| Harvard Crimson | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1865 |
| University | Harvard University |
| Head coach | Bill Decker (1st season) |
| Conference | Ivy League |
| Home stadium | Joseph J. O'Donnell Field (Capacity: 1,600) |
| Nickname | Crimson |
| Colors | Crimson and White |
| 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 | |
| Regular season 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, USA. The program has been a member of the NCAA Division I Ivy League since the conference officially began sponsoring baseball at the start of the 1993 season. From 1933–1992, the eight Ivy League schools competed in the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League, along with (from the 1948 season onwards) Army and Navy. Since the start of the 1898 season, the Crimson have played at the site where Joseph J. O'Donnell Field currently stands. Bill Decker has been the program's head coach since prior to the start of the 2013 season. As of the end of the 2012 season, the program has appeared in four College World Series and 14 NCAA Tournaments. In conference postseason play, it has won five Ivy League Championship Series. In regular season play, it has won or shared 15 EIBL regular season titles and 12 Ivy League regular season titles as the highest EIBL finisher other than Army and Navy. It has won eight Ivy League Rolfe Division titles. As of the start of the 2013 Major League Baseball season, 12 former Crimson players have appeared in Major League Baseball.
History edit
19th century edit
Harvard first sponsored a varsity baseball program in summer 1865, and the team won each of the six games it played that year. It played five games against semi-professional teams and one intercollegiate game, against Williams. Baseball had been played at Harvard since 1862, when "class nines" (the teams of each of Harvard's four class years) were first formed. 1865, however, was the school's first varsity intercollegiate season.[1][2]
In a game against a semi-professional team on April 12, 1877, Harvard catcher Jim Tyng became the first baseball player to use a catcher's mask. After playing seven seasons of baseball for Harvard (the NCAA, which instituted eligibility rules that limited the length of collegiate careers, had not yet been formed), Tyng appeared in a September 23, 1879, game for the Boston Red Caps. In doing so, he became the first Harvard player to appear in Major League Baseball.[3][4]
The school continued to sponsor varsity baseball through the end of the 19th century. It played both fall and spring regular season games in its early years, but stopped playing fall regular season games permanently after the 1885–1886 season. The program's highest 19th-century win total was 34, which it reached in both 1870 (34-9-1) and 1892 (34-5).[2] Through the end of the 1899 season, the program played without a head coach and was instead led by its captains.[5]
Two important changes to the program occurred near the end of the 19th century– at the start of the 1898 season, it 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 baseball coach.[6][5]
Pre-World War II edit
The program had a winning percentage of .500 or better in 15 of the 17 seasons from 1900–1916. 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 1907–1910, and the program's two losing records in this time period came under him. Frank Sexton also coached for four seasons (1911–1914), and the team had a winning record in each.[2][5][7]
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In the early 20th century, the program held tryouts, usually in the spring,[8] to select the members of the team from among Harvard's student body.[9] To begin the season itself, the team often traveled to the Southern United States to play games in warm weather.[10] Up until the start of World War I, it played against professional and semi-professional teams, in addition to collegiate teams.[11][2]
The rivalry between Harvard and Yale University received more attention early in the 20th century. The two schools had first competed in a crew race in 1852– the United States' first intercollegiate athletic competition.[1] Harvard first played Yale's baseball program on July 25, 1868. Harvard won the game, 25-17.[2] 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.[12][13] A game in 1913, played at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York, was attended by 15,000 spectators.[14]
The 1917 season was canceled because of World War I, but the program resumed play for the 1918 season.[2][15] 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 prior to the 1930 season.[2][16][17]
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).[5][18][19] 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.[2][16] Mitchell resigned following the 1938 season and was replaced by Floyd Stahl.[20][21] In Stahl's first season, Harvard won its second EIBL title, finishing with a 9-3 league record.[16]
Because of World War II, Harvard competed as an independent in 1943 and 1946, and it did not sponsor a baseball program in 1944 or 1945.[5]
Post-World War II edit
EIBL edit
Harvard began competing in the EIBL again in the 1947 season. 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.[5] For the 1948 season, Brown joined the seven other Ivy League schools in the EIBL, and Army and Navy also joined, giving the league 10 members.[16]
Prior to the start of the 1955 season, Norman Shepard became the program's head coach. Under Shepard, Harvard won four EIBL titles (1955, 1958, 1964, 1968), going undefeated in league play in 1958 and 1964.[16][5] In 1968, Shepard's final season, the team qualified for its first NCAA Tournament. In order to allow Harvard to play in the tournament, Shepard threatened early retirement if the NCAA did not reschedule the District 1 Regional to avoid a conflict with Harvard's final exams.[22] He succeeded, and Harvard won the District 1 Regional, defeating Boston University once and Connecticut twice to advance to the College World Series. There, it lost its opening-round game, 2-0, to St. John's and an elimination game to Southern Illinois, 2-1.[23]
Loyal Park was hired as head coach prior to the start of the 1969 season.[24] After finishing tied for 5th and tied for 2nd in the EIBL, respectively, in his first two seasons, Harvard had its most successful four-year stretch from 1971–1974.[16] In this stretch, 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 with 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.[23][16] In 1973, the program won the EIBL outright and went undefeated in the District 1 Regional to advance to the College World Series.[23][16] There, it was eliminated with consecutive losses to Southern California and Georgia Southern.[25] 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.[23][16][26] Park coached through the end of the 1978 season, in which Harvard won the EIBL and played in the NCAA tournament.[23][16]
Alex Nahigian replaced Park and was the program's head coach from 1979–1990. Nahigian had been the head coach at Providence from 1960–1978.[27][28] 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.[23] During Nahigian's 12-year tenure, Harvard's overall record was 249-152-3.[5]
Ivy League edit
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 the 1986–1987 academic year, 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 baseball programs played their last seasons in the EIBL in 1992.[29] 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 winners of each division met in a best-of-three championship series to decide the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.[16]
Hogan resigned after coaching the program for the first three seasons of Ivy League play, and Suffolk head coach Joe Walsh was hired as the program's head coach prior to the start of the 1996 season. Following Hogan's resignation, Harvard had made its head baseball coach a full-time position.[30]
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. In the next three seasons, Harvard appeared in three consecutive NCAA tournaments, after last having qualified in 1984. It defeated Princeton in the conference championship series in each season. As a 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 a fifth seed in the 1998 NCAA tournament, it again finished third in its regional. After losing its opening-round South II Regional 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.[16][23][31]
Under Walsh, 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) and 2005 series (over Cornell) to advance to two NCAA tournaments. In both tournaments, it was eliminated with consecutive losses. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, the program struggled, winning no Rolfe Division titles and finishing last in the division in 2008 and 2011.[16][23]
During the 2012 season, the program received attention from national media outlets for a Youtube video in which members of the team dubbed Carly Rae Jepsen's 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.[32][33][34]
On July 31, 2012, head coach Joe Walsh died of a heart attack in his Chester, New Hampshire home. Walsh was 58 years old and had coached the program for 17 seasons, appearing in five NCAA tournaments.[35] In September 2012, Harvard hired Trinity (CT) head coach Bill Decker to replace Walsh.[36]
Conference affiliations edit
- Independent (1865–1916, 1918–1932, 1943, 1946)
- Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League (1933–1942, 1947–1992)
- Ivy League (1993–present)
Venues edit
Early venues edit
In its first few decades, the team played at several venues around Cambridge and Boston. These included Cambridge Common, Boston Common, and Jarvis Field, then Harvard's football venue. In the late 19th century, the program played at Holmes Field, located near the Harvard campus on the Cambridge side of the Charles River.[6]
Soldier's Field / Joseph J. O'Donnell Field edit
At the start of the 1898 season, the program moved to Soldier's Field on the Allston-Brighton side of the Charles River. The venue's first game came on April 27, 1898. Harvard defeated Dartmouth, 13-7.[6]
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.[6]
Head coaches edit
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. Joe Walsh, who was the program's head coach for 17 seasons (1996-2012), served the longest tenure of any coach and is also the program's wins leader, with 347.[5][37]
Current coaching staff edit
Yearly records editThe 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.[5][16][40]
Notable former players edit  The following is a list of notable former Crimson players and the seasons in which they played for the program, where available.[41][3][42][43][44][45][46]
2012 MLB Draft editThree Crimson 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).[47] All three players elected to sign professional contracts with their respective clubs.[48][49][50] See also editReferences edit
External links edit
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