Harvard Crimson baseball

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Harvard Crimson
Harvard Crimson logo.svg
Founded 1865
University Harvard University
Conference Ivy
Rolfe Division
Location Cambridge, MA
Head coach Bill Decker (4th year)
Home stadium Joseph J. O'Donnell Field
(Capacity: 1,600)
Nickname Crimson
Colors Crimson, White, and Black[1]
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College World Series appearances
1968, 1971, 1973, 1974
NCAA Tournament appearances
1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1978, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2005
Conference tournament champions
1997, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2005
Conference champions
EIBL: 1936, 1939, 1955, 1958, 1964, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1978, 1980, 1983, 1984
Ivy: 1955, 1958, 1962, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1978, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985
Ivy Rolfe: 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006

The Harvard Crimson baseball team is the varsity intercollegiate baseball team of Harvard University, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The program has been a member of the Ivy League since the conference officially began sponsoring baseball at the start of the 1993 season. The team plays at Joseph J. O'Donnell Field, located across the Charles River from Harvard's main campus. Bill Decker has been the program's head coach since the 2013 season.

The program has appeared in four College World Series and 14 NCAA Tournaments. It has won five Ivy League Championship Series, eight Rolfe Division titles, 15 EIBL regular season titles, and 12 Ivy League regular season titles.

As of the start of the 2014 Major League Baseball season, 12 former Crimson players have appeared in Major League Baseball.

History

19th century

Jim Tyng on an 1888 baseball card.

Harvard College's first season of baseball came in 1865; the team went 6–0 that year. It played one intercollegiate game (against Williams) and five against semi-professional teams. Organized baseball at the college had begun a few years earlier, when "class nines" (the teams of each of Harvard College's four class years) were first fielded; the first of these was the '66 Baseball Club, formed in 1862 by members of that year's freshman class. Despite these early years of competition, 1865 was the school's first varsity intercollegiate season.[2][3][4]

Along with rowing, baseball was popular at Harvard in the late 19th century.[5] A newspaper review of the 1871 book Four Years at Yale says that the book includes "interesting accounts of the sports common in colleges, especially baseball and rowing, and the principal matches which have taken place between Harvard and Yale."[6] An 1884 edition of the Washington Bee reprinted a Lowell Courier humor section piece that reads, "Sixty Harvard freshman have dropped their Latin, eighty their Greek and 100 their mathematics. None of them have dropped their baseball or their boating, however, and college culture is still safe."[7]

In a game against a semi-professional team from Lynn on April 12, 1877, Harvard catcher Jim Tyng became the first baseball player to use a catcher's mask. The mask was invented by another student, Frederick Thayer, and manufactured by a Cambridge tinsmith. Tyng later became the first Harvard player to appear in Major League Baseball when he played in a September 23, 1879, game for the Boston Red Caps.[8][9][10]

In the 1870s and 1880s, Harvard was a member of two loosely organized forerunners of the Ivy League. The Intercollegiate Base Ball Association, which it played in from 1879 to 1886, included Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown, and Amherst. The College Baseball League, which it played in from 1887 to 1889, featured Yale, Princeton, and Columbia.[10][11]

The school continued to field a varsity baseball team through the end of the 19th century. It played both fall and spring regular season games in its early years, but moved to a spring-only schedule after the 1885–1886 season. The program's highest 19th-century win total was 34, a mark it reached in both 1870 (34–9–1) and 1892 (34–5).[3] Through the end of the 1899 season, the program played without a head coach and was instead led by its captains.[12]

Two important changes to the program occurred near the end of the 19th century– at the start of the 1898 season, Harvard began playing home games at Soldier's Field, and at the start of the 1900 season, it hired E. H. Nichols as its first head coach.[12][13]

Pre-World War II

The program went .500 or better in 15 of the 17 seasons from 1900 to 1916. Its highest win total in that stretch, 23, came in 1915 under head coach Percy Haughton. Two head coaches served four-season tenures during the time period. L. P. Pieper coached from 1907 to 1910; the program's two losing records in this time period came under him. Frank Sexton also coached for four seasons (1911–1914); the program had a winning record in each.[3][12][14]

Percy Haughton in 1919.

In the early 20th century, Harvard held tryouts, usually in the spring,[15] to select the members of the team from the student body.[16] To start the regular season, the team often traveled to the Southern United States to play games in warm weather, a practice that began in 1898.[10][17] Up until the start of World War I, its scheduled included professional and semi-professional teams, in addition to collegiate teams.[3][18]

Hall of Fame pitcher Cy Young, then a member of the Boston Americans, served as the team's pitching coach for a brief time in 1902. Another future Hall of Famer, Willie Keeler of the Brooklyn Superbas, served alongside Young as the team's hitting coach.[19][20][21][22]

William Clarence Matthews was Harvard's shortstop from 1902 to 1905. Matthews was black. A handful of black students graduated from Harvard around that time (its first black graduate, Richard Theodore Greener, was a member of the class of 1870), but Matthews one of only a few black players in major college athletics during an era in which baseball was divided by the color line. Harvard went 75–18 during Matthews's career. As a freshman, he scored the winning run in Harvard's 6–5 win in the decisive game of the Yale series; he also led the team in batting average as a sophomore, junior, and senior. Matthews faced racial discrimination while a member of the team. During his freshman season, he was held out of games against Navy and Virginia due to their objections to Harvard's fielding a black player. In 1903, the following year, Harvard canceled its annual southern trip when it faced similar objections. After Harvard, Matthews played one season of professional baseball and went on to a career in law. The trophy given to the Ivy League's baseball champion is named for Matthews. He was inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014.[23][24][25][26][27]

The 1917 season was canceled because of World War I, but the program resumed play in 1918.[3][28] Through the 1932 season, the program competed as an independent school. For the 1933 season, however, Harvard joined the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League (EIBL), which had been formed by several Ivy League schools for the start of the 1930 season.[3][29][30]

Prior to the start of the 1929 season, Fred Mitchell was hired for his third stint as Harvard head baseball coach (he also led the program during the 1916 and 1926 seasons).[12][31][32] Mitchell's third stint lasted from 1929 to 1938– Harvard's final four seasons as an independent and first six in the EIBL. Under Mitchell, Harvard won its first EIBL title; with an 8–4 league record in 1936, it tied Dartmouth for the championship.[3][29] Mitchell resigned following the 1938 season and was replaced by Floyd Stahl.[33][34] In Stahl's first season, Harvard won its second EIBL title, finishing with a 9–3 league record.[29]

Because of World War II, Harvard competed as an independent in 1943 and 1946 and did not sponsor a team in 1944 or 1945.[12]

Post-World War II

EIBL

Harvard rejoined the EIBL for the 1947 season. For the 1948 season, Brown joined the seven other Ivy League schools in the league; Army and Navy also joined, giving the league 10 members.[29] In the immediate postwar years, under head coaches Adolph Samborski (1947–1948) and Stuffy McInnis (1949–1954), the program finished no higher than 4th in the EIBL.[12]

Norman Shepard became the program's head coach for the start of the 1955 season. Under Shepard, Harvard won four EIBL titles (1955, 1958, 1964, 1968), going undefeated in league play in 1958 and 1964.[12][29] In 1968, Shepard's final season, the team qualified for its first NCAA Tournament. In order for Harvard to play in the tournament, Shepard threatened to speed up his retirement if the NCAA did not reschedule the District 1 Regional to avoid a conflict with Harvard's final exams.[35] His threat succeeded, and Harvard won the rescheduled District 1 Regional, defeating Boston University once and Connecticut twice to advance to the College World Series. There, it lost its opening game to St. John's, 2–0, and an elimination game to Southern Illinois, 2–1.[36]

Loyal Park was hired as head coach prior to the start of the 1969 season.[37] After finishing tied for 5th and tied for 2nd in the EIBL in his first two seasons, the program had its most successful four-year stretch from 1971 to 1974.[29] Harvard won four consecutive EIBL titles and played in three College World Series. In 1971, Harvard won the EIBL outright and swept Massachusetts in a best-of-three District 1 Regional. In the College World Series, Harvard defeated BYU, 4–1, in its opening game, but was eliminated by consecutive one-run losses to Tulsa and Texas–Pan American. In 1972, Harvard tied Cornell for the EIBL title, but won a playoff to advance to that year's NCAA tournament. There, it advanced to the District 1 Regional finals, but lost to Connecticut, 11–2.[29][36] In 1973, the program won the EIBL outright and went undefeated in the District 1 Regional to advance to the College World Series.[29][36] There, it lost consecutive games to Southern California and Georgia Southern.[38] In 1974, Harvard defeated Princeton in an EIBL tiebreaker playoff and won the District 1 Regional, but lost consecutive games to Miami and Northern Colorado at the 1974 College World Series.[29][36][39] Park coached through the end of the 1978 season, in which Harvard won the EIBL and played in the NCAA tournament.[29][36]

Alex Nahigian replaced Park and was the program's head coach from 1979 to 1990. Nahigian had been the head coach at Providence from 1960 to 1978.[40][41] Under Nahigian, Harvard appeared in three NCAA tournaments (1980, 1983, 1984). In both 1980 and 1983, it advanced to the Northeast Regional final, but lost there to St. John's in 1980 and Maine in 1983.[36] During Nahigian's 12-year tenure, Harvard's overall record was 249–152–3.[12]

During the successful years under Shepard, Park, and Nahigian, many Crimson players distinguished themselves individually. The era from 1955–1990 saw 17 First-Team All-America selections and 31 Major League Baseball Draft selections. Paul del Rossi, a pitcher under Shepard from 1962 to 1964, set the EIBL/Ivy career record for wins, with 30. Future Major Leaguer Mike Stenhouse, who played for Park and Nahigian from 1977 to 1979, set single-season and career EIBL/Ivy batting average records, was twice named a First-Team All-American, and was a first-round draft pick of the Oakland Athletics in 1979. Another future Major Leaguer, Jeff Musselman, was the 1985 EIBL Pitcher of the Year.[29][42][43][44]

Ivy League

During the tenure of Leigh Hogan (1991–1995), the EIBL folded, and the Ivy League began sponsoring baseball. Several northeast schools had formed the Patriot League in 1986, and the two non-Ivy members of the EIBL, Army and Navy, had joined the league in other sports– Army in 1990–1991 and Navy in 1991–1992. Both schools' baseball programs played their last seasons in the EIBL in 1992.[45] Beginning with the 1993 season, the Ivy League sponsored baseball. Its eight teams competed in two four-team divisions: Harvard, Dartmouth, Yale, and Brown in the Rolfe Division, and Columbia, Cornell, Princeton, and Penn in the Gehrig Division. The division winners met in a best-of-three championship series to decide the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.[29]

Hogan resigned following the 1995 season after coaching the program for its first three Ivy League seasons, and Suffolk head coach Joe Walsh was hired to replace him. Starting with Walsh, Harvard made its head baseball coaching position a full-time position.[46]

Oklahoma State's Allie P. Reynolds Stadium, the site of Harvard's third-place regional finish in 1997.

In Walsh's first season, 1996, Harvard won the Rolfe Division, finishing three games ahead of second-place Yale, but was swept by Princeton in the best-of-three Ivy League Championship Series. Harvard then made three consecutive NCAA tournaments, after last having qualified in 1984. It defeated Princeton in the championship series in each season. As the sixth seed in the 1997 NCAA tournament, it placed third in the six-team, double-elimination Midwest Regional. After defeating first-seeded UCLA, 7–2, and fourth-seeded Stetson, 8–6, to open the regional, it lost consecutive games to host Oklahoma State and UCLA and was eliminated. As the fifth seed in the 1998 NCAA tournament, it again finished third in its regional. After losing its opening game to second-seeded Cal State Fullerton, it won elimination games against Nicholls State and Tulane before being eliminated by Fullerton. In the 1999 tournament, the first year of four-team regionals, Harvard lost consecutive games to Pepperdine and VCU.[29][36][47]

Harvard won four more Rolfe Division titles in the early 2000s, thus appearing in four Ivy League Championship Series (2002, 2003, 2005, 2006). It won the 2002 series (over Princeton)[48] and 2005 series (over Cornell) to advance to two NCAA tournaments. It went 0–2 in both. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, the program struggled, winning no Rolfe Division titles and finishing last in the division in 2008, 2011, and 2014.[29][36][49]

On July 31, 2012, Walsh died of a heart attack in his Chester, New Hampshire home. He was 58 years old and had coached the program for 17 seasons, appearing in five NCAA tournaments.[50] Beginning in 2014, the NEIBA All-Star Game was named for Walsh.[51] In September 2012, the school hired Bill Decker to replace Walsh. Decker came from Division III Trinity (CT), where he had been the head coach for 22 seasons and won the 2008 National Championship.[52]

Prior to the 2013 season, several players were implicated in an academic cheating scandal and were forced to withdraw from Harvard.[53] The 2013 team's record was 10–31 (7–13 Ivy); it finished third in the Rolfe Division.[54]

Conference affiliations

Venues

Early venues

In its first few decades, the team played at several venues around Cambridge and Boston. Besides occasionally using sites on Cambridge Common or Boston Common, the school had regular venues on campus. It spent its first two seasons (1865–1866) playing at the Delta, where Memorial Hall currently stands. From 1867–1883, the team's main venue was Jarvis Field, which Harvard also used for football at the time. From 1884–1897, the baseball team used Holmes Field, which also doubled as one of Harvard's early football venues.[10][13]

Soldier's Field / Joseph J. O'Donnell Field

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Main article: Joseph J. O'Donnell Field

In 1890, Major Henry Lee Higginson donated a parcel of land on the Allston-Brighton side of the Charles River for Harvard's use. Higginson dedicated the site Soldier's Field, for six of his friends who had died fighting in the Civil War. For the start of the 1898 season, the baseball program moved to the site. The venue's first game came on April 27, 1898. Harvard defeated Dartmouth, 13–7.[10][13][55]

On May 4, 1997, the stadium was rededicated for Joseph J. O'Donnell, a Harvard alumnus, donor, and former baseball and football player. The venue has a capacity of 1,600 spectators.[13]

Head coaches

From the program's inception at the start of the 1865 season through the end of the 1899 season, the program did not have a head coach and was instead led by its captains. In the 1900 season, E. H. Nichols became the program's first head coach. Frank Sexton, who held the position from 1911–1914, was the team's first professional coach. The position became a full-time position beginning with the 1996 season, thanks to a $2.5 million endowment from program alumnus Joseph O'Donnell.[12][13][56]

In the early years of the position, men commonly held it for only one season. (Prior to the 1930s, the position was held for a single season eleven times.) Since then, however, five men have coached the team for at least a decade: Fred Mitchell, Norman Shepard, Loyal Park, Alex Nahigian, and Joe Walsh.[12] Walsh, who was the program's head coach for 17 seasons (1996–2012), served the longest tenure of any coach in program history and is also its wins leader, with 347.[12][57]

Tenure(s) Coach Seasons W-L-T Pct
1865–1899 None 35 582–307–10 .653
1900–1901, 1905[lower-alpha 1] E. H. Nichols 3 53–13–1 .799
1902 A. V. Galbraith 1 21–3 .875
1903 Barrett Wendell 1 19–5 .792
1904 O. G. Frantz 1 17–5 .773
1905[lower-alpha 1] T. F. Murphy 1 19–5–1 .780
1906 P. N. Coburn 1 12–12 .500
1907–1910 L. P. Pieper 4 47–36–2 .565
1911–1914 Frank Sexton 4 64–32–2 .663
1915 Percy Haughton 1 23–7 .767
1916, 1926, 1929–1938 Fred Mitchell 12 183–124–5 .595
1918–1919 Hugh Duffy 2 8–21 .276
1920–1924 Jack Slattery 5 75–53–2 .585
1925 Eddie Mahan 1 9–14 .391
1927 Henry Chauncey 1 25–6–1 .797
1928 John Barbee 1 18–10 .643
1939–1943, 1946 Floyd Stahl 6 54–69 .439
1947–1948 Adolph Samborski 2 24–24–1 .500
1949–1954 Stuffy McInnis 6 47–64–1 .424
1955–1968 Norman Shepard 14 218–107–4 .669
1969–1978 Loyal Park 10 248–93 .727
1979–1990 Alex Nahigian 12 249–152–3 .620
1991–1995 Leigh Hogan 5 82–101–1 .448
1996–2012 Joe Walsh 17 347–388–2 .471
2013–present Bill Decker 2 21–59 .263
TOTALS 24 148 2445-1705-35[54][58][59] .589

Current coaching staff

Harvard's coaching staff for the 2014 season consisted of head coach Bill Decker and assistant coaches Jeff Calcaterra, Mike Zandler, and Morgan Brown.[41]

Bill Decker

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Main article: Bill Decker

Bill Decker has been the program's head coach since the start of the 2013 season. A 1984 graduate of Ithaca College, Decker's coaching career began with assistant positions at Division III schools Wesleyan (CT) and Macalester. After these, he was named the head coach at Trinity (CT) for the start of the 1991 season. Decker spent 22 seasons at Trinity, compiling a 529–231 record. He was named New England Coach of the Year and NESCAC Coach of the Year four times each. Under him, Trinity appeared in nine NCAA Tournaments and won five NESCAC Tournament titles. In the 2008 season, the team nearly went undefeated, in the end finishing at 45–1 and winning the Division III National Championship.[60][61][62][63][64]

Assistant coaches

Jeff Calcaterra has been the program's top assistant and recruiting coordinator since the start of the 2013 season. An Indiana graduate and former Yankees minor leaguer, he has previously served as an assistant at Indiana (1994–2004) and head coach at Hartford (2005–2011). Mike Zandler has been an assistant since the start of the 2014 season. A Bridgewater (VA) graduate, Zandler is a former assistant at Guilford and Davidson and head coach at Illinois-Springfield. Harvard alumnus Morgan Brown is the only assistant left from Joe Walsh's coaching staff. A graduate of 2006 and assistant since prior to the start of the 2011 season, Brown played several seasons of professional baseball following his time at Harvard.[65][66][67][68][69]

Yearly records

The following is a table of the program's yearly records. From its inception at the start of the 1865 season through the end of the 1899 season, the teams had no head coaches and were instead led by captains. The university did not sponsor a program in 1917, because of World War I, or from 1944–1945, because of World War II.[12][29][59]

Season Coach Overall Conference Standing Postseason
Independent (1865–1916)
1865 6–0
1866 6–8
1867 11–2
1868 11–1
1869 18–6
1870 34–9–1
1871 11–7
1872 7–4
1873 3–9
1874 9–8
1875 5–8
1876 25–12
1877 23–12–1
1878 24–7–1
1879 11–15–2
1880 13–18
1881 13–8
1882 17–14
1883 12–16
1884 18–9
1885 27–1
1886 26–6–1
1887 15–6
1888 21–4
1889 12–16
1890 20–12
1891 20–11
1892 34–5
1893 27–5–3
1894 19–10
1895 13–15
1896 16–13
1897 16–9
1898 21–10–1
1899 18–11
1900 E. H. Nichols 16–6
1901 E. H. Nichols 18–2
1902 A. V. Galbraith 21–3
1903 Barrett Wendell 19–5
1904 O. G. Frantz 17–5
1905 T. F. Murphy, E. H. Nichols[lower-alpha 1] 19–5–1
1906 P. N. Coburn 12–12
1907 L. P. Pieper 15–7
1908 L. P. Pieper 11–12–1
1909 L. P. Pieper 13–6
1910 L. P. Pieper 8–11–1
1911 Frank Sexton 17–6
1912 Frank Sexton 12–10–1
1913 Frank Sexton 15–9–1
1914 Frank Sexton 20–7
1915 Percy Haughton 23–7
1916 Fred Mitchell 22–3–1
No program (1917)
Independent (1918–1932)
1918 Hugh Duffy 1–8
1919 Hugh Duffy 7–13
1920 Jack Slattery 12–11–2
1921 Jack Slattery 18–8
1922 Jack Slattery 19–8
1923 Jack Slattery 14–13
1924 Jack Slattery 12–13
1925 Eddie Mahan 9–14
1926 Fred Mitchell 15–7
1927 Henry Chauncey 25–6–1
1928 John Barbee 18–10
1929 Fred Mitchell 17–8–1
1930 Fred Mitchell 10–14
1931 Fred Mitchell 14–11
1932 Fred Mitchell 16–6
Independent: 1067-573-20
Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League (1933–1942)
1933 Fred Mitchell 10–11 5–6 4th
1934 Fred Mitchell 20–17–1 6–5 3rd
1935 Fred Mitchell 16–9–1 8–4 2nd
1936 Fred Mitchell 16–10 8–4 t-1st
1937 Fred Mitchell 13–14–1 8–4 t-2nd
1938 Fred Mitchell 14–14 8–4 2nd
1939 Floyd Stahl 16–10 9–3 1st
1940 Floyd Stahl 8–18 3–8 6th
1941 Floyd Stahl 7–18 4–8 t-5th
1942 Floyd Stahl 9–9 5–5 2nd
Independent (1943)
1943 Floyd Stahl 9–5
No program (1944–1945)
Independent (1946)
1946 Floyd Stahl 5–9
Independent: 14–14
Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League (1947–1992)
1947 Adolph Samborski 12–13 7–5 t-2nd
1948 Adolph Samborski 12–11–1 2–4 9th
1949 Stuffy McInnis 10–12 5–4 t-4th
1950 Stuffy McInnis 9–6 5–2 4th
1951 Stuffy McInnis 7–9 3–5 7th
1952 Stuffy McInnis 6–11–1 2–6 5th (North)
1953 Stuffy McInnis 8–11 4–5 t-6th
1954 Stuffy McInnis 7–15 3–5 7th
1955 Norman Shepard 18–5 8–1 1st
1956 Norman Shepard 18–6 5–4 t-4th
1957 Norman Shepard 15–7–1 6–3 t-4th
1958 Norman Shepard 14–8–1 7–0 1st
1959 Norman Shepard 16–9 4–5 t-6th
1960 Norman Shepard 9–13–1 3–5 7th
1961 Norman Shepard 10–11 2–4 7th
1962 Norman Shepard 19–4 7–2 t-2nd
1963 Norman Shepard 17–6 5–4 t-5th
1964 Norman Shepard 21–2–1 9–0 1st
1965 Norman Shepard 12–11 5–4 t-4th
1966 Norman Shepard 15–9 3–6 t-7th
1967 Norman Shepard 15–7 5–3 t-4th
1968 Norman Shepard 19–9 8–1 1st College World Series
1969 Loyal Park 13–8 4–4 t-5th
1970 Loyal Park 24–7 10–4 t-2nd
1971 Loyal Park 27–8 9–5 1st College World Series
1972 Loyal Park 30–9 10–4 t-1st NCAA Regional
1973 Loyal Park 35–5 11–2 1st College World Series
1974 Loyal Park 31–11 10–4 t-1st College World Series
1975 Loyal Park 25–10 7–3 t-3rd
1976 Loyal Park 17–18 4–10 t-8th
1977 Loyal Park 22–7 7–3 4th
1978 Loyal Park 24–10 11–3 1st NCAA Regional
1979 Alex Nahigian 22–14 9–5 4th
1980 Alex Nahigian 24–12 10–4 t-1st NCAA Regional
1981 Alex Nahigian 17–14 6–7 t-5th
1982 Alex Nahigian 17–16 9–9 t-3rd
1983 Alex Nahigian 27–8–1 15–3–1 1st NCAA Regional
1984 Alex Nahigian 28–6 14–3 1st NCAA Regional
1985 Alex Nahigian 29–9 15–3 t-1st EIBL Tiebreaker
1986 Alex Nahigian 19–11 10–8 t-3rd
1987 Alex Nahigian 19–7 12–4 3rd
1988 Alex Nahigian 16–18 9–9 t-5th
1989 Alex Nahigian 16–17–1 9–9 t-5th
1990 Alex Nahigian 15–20–1 9–9 6th
1991 Leigh Hogan 21–19 9–9 6th
1992 Leigh Hogan 20–15 8–6 3rd
EIBL: 956–604–12 399–259–1
Ivy League (1993–present)
1993 Leigh Hogan 18–20 12–8 2nd (Rolfe)
1994 Leigh Hogan 13–22–1 7–13 t-3rd (Rolfe)
1995 Leigh Hogan 10–25 6–14 4th (Rolfe)
1996 Joe Walsh 23–17 14–6 1st (Rolfe) Ivy Championship Series
1997 Joe Walsh 34–16 18–2 1st (Rolfe) NCAA Regional
1998 Joe Walsh 36–12 16–4 1st (Rolfe) NCAA Regional
1999 Joe Walsh 28–20 17–3 1st (Rolfe) NCAA Regional
2000 Joe Walsh 18–25 10–10 3rd (Rolfe)
2001 Joe Walsh 18–26 11–9 3rd (Rolfe)
2002 Joe Walsh 20–26 13–7 t-1st (Rolfe) NCAA Regional
2003 Joe Walsh 20–23 11–9 1st (Rolfe) Ivy Championship Series
2004 Joe Walsh 21–18–1 13–7 2nd (Rolfe)
2005 Joe Walsh 29–17 15–5 1st (Rolfe) NCAA Regional
2006 Joe Walsh 21–20–1 14–6 1st (Rolfe) Ivy Championship Series
2007 Joe Walsh 18–18 12–7 2nd (Rolfe)
2008 Joe Walsh 10–30 8–12 4th (Rolfe)
2009 Joe Walsh 13–28 10–10 t-3rd (Rolfe)
2010 Joe Walsh 17–26 10–10 t-2nd (Rolfe)
2011 Joe Walsh 9–36 5–15 4th (Rolfe)
2012 Joe Walsh 12–30 8–12 2nd (Rolfe)
2013 Bill Decker 10–31 7–13 3rd (Rolfe)
2014 Bill Decker 11–28 5–15 4th (Rolfe)
Ivy League: 409–514–3 242–197
Total: 2445-1705-35[54][58][59]

      National champion         Postseason invitational champion  
      Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
      Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion
      Conference tournament champion

Notable former players

Frank Herrmann, while pitching for the MLB's Cleveland Indians.

The following is a list of notable former Crimson players and the seasons in which they played for the program, where available.[8][70][71][72][73][74][75]

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Major League Baseball Draft

2011

One Crimson player was selected in the 2011 Major League Baseball Draft. P Max Perlman was selected by the Oakland Athletics in the 35th round and chose to sign a professional contract.[76]

2012

Three players were selected in the 2012 Major League Baseball Draft: P Brent Suter by the Milwaukee Brewers (31st round), P Andrew Ferreira by the Minnesota Twins (32nd round), and 3B Jeff Reynolds by the New York Mets (38th round).[77] All three players elected to sign professional contracts with their respective clubs.[78][79][80]

Rivalry with Yale

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See also: Harvard–Yale football rivalry

History

Harvard's baseball program has a long history in the school's well-known rivalry with Yale University. Overall, Harvard has a 194–178–1 record against Yale, whom they have played more than any other team.[3]

The two schools' first athletic competition was a crew race in 1852– the United States' first intercollegiate athletic competition.[2] Harvard first played Yale's baseball program on July 25, 1868. The Crimson won, 25–17, and went on to win the teams' first eight meetings.[3] Yale won five of the next seven, including a 5–0 win in 1877 in which pitcher Charles Carter threw what later became known as a perfect game.[81][82]

The two teams have played in nearly every season since, with a few exceptions. In 1891, Yale refused on account of Harvard's refusal to play Princeton in 1890 and 1891.[83][84] The rivalry also was not played in 1917, 1944, or 1945, when Harvard did not sponsor a team due to the World Wars.[3]

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, baseball games between Harvard and Yale attracted much attention. At the end of each season, the teams played two games, one each in Cambridge and New Haven; if the teams split these games, a third was scheduled to decide that year's champion.[85] In 1913, for example, when Yale won 2–0 in New Haven and Harvard won 4–3 in Cambridge, a third game was scheduled at Ebbets Field, the home field of Major League Baseball's Brooklyn Dodgers; Harvard won, 6–5.[86] The games regularly drew crowds of over 10,000. The 1913 championship game at Ebbets saw an attendance mark of 15,000; a June 23, 1908, game (which Harvard lost 3–0) was attended by 14,000 spectators, including Secretary of War William Howard Taft, a Yale alumnus who had unofficially been named the Republican nominee for president only days earlier.[87][88]

The two teams became conference rivals in the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League after Harvard joined for the 1933 season. Both teams were competitive in the league– Harvard won 21 titles, while Yale won 10. The teams finished 1–2 in the league standings five times (1937, 1947, 1955, 1980, and 1984). In 1980, the two teams met in the EIBL tiebreaker with an NCAA Tournament bid at stake; Harvard swept Yale in two games, 11–3 and 6–2, to advance.[3][29]

Since the two teams began competing in the Rolfe Division in 1993, the teams have finished 1–2 in the division standings four times. In those four seasons, Yale won the division once (in 1993), while Harvard won it the other three times (1996, 1997, and 1998).[29]

Format

The format of the team's yearly meetings has changed frequently. From 1868–1871, the teams played only a single game. The home-and-home format popular for much of the rivalry's early history was adopted in 1872, and the tiebreaker game was played, as necessary, starting in 1877. The home-and-home format was stretched to four games during several seasons in the late-19th century, with a fifth, tie-breaking game played on multiple occasions. When Harvard joined the EIBL for the 1933 season, the tiebreaker format was scrapped. From 1935–1940, the teams instead played a regularly scheduled third game in New London, Connecticut on the same day as the Harvard–Yale Regatta. The rivalry's schedule became irregular during the years of World War II. Following the war, formats varied until the schools began playing a regular three-game series in 1954. The rivalry consisted of three-game series from 1954–1960, two-game series from 1961–1966, and a mix of single games and doubleheaders from 1967–1980. In the last years of the EIBL (1981–1992), the two teams played one doubleheader each season, alternating home teams between seasons. Since the Ivy League began sponsoring baseball in 1993, Harvard and Yale have played a yearly four-game series, held entirely at one school, as part of Rolfe Division play.[3][83][89]

Popular culture

"Call Me Maybe" video

During the 2012 season, the program received attention from national media outlets for a Youtube video in which members of the team dubbed the Carly Rae Jepsen song "Call Me Maybe." The video, filmed during a van ride to a road game, was viewed 2 million times in the five days after its release and led to many imitations by other sports teams.[90][91][92] The video was choreographed and directed by senior pitcher Connor Hulse. Eight players appeared in the video: in the front row, from left to right, senior catcher Jon Smart and junior pitcher Joey Novak; in the middle row, sophomore pitcher Andrew Ferreira, senior first baseman/pitcher Marcus Way, and junior second baseman Kyle Larrow; in the back row, sophomore outfielder Jack Colton (who was asleep), senior infielder/catcher Jeff Reynolds, sophomore catcher/first baseman Steve Dill and cameraman Connor Hulse.[91]

The Little Book

In the 2008 Selden Edwards novel The Little Book, protagonist Wheeler Burden plays baseball for Harvard in the early 1960s.[93]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Nichols and Murphy were co-head coaches during the 1905 season, and Harvard's 19–5–1 record in that season is credited to both coaches.

References

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  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  23. ↑ Lindholm, Karl. "William Clarence Matthews: 'The Jackie Robinson of His Day" in The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, 1997, eds. Peter M. Rutkoff and Alvin L. Hall. pp. 25–33. McFarland: Jefferson, NC, 2000.
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