OXON HILL, Md. — John Schuerholz was perfectly happy at his job, teaching world geography and English to eighth graders in suburban Baltimore.

Even so, one day he decided to mail it in.

A letter, that is. A note the one-time Towson University second baseman wrote to the owner of the hometown Orioles, saying he really wanted to work in baseball, that he might be able to do some good.

A half-century after he dropped that note with the post office, the game delivered its biggest prize: Schuerholz was elected to the Hall of Fame.

“And it all started with that letter in that free period at North Point Junior High in Dundalk,” he reminisced Sunday.

Schuerholz was the first general manager to assemble teams that won the World Series in both leagues, capturing crowns with Kansas City in 1985 and Atlanta in 1995.

His Braves won 14 straight division championships, a run that began in his first season with them. Prior to that, Atlanta hadn’t won so much as a single playoff game.