Hal Carey '99 Remembers Joe Walsh

From the Catholic Memorial Website:

Hal Carey News Item

Hal Carey '95: Tribute to a fallen Knight

8/2/2012

On July 31, Harvard University baseball coach Joe Walsh, a 1971 Catholic Memorial graduate, died.  He was 58. Hal Carey '95 offers this remembrance.  

I had the pleasure of playing four years for Joe while at Harvard in the late 1990s. His unbridled enthusiasm and passion for the game were contagious.  I will remember the many things he taught me about baseball, but even more so, I will recall that ever-present, infectious smile, and how happy he was every day he was on a ball field.

Joe was like an eight-year old on that field.  His appreciation for his “dream job” was always evident, and he once boasted that he would still be on the ball field while his players would soon be “pushing a pencil in a concrete cave.”

I got to know Joe more personally after graduation. Every summer, I would escape the concrete cave to work at his baseball camps.  Joe had tremendous presence, and was a great storyteller, and he often became the center of attention upon entering a room.  Many of his best stories involved his days at Catholic Memorial.  He loved his time at CM and continued to be passionate about CM.  Even a week before his death, at his camp, he good-naturedly teased a couple of middle school students from BC High by bellowing the first line of the CM fight song – “Stand up and cheer for CM.”

Today, we remember a man whose time on Earth came to an end too soon.  Today, we stand up and cheer for Joe Walsh.    ~Hal Carey ‘95

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FROM THE BOSTON GLOBE  Globe Article Link - Hal Carey on Walsh

Needham native Hal Carey remembers Harvard coach Joe Walsh

By Marvin Pave Globe Correspondent / August 16, 2012

Former star player remembers longtime Harvard coach Walsh

Hal Carey will always remember Harvard baseball coach Joe Walsh for his big smile, firm handshake, and a passion for the game that Carey, a former Crimson baseball captain, now brings to the diamond as the varsity coach at Catholic Memorial School.

“And definitely for his Boston accent,’’ said Carey, a Needham native.

Walsh, who coached Harvard for 17 years, died July 31 at his home in Chester, N.H., at age 58.

“When Joe was hired by Harvard in ­December of my freshman year, I was an ‘unofficial’ translator for the players from out of state who had to get used to the way he spoke, because Joe was Dorchester Park through and through,’’ said Carey, who has worked since his college days as an instructor at Walsh’s baseball camps. Carey flourished under Walsh’s tutelage.

“Joe’s biggest influence on me was his approach to the game,” he said. “He was enthusiastic and positive and he definitely wanted it done his way, but he would never show up or embarrass one of his players.”

The Ivy League’s Rookie of the Year in 1996, the first Harvard player so honored, Carey was a two-time second-team all-league selection for the Crimson.

“I loved playing for Joe and so did my teammates,” said Carey, who now lives in Westwood and is also a vice principal at the West Roxbury high school. “He didn’t have many rules, but he wanted you to respect the game. Like Joe, I have my players bunt, steal, and put pressure on the defense.”

Carey’s 2009 and 2010 baseball teams reached the Division 1 South sectional finals.

Playing second and third base for Harvard, Carey hit .374 as a junior in 1998. He also played in the all-star game for New England collegians at Fenway Park, and starred for several years in the Boston Park League.

Carey holds Harvard career records for hits (208), doubles (46), and stolen bases (63). He helped the Crimson win three Ivy League titles and advance to the NCAA Division 1 regionals.

His father, Dick, head baseball coach at Christopher Columbus High in Boston in the 1980s, knew Walsh years before his son enrolled at Harvard. “Four decades ago I had the pleasure of playing baseball with Joe at Dorchester Park, where we both learned how the game should be played from a mutual mentor, Ray “Jake” Sheridan, and Joe was the teacher’s prize pupil,’’ recalled the elder Carey, who still resides in Needham. “There’s no doubt in my mind that Hal’s career would not have been as good nor as enjoyable had he played for any other coach.’’

Walsh, who graduated from Catholic Memorial in 1971, compiled a 569-564-3 coaching record at the college level, with the first 15 years at his alma mater, Suffolk University.