named President of Grand Canyon University -- a role he filled until 2003. At that time, he resigned to enter the Episcopalian priesthood.
Today, the Rev. Dr. Gil Stafford serves as Canon Theologian for the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona. But his ex-players still call him "skip."


Gil Stafford today