Just about every day, Steve Farr walks to his mailbox and pulls out an envelope or two. Each one is different in its own way but basically the same: a nice note, a baseball card, a stamped envelope to mail back.

By Steve Hanf | Images Courtesy of Steve Farr

Somehow, from all across the country, they find him, this former Major Leaguer who has called the Outer Banks home for decades. Somehow, they know about this pitcher who logged 10 years on the world’s biggest baseball stage and owns a World Series ring – while most people on the OBX have no clue.

Major League player, Steve Farr’s baseball card while playing for the famed New York Yankees in the early 1990s.

Farr certainly had no idea that he’d still be autographing baseball cards 30 years after his last pitch for the Boston Red Sox against the Minnesota Twins at the old Metrodome.

“Never dreamed of it,” Farr says of the fan mail. “I try and get on it as quick as I can, not let them stockpile and get out of hand. Especially during Covid, it might be 15 some days because they were so bored at home sending these things out. That was really ridiculous. I just never dreamed how a baseball card opens doors for people, with their kids and things. It’s just never ending.”

Every so often, it’s more personal than a letter in the mail. One day this summer on a regular visit to NAPA Auto Parts to get something for his truck, Farr recalls someone at the store joking that they were finally going to ask him: “Could you sign a card?”

Of course he didn’t mind a bit. He even carries a few in his truck just in case someone he’s interacting with sees “Steve Farr Trucking” on the door and has an “aha” moment, as happened recently with one contractor.

“He goes, ‘Are you the freaking baseball player?!’ Then they just Google me up,” Farr says.

The internet tells quite a tale of a pitcher who beat the odds to enjoy a lengthy pro career. Standing just 5-foot-10, the right-hander appeared in 509 Major League games, had 48 wins to go against 45 losses, recorded 132 saves, struck out twice as many batters as he walked, and had a sparkling earned run average of 3.25.

Farr played in Cleveland, Kansas City, New York and Boston from 1984 to 1994 alongside household names like George Brett, Dan Quisenberry, Bret Saberhagen, Bo Jackson, Don Mattingly, Wade Boggs and Roger Clemens. But when it was time to step away from the game at the age of 37, he was ready. And he knew exactly where he wanted to be – at his home in Corolla.

The Farr family celebrating son Greer’s graduation from First Flight High School in 2022.

“I was so glad to be done when I left. I gave my glove and hat to a kid in the Minnesota stadium and I was like, ‘Done, never looking back,’” Farr recalls. “I figured it was just a stepping stone to get to the rest of my life, which is now, and I’m so happy.”

Farr grew up in Maryland in a family that had long ties to Outer Banks vacations. His parents eventually built a house in Duck in 1978.

At famed DeMatha Catholic High School with its countless basketball standouts, Farr was a talented baseball player who had no idea that college ball or the pros might be an option. He spent one year at American University, where a friend asked Farr to join him at a tryout camp. The Oakland Athletics and Pittsburgh Pirates both offered Farr a contract, and he chose the Pirates to stay on the East Coast.

The Farr family enjoying an Outer Banks afternoon with friends. From left to right: Kiirsten & Steve (Mom/Dad) with children Grayson, Greer and Ripley.

He remembers making $500 a month – in a season that lasted less than three months – that first year of Class A ball in 1977. The second year it was $525. And while he certainly had to work winter jobs to make ends meet, the baseball gig was helping him put the real world on hold for a while.

“It’s not like I was a star at any of the levels. I just kind of worked through it,” Farr recalls. “It was just something to where I didn’t have to go to work right away. I didn’t think I’d be in the big leagues till the day I got there.”

The Pirates traded Farr to Cleveland, one of the worst franchises of the era, which landed him in Buffalo for Double A ball. In 1983, he won 13 games in a row, then next spring at Triple A in Maine, Farr won four straight. With the Indians struggling early in 1984, a reporter wondered why this talented pitcher was still in the minors, and Farr got called up.

“I don’t care if you’re 4-foot-11. Don’t lose, and someone will look at you. They can’t ignore the stats,” Farr says.

His debut came May 16, 1984, at the age of 27. He remembers there being about 3,000 people in the stands, among them his brother and sister. The first three batters he had to face against the Red Sox were legends Wade Boggs, Dwight Evans and Jim Rice: “I used to swing their bats as a kid, so I’m facing three of my idols,” Farr says.

He didn’t win, but didn’t pitch poorly, either, allowing seven hits and four runs in six innings. Farr remained with Cleveland the whole season, appearing in 31 games, starting 16 and suffering through one of only two losing seasons in his career. The Indians released him in spring training in 1985, but it wasn’t long before his agent called with two offers. One was to join the Kansas City Royals.

“He said, ‘They have a young pitching staff – you’ll never get to play,’” Farr recalls. “I said, ‘Well, if I do get called up I’ll be on a really good team.’ They called me up in May and we won the World Series. I was just in the right place at the right time. They gave me some key starts and had belief and it worked.”

Farr didn’t pitch in the thrilling World Series win over the St. Louis Cardinals, but did have the appearance of his life in Game 3 of the A.L. Championship against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Proud members of the Outer Banks community for several decades, Steve and Kiirsten Farr raised sons Grayson and Greer and daughter Ripley from their home in Southern Shores.

Already down 2-0 in the series, starting pitcher Bret Saberhagen got knocked out of Game 3 early with a ball hit back up the middle. Farr came on for a double play to escape that jam and then just cruised the whole way, including a 1-2-3 ninth inning when he thought manager Dick Howser was turning to closer Quisenberry. In 6⅓ innings, Farr allowed just four hits and one run, and the Royals used that 6-5 victory to come back and win the American League pennant in seven games.

Not long ago, Farr saw an interview with George Brett talking about that game and gave his old friend a call. The star third baseman told Farr how to watch the game online at MLB.com and he finally had a chance to relive it.

“I’ve watched it three or four times now and it’s like, ‘Damn, I wasn’t too bad!’” Farr says.

One solid season after another followed, including Farr’s best in 1990 when he went 13-7 with a 1.98 ERA for the Royals. He was a free agent that offseason when his agent called with an offer that was so high, he knew it could only be the Yankees.

Less than excited about life in the big city, Farr didn’t call back to accept the deal. His agent pressed, Farr accepted, and in the end he was happy to have had the experience. He appeared in 159 games for New York from 1991-93 but took advantage of every chance he got to come home to the house he had just built for himself in Corolla.

“I stayed right on the Hudson River, rented a house from a jockey in Yonkers, actually took my boat up there,” Farr says. “I’d go around the Statue of Liberty and go to Yankee Stadium and jump off on the rocks and walk in with people – I was the first guy to ever do that from what I understand. It was fun. I enjoyed it, and I enjoy being on the water.”

It was such a quirky story, taking teammates like Mattingly and others to the stadium by boat when the bridges were backed up, that Farr remembers CNN doing a video package about it.

The 1994 season that would be his last was split between Cleveland and Boston, and marred by the looming strike that would eventually wipe out the playoffs. Farr was ready to move on with his life but did so having just surpassed 10 years of MLB service, giving him what at the time was maximum retirement benefits.

Leaving New York City for the OBX was easy: “I’m so glad I came here. I don’t want to live anywhere else. Nothing else appeals to me,” Farr says.

Greer Farr (son of ex-MLB pitcher Steve Farr), currently in his junior year of college, shown pitching for the Hampden-Sydney College baseball team.

For about 10 years after retiring, he built a house in Martins Point to live on the water and play with his boat and motorcycle. He then got involved in developing an industrial park across the bridge, but when the recession hit, Farr shifted into the trucking and hauling side of things. At one point, Steve Farr Trucking had as many as six trucks and loaders, but he’s settled into a more manageable four, including one he drives regularly to haul loads for the likes of Vulcan Materials and Earth Resources.

His post-baseball life also includes the family he always dreamed of having. Farr got married in the early ’90s but divorced after 10 years. And right about the time he was thinking to himself he’d never get married again, Kiirsten entered the picture. They’ve been married 20 years now and raised Grayson, Greer and Ripley from their home in Southern Shores.

Farr helped coach them a bit along the way, informally from time to time as an assistant, but mostly just loves watching them play. Greer is still at it, entering his junior baseball season at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia.

“I take (my RV) and they let me park it right down the left-field line, just out of foul ball reach,” Farr says. “When I wake up, I’m looking out the front window at that beautiful field. It’s just been an absolute joy.”

It’s Greer who has a couple of his dad’s old jerseys hanging on the wall at the house – Farr jokes that he used to have an “ego room” with memorabilia a while back, but he’s long since moved on with his life.

“It’s so far removed from me now,” Farr says. “I really felt like that was a shallow lifestyle, that the people you met you’re not going to be good friends with down the road. I just feel like it was a stepping stone to have money to do something later in life, and really that’s what it was for me. I’m just really into this life, you know?”

Steve Hanf grew up watching baseball in the 1980s and ’90s but sadly has no memories of watching Farr play. He worked as a professional sportswriter for 13 years before becoming a teacher.

Author: Steve Hanf

Steve Hanf is a former professional sportswriter who teaches the journalism classes at First Flight High School. The dormant Nike Running Club app on his phone offers a reminder of the seven half-marathons and one full marathon he completed … several years ago. 

Steve Hanf

Steve Hanf is a former professional sportswriter who teaches the journalism classes at First Flight High School. The dormant Nike Running Club app on his phone offers a reminder of the seven half-marathons and one full marathon he completed … several years ago.