One of the fields on the questionnaire that all recruits filled out was the employment information of his parents. Not satisfied with a perfunctory profile, Walsh also wanted to understand the circumstances in which his player had been raised to achieve a better appreciation of the player’s makeup.

“He recruited a certain type of guy, and that guy loved baseball, was a baseball purist, and brought that same passion everywhere in life,” co-captain and pitcher Jordan Haviland says. “Once you were one of his guys, you were one of his guys for life. He looked out for you in every way he could.”

A NEW ERA, BUT THE OLD LIVES ON

This season, for the first time in 17 years, what seemed to be a fixture in the Harvard baseball program is no longer so. Coach Walsh cannot be found in the dugout.

But the influence of No. 2 lives on with the Crimson and is even felt by the freshmen.

“Coach Walsh is still around in everyone’s hearts and everyone’s minds,” freshman catcher DJ Link says. “He’s still there, and that’s how it’s going to be for a long time to come. I think the fact that so many people were affected speaks to him as a person and shows how much of an impact he had on so many people’s lives.”

Freshmen make up a large portion of this year’s roster, and though they did not know Walsh as well as the rest of the team, older players are making sure they understand that Walsh is still a part of the squad.

“Every once in a while, someone will do their Coach Walsh impersonation with the accent or some of the sayings that he had,” freshman pitcher Sean Poppen says. “The passion is still there; that passion is still on the team. It’s just coming from a different source now.”

Coach Bill Decker, who previously coached at Trinity College, has assumed the helm of the program.

“There is a strong tradition of baseball at this university, and that’s very important to me,” Decker says. “In Joe’s 17 years, Joe was a big part of that history…. We certainly wanted to honor the feelings of not only the current but also the former players in terms of their relationships with Joe and what he stood for and what he brought to the program.”

Indeed, Walsh’s values are central to the team’s conception of its identity. His energetic and compassionate character—what other people will remember most—have not, and likely will not, die out.

“Something Coach Walsh used to always say is he wanted us to play like bulldogs, which is play tough, play with intensity, and play with passion,” Haviland says. “And that’s something that’s still thrown around the team, is go out there and be a bulldog, just like Coach Walsh wanted us.”

***

There is no denying that something was missing on that first day of March, the day when Harvard played its first game of the year and notched its first win.

It seems fitting that it was Wineski, someone who shared his first three years of college with Walsh, who came up with the game-winning hit—a scrappy, two-strike chopper back up the middle—just how Walsh liked it best.

For some of the players, the game seemed to usher in new era for the program—an era laced with elements of the old as well as the new.

“It was definitely a little emotional for us seniors,” pitcher Matt Doyle says. “It was the first time No. 2 wasn’t in the third base box…. After the game, we grabbed the game ball and gave it to Coach Decker and we go, ‘This is the first of many.’ Just knowing with the 2 on our jerseys that we’re not forgetting about what happened in the past, but we’re ready to move forward with the next 20 years of Harvard baseball.”

It may be a new season, there may be a new coach, and there may be new players on the roster. But one constant that will likely never leave the team is the influence of Joe Walsh.

—Staff writer David Steinbach can be reached at dsteinbach@college.harvard.edu.