Life of Brian: Walsh Pays Tribute to Senior Class

BOSTON—Whether they realize it or not when they arrive here, most Harvard athletes are doomed to playing out their careers in anonymity.

No Harvard sport gets nearly as much fan support as it should, but teams like football, hockey, and basketball at least draw moderate student crowds.

After that, though, the dropoff is great. The typical Harvard athlete can expect to play in front of a few parents and maybe a blockmate or two. This is the case with even Harvard’s most successful teams, including squash, crew and—for no apparent reason whatsoever—baseball.

As a result, most of our school’s athletes have their noteworthy efforts go largely unheralded. Playing a sport here is often a thankless task.

Unfortunately, this newspaper does not have the manpower to provide all of Harvard’s 41 sports with as much publicity as they deserve. But we try.

That said, I went to yesterday’s Beanpot consolation intending to write a farewell tribute to Harvard’s six seniors who were playing in their final game.

Then I talked to one person who knew them much better than I did—Harvard coach Joe Walsh.

And he said everything I had wanted to say—only better.

It was then that I decided that I had been selectively quoting Walsh—as eloquent and reflective a coach as Harvard has ever had—for far too long.

It was time for his words to speak for themselves.

The following is Walsh’s response after being asked what this year’s senior class has meant to him, offered yesterday as the rest of his team boarded the bus back to Harvard.

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“They deserved better.

“[Captain] Scot Hopps is a guy who works as hard in February as he does in April. He’s out there hitting off the tee, and stuff like that. He swung the stick real well, and got more at-bats each year.

“The kids see how hard he works-that’s why he’s captain.

“Wihout [outfielder]Scott Carmack, we’re a different ballclub. He’s our go-to guy. He did a great job for us in the leadoff spot. He had great at-bats. What else can you say?

“He can’t even squeeze his hand right now. He refused to get X-rayed because he wanted a chance to play today. The doctor says he’s got a fracture. I knew that. But he wanted to get in-that’s the kind of kid he is.

“[Pitcher] John Birtwell wears his heart on his sleeve. If I’m in a foxhole, I want that guy in there with me. He loves to win. He loves the game.

“If you could get a group of high school kids together, you’d just videotape [Birtwell] and show it to them. Then you could say ‘This is what a competitor is. This is what a battler is.’

“I thought the 1-0 loss we had down in Florida against Ohio State was typical Birtwell. He pitched his guts out. And then after the game, he’s telling the team, ‘Sticks’ll be there tomorrow, fellas. Sticks’ll be there tomorrow.’

“You don’t see that in the pro ball, you don’t see that in college-you don’t see that anywhere.

“So how do you replace that? You don’t. You hope that maybe somebody remembers it and passes it on.

“[Utility player] John O’Donnell was 1-for-35 this year, but he was still valuable for us. If [sophomore catcher Brian] Lentz went down, he’s our number one catcher. He plays pretty good defensive ly in center field.

“But to have a guy like that in the dugout-he’s getting on some of the young guys for not hustling. You come against another team that knocks one of our guys off the plate, O.D.’s the first one on the top step staring somebody down.

“And he’s 170 pounds.

“From a coach’s standpoint, you tell him to sit down. But you’re just psyched that you have a guy like that.

“If we’ve got a battle out on the field, he’s out there before anyone knows what’s happening.

“You need guys like that.

“[Transfer student] Johnny Farmer was a kid that didn’t make the ballclub [last year]. He got cut here, and hung in there his senior year. He never missed a practice, never missed a workout. None of this stuff about, ‘Ihave a job interview, I’ll be late.’ When a kid gets cut and then comes out and makes the ballclub, that says something about him.

“Fifteen years from now, he’s going to be successful because of things like that. With a lot of the kids that you say ‘no’ to, they get mad at you and say you’re wrong. But this kid came back out and said ‘I want a spot’. He forced me to get him in there and then did a good job.

“[Outfielder] Joe Llanes came in here green as grass. He was a pitcher in high school. We did not recruit him.

“He came out here, played the JV season and worked, worked, worked. He was a below-average defensive outfielder. He made himself into a good outfielder. He made himself into an excellent baserunner.

“Even with his personal situation [Llanes had surgery for testicular cancer last summer], never once this year did he bring it up. He just wanted to play ball.

“This kid was 20 years old, and he’s got cancer, and his concern is he’s not playing summer baseball. And he’s thinking that you, the coach, is down on him. He’s going through chemo, and he’s saying ‘Coach, I’m going to get a lot of work in, I’m going to get a lot of work in...’

“He goes out there and he’s working day in and day out. You can’t walk in the weight room without seeing him. He’s put on 15 pounds [of muscle].

“The baseball gods were at Cooperstown or someplace on Sunday, because if they were at Harvard, that ball would have been out of here.

“And then-boom!-we’d be in the playoffs and we’d be jumping all over Joe Llanes.

“I would have been looking up in his dad’s eyes up in the stands at that moment.

[Llanes hit a ball in extra-innings against Dartmouth that would have gone for a game-winning homer but instead was held up by the wind.]

“When you see a group of guys like this go out the door, it’s tough.

“What a lot of people here at Harvard don’t understand is, if you come to a doubleheader on a Saturday, the game doesn’t just start at 12 or one o’clock.

“Our guys are out there putting the tarp on the field, taking the tarp off thefield, raking the grounds at nine, hitting at ten, playing at 12, busting their hump until five or six o’clock and then hopping on a bus, driving four hours somewhere to do it all again the next day.

“Then you come back on Sunday night and you got things to do. You’re working at three or four o’clock in the morning doing your studying. And then you come out the next day, and I’m in your face? Telling you to hustle? Telling you ‘let’s get a little running in’?

“[At the baseball games], you get some administrators, you get someparents, you get some kids from the other team.

“But I’ll say this about the baseball team. You go to a basketball game, they’re there. You go to a hockey game, they’re there. You go to a football game, they’re there. And they can tell you what the score of the water polo game was last night.

“So I don’t think I’m just losing some good guys. I think the school’s losing some good people.

“You want to keep working for kids like that. You want to be around guys like that.

“Sometime when your schooling’s over, when your education’s over, you’ll look back and you say, ‘Hey, I did this with these guys.’

“Those are the best memories of your schooling-making friends, meeting kids, representing your school. It’s not all about wins and losses. There’ll be plenty of time to be pushing pencils in concrete caves.

“I’m hoping this is the best education these kids get-the friends that they’re with, getting out there and competing, and learning how to get through, day in and day out.”