“I’ll never forget driving from the funeral to the burial,” Svoboda says. “It completely shut down Route 93 South. I remember looking back…at just a single line of cars on the highway as far as the eye could see, in front of me, going off the exit, and then behind me into Boston. It really hit me, the impact that he had on people.”

A PLAYER’S COACH

Although his personality extended to influence people who had nothing to do with his job, the group that experienced a more significant impact was the Harvard baseball team itself.

Walsh’s players were around him for a great deal of time in the spring season, and they came to view him as a role model.

“He was always there for you, no matter what,” Wineski says. “He gave me some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten in my life, and you kind of looked up to him as a father figure when you were here at school.”

Brown came to Harvard from a small high school in New Hampshire. Imbued with a love for baseball, Brown tried out for the squad and made it.

In his own words, Brown was the 26th man on a 26-player roster. But Walsh saw something special in the freshman. Brown entered Harvard thinking he might be lucky to play club baseball, but he became a three-year starter at shortstop, a captain, and an All-American.

Brown returned to Harvard and has served as a volunteer assistant coach for the past two years.

“I had an extraordinarily rewarding experience that I otherwise wouldn’t have had if he hadn’t given me a chance,” Brown says. “He supported me the whole time.”

Often, people decide to attend Harvard because of its renowned academics and its vibrant, diverse community. But one of the main aspects that drew baseball players to the school over the past 17 years was the presence of Walsh himself.

“The first time I met Coach Walsh, I wanted to go to Harvard,” Ferreira says. “He pitched me on Harvard, and he didn’t do it intentionally, but he sold me on him. I just fell in love with the man right away. He was just so engaging.”

Ferreira, who currently plays within the Minnesota Twins organization, remembers how his coach instilled in him a passion for baseball.

“He just had an authentic love for the game that he taught his players,” Ferreira says. “The Ivy League has a stigma in professional baseball that the guys play for one or two years, then they’re going to quit and go work on Wall Street. But all the Harvard guys I know in professional baseball now, they all love the game, and I think that’s something Coach Walsh fostered in each of us.”

To outsiders looking in, Walsh and Harvard baseball were one—Walsh was not just the head coach but the heart and soul of the program as well. Walsh made a concerted effort to ensure that his prospective players embodied the values he stood for.

The players Walsh recruited shared certain traits: a passion for the game and a strong character. For Walsh, the deciding factor for a recruit was often whether or not the player sent him a handwritten note, as opposed to a strict evaluation of his high school stats.