The Harvard Crimson baseball team is the varsity intercollegiate baseball team of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, located in Boston, Massachusetts. The program has been a member of the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...

since the conference officially began sponsoring baseball at the start of the 1993 season. The team plays at

Joseph J. O'Donnell Field Joseph J. O'Donnell Field is a baseball venue in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is home to the Harvard Crimson baseball team of Harvard University. Formerly known as Soldier's Field, the location has been home to Harvard baseball sinc ...

, located across the

Charles River The Charles River ( Massachusett: ''Quinobequin)'' (sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles) is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles b ...

from Harvard's main campus.

Bill Decker Bill Decker in an American college baseball coach, currently serving as head coach of the Harvard Crimson baseball program. He was named to that position prior to the 2013 season. Playing career Decker played baseball and football for Ithaca. H ...

has been the program's head coach since the 2013 season. The program has appeared in four College World Series and 14 NCAA Tournaments. It has won five Ivy League Championship Series, eight Rolfe Division titles, 15 EIBL regular season titles, and 12 Ivy League regular season titles. In 2019, the team won its first Ivy League title since 200
when they defeated Columbia
in the Ivy League Playoff Series. As of the start of the

2014 Major League Baseball season The 2014 Major League Baseball season began on March 22 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Sydney, Australia, between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks. The North American part of the season started on March 30 and ended on Septem ...

, 12 former Crimson players have appeared in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

History

19th century

Harvard College's first season of baseball came in 1865; the team went 6–0 that year. It played one intercollegiate game (against Williams) and five against semi-professional teams. Organized baseball at the college had begun a few years earlier, when "class nines" (the teams of each of Harvard College's four class years) were first fielded; the first of these was the '66 Baseball Club, formed in 1862 by members of that year's freshman class. Despite these early years of competition, 1865 was the school's first varsity intercollegiate season. Along with rowing, baseball was popular at Harvard in the late 19th century. A newspaper review of the 1871 book ''Four Years at Yale'' says that the book includes "interesting accounts of the sports common in colleges, especially baseball and rowing, and the principal matches which have taken place between Harvard and Yale." An 1884 edition of the ''

Washington Bee ''The Washington Bee'' was a Washington, D.C.-based American weekly newspaper founded in 1882 and primarily read by African Americans. Throughout almost all of its forty-year history, it was edited by African American lawyer-journalist William Cal ...

'' reprinted a ''Lowell Courier'' humor section piece that reads, "Sixty Harvard freshman have dropped their Latin, eighty their Greek and 100 their mathematics. None of them have dropped their baseball or their boating, however, and college culture is still safe." In a game against a semi-professional team from

Lynn Lynn may refer to: People and fictional characters * Lynn (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Lynn (surname) * The Lynns, a 1990s American country music duo consisting of twin sisters Peggy and Patsy Lynn * Lynn ( ...

on April 12, 1877, Harvard catcher

Jim Tyng James Alexander Tyng (May 27, 1856 – October 30, 1931) is known as the first baseball player to wear a Catcher, catcher's mask while playing for Harvard College in 1877. The team manager, Fred Thayer, received a patent for the mask in 1878. E ...

became the first baseball player to use a catcher's mask. The mask was invented by another student, Frederick Thayer, and manufactured by a Cambridge

tinsmith A tinsmith is a person who makes and repairs things made of tin or other light metals. The profession may sometimes also be known as a tinner, tinker, tinman, or tinplate worker; whitesmith may also refer to this profession, though the same wo ...

. Tyng later became the first Harvard player to appear in

when he played in a September 23, 1879, game for the

Boston Red Caps The Atlanta Braves, a current Major League Baseball franchise, originated in Boston, Massachusetts. This article details the history of the Boston Braves, from 1871 to 1952, after which they moved to Milwaukee, and then to Atlanta. During it ...

. In the 1870s and 1880s, Harvard was a member of two loosely organized forerunners of the

. The Intercollegiate Base Ball Association, which it played in from 1879 to 1886, included

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...

Dartmouth Dartmouth may refer to: Places * Dartmouth, Devon, England ** Dartmouth Harbour * Dartmouth, Massachusetts, United States * Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada * Dartmouth, Victoria, Australia Institutions * Dartmouth College, Ivy League university i ...

Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model used ...

, and

Amherst Amherst may refer to: People * Amherst (surname), including a list of people with the name * Earl Amherst of Arracan in the East Indies, a title in the British Peerage; formerly ''Baron Amherst'' * Baron Amherst of Hackney of the City of London, ...

. The College Baseball League, which it played in from 1887 to 1889, featured Yale, Princeton, and Columbia. The school continued to field a varsity baseball team through the end of the 19th century. It played both fall and spring regular season games in its early years, but moved to a spring-only schedule after the 1885–1886 season. The program's highest 19th-century win total was 34, a mark it reached in both 1870 (34–9–1) and 1892 (34–5). Through the end of the 1899 season, the program played without a head coach and was instead led by its captains. Two important changes to the program occurred near the end of the 19th century– at the start of the 1898 season, Harvard began playing home games at

Soldier's Field Soldier Field is a multi-purpose stadium on the Near South Side, Chicago, Near South Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1924 and reconstructed in 2003, the stadium has served as the home of the Chicago Bears of the National Foot ...

, and at the start of the 1900 season, it hired E. H. Nichols as its first head coach.

Pre-World War II

The program went .500 or better in 15 of the 17 seasons from 1900 to 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 to 1910; the program's two losing records in this time period came under him.

Frank Sexton Frank Sexton (1914–February 1990) was an American professional wrestler in the early to mid-twentieth century. Along with Orville Brown, Bill Longson, and Lou Thesz, he was one of the biggest stars of the 1940s. A multiple-time world champio ...

also coached for four seasons (1911–1914); the program had a winning record in each. Percy D

In the early 20th century, Harvard held tryouts, usually in the spring, to select the members of the team from the student body. To start the regular season, the team often traveled to the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

to play games in warm weather, a practice that began in 1898. Up until the start of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, its scheduled included professional and semi-professional teams, in addition to collegiate teams.

Hall of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...

pitcher

Cy Young Denton True "Cy" Young (March 29, 1867 – November 4, 1955) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher. Born in Gilmore, Ohio, he worked on his family's farm as a youth before starting his professional baseball career. Young entered th ...

, then a member of the Boston Americans, served as the team's

pitching coach In baseball, a number of coaches assist in the smooth functioning of a team. They are assistants to the manager, who determines the starting lineup and batting order, decides how to substitute players during the game, and makes strategy decisio ...

for a brief time in

1902 Events January * January 1 ** The Nurses Registration Act 1901 comes into effect in New Zealand, making it the first country in the world to require state registration of nurses. On January 10, Ellen Dougherty becomes the world's f ...

. Another future Hall of Famer,

Willie Keeler William Henry Keeler (March 3, 1872 – January 1, 1923), nicknamed "Wee Willie" because of his small stature, was an American right fielder in Major League Baseball who played from 1892 to 1910, primarily for the Baltimore Orioles and Brooklyn ...

of the

Brooklyn Superbas The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the club moved to Los Angeles, Californi ...

, served alongside Young as the team's

hitting coach In baseball, a number of coaches assist in the smooth functioning of a team. They are assistants to the manager, who determines the starting lineup and batting order, decides how to substitute players during the game, and makes strategy decisio ...

William Clarence Matthews William Clarence Matthews (January 7, 1877 – April 9, 1928) was an early 20th-century African-American pioneer in athletics, politics and law. Born in Selma, Alabama, Matthews was enrolled at the Tuskegee Institute and, with the help of Book ...

was Harvard's shortstop from 1902 to 1905. Matthews was black. A handful of black students graduated from Harvard around that time (its first black graduate,

Richard Theodore Greener Richard Theodore Greener (1844–1922) was a pioneering African-American scholar, excelling in elocution, philosophy, law and classics in the Reconstruction era. He broke ground as Harvard College's first Black graduate in 1870. Within three ye ...

, was a member of the class of 1870), but Matthews one of only a few black players in major college athletics during an era in which baseball was divided by the color line. Harvard went 75–18 during Matthews's career. As a freshman, he scored the winning run in Harvard's 6–5 win in the decisive game of the Yale series; he also led the team in batting average as a sophomore, junior, and senior. Matthews faced

racial discrimination Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their skin color, race or ethnic origin.Individuals can discriminate by refusing to do business with, socialize with, or share resources with people of a certain g ...

while a member of the team. During his freshman season, he was held out of games against

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

and

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

due to their objections to Harvard's fielding a black player. In 1903, the following year, Harvard canceled its annual southern trip when it faced similar objections. After Harvard, Matthews played one season of professional baseball and went on to a career in law. The trophy given to the Ivy League's baseball champion is named for Matthews. He was inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014.Lindholm, Karl. "William Clarence Matthews: 'The Jackie Robinson of His Day" in ''The Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, 1997'', eds. Peter M. Rutkoff and Alvin L. Hall. pp. 25–33. McFarland: Jefferson, NC, 2000. The 1917 season was canceled because of

, but the program resumed play in 1918. 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

schools for the start of the 1930 season. 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). 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

for the championship. Mitchell resigned following the 1938 season and was replaced by

Floyd Stahl Floyd S. Stahl (July 18, 1899 – July 26 1996) was an American collegiate athletic coach, serving in many coaching and administrative positions at Harvard University and the Ohio State University. Stahl was the head coach of the Ohio State baseb ...

. In Stahl's first season, Harvard won its second EIBL title, finishing with a 9–3 league record. Because of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Harvard competed as an independent in 1943 and 1946 and did not sponsor a team in 1944 or 1945.

Post-World War II

EIBL

Harvard rejoined the EIBL for the 1947 season. For the 1948 season,

joined the seven other

schools in the league;

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

and

also joined, giving the league 10 members. 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. Norman Shepard became the program's head coach for the start of the 1955 season. Under Shepard, Harvard won four EIBL titles (1955, 1958, 1964, 1968), going undefeated in league play in 1958 and 1964. In 1968, Shepard's final season, the team qualified for its first NCAA Tournament. In order for Harvard to play in the tournament, Shepard threatened to speed up his retirement if the NCAA did not reschedule the District 1 Regional to avoid a conflict with Harvard's final exams. His threat succeeded, and Harvard won the rescheduled District 1 Regional, defeating

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

once and

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

twice to advance to the College World Series. There, it lost its opening game to St. John's, 2–0, and an elimination game to

Southern Illinois Southern Illinois, also known as Little Egypt, is the southern third of Illinois, principally along and south of Interstate 64. Although part of a Midwestern United States, Midwestern state, this region is aligned in culture more with that of th ...

, 2–1. Loyal Park was hired as head coach prior to the start of the 1969 season. After finishing tied for 5th and tied for 2nd in the EIBL in his first two seasons, the program had its most successful four-year stretch from 1971 to 1974. Harvard won four consecutive EIBL titles and played in three College World Series. In 1971, Harvard won the EIBL outright and swept

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

in a best-of-three District 1 Regional. In the College World Series, Harvard defeated

BYU Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S ...

, 4–1, in its opening game, but was eliminated by consecutive one-run losses to

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

and Texas–Pan American. In 1972, Harvard tied

Cornell Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

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

, 11–2. In 1973, the program won the EIBL outright and went undefeated in the District 1 Regional to advance to the College World Series. There, it lost consecutive games to

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

and

Georgia Southern Georgia Southern University (GS or Georgia Southern) is a public research university in the U.S. state of Georgia. The flagship campus is in Statesboro, and other locations include the Armstrong Campus in Savannah and the Liberty Campus in Hin ...

. In 1974, Harvard defeated

in an EIBL tiebreaker playoff and won the District 1 Regional, but lost consecutive games to

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

and Northern Colorado at the

1974 College World Series The 1974 NCAA Division I baseball tournament was played at the end of the 1974 NCAA Division I baseball season to determine the national champion of college baseball. The tournament concluded with eight teams competing in the College World Series ...

. Park coached through the end of the 1978 season, in which Harvard won the EIBL and played in the NCAA tournament.

Alex Nahigian Alex Nahigian (April 3, 1919 – July 30, 2001) was an American college baseball and College football, football player and coach. He was the head baseball coach at Providence Friars baseball, Providence (1960–1978) and Harvard Crimson baseb ...

replaced Park and was the program's head coach from 1979 to 1990. Nahigian had been the head coach at

Providence Providence often refers to: * Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion * Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in Christianity * Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...

from 1960 to 1978. Under Nahigian, Harvard appeared in three NCAA tournaments (

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

). In both 1980 and 1983, it advanced to the Northeast Regional final, but lost there to St. John's in 1980 and

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

in 1983. During Nahigian's 12-year tenure, Harvard's overall record was 249–152–3. During the successful years under Shepard, Park, and Nahigian, many Crimson players distinguished themselves individually. The era from 1955–1990 saw 17 First-Team All-America selections and 31 Major League Baseball Draft selections. Paul del Rossi, a pitcher under Shepard from 1962 to 1964, set the EIBL/Ivy career record for wins, with 30. Future Major Leaguer

Mike Stenhouse Michael Steven Stenhouse (born May 29, 1958) is a former outfielder, first baseman, and designated hitter in Major League Baseball who played for the Montreal Expos from -, the Minnesota Twins in , and the Boston Red Sox in . Stenhouse is the CEO ...

, who played for Park and Nahigian from 1977 to 1979, set single-season and career EIBL/Ivy batting average records, was twice named a First-Team All-American, and was a first-round draft pick of the

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The te ...

in 1979. Another future Major Leaguer, Jeff Musselman, was the 1985 EIBL Pitcher of the Year.

Ivy League

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 The Patriot League is a collegiate athletic conference comprising private institutions of higher education and two United States service academies based in the Northeastern United States. Outside the Ivy League, it is among the most selective gr ...

in 1986, and the two non-Ivy members of the EIBL,

and

, had joined the league in other sports– Army in 1990–1991 and Navy in 1991–1992. Both schools' baseball programs played their last seasons in the EIBL in 1992. 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 division winners met in a best-of-three championship series to decide the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Hogan resigned following the 1995 season after coaching the program for its first three Ivy League seasons, and

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

head coach Joe Walsh was hired to replace him. Starting with Walsh, Harvard made its head baseball coaching position a full-time position. Allie P

In Walsh's first season, 1996, Harvard won the Rolfe Division, finishing three games ahead of second-place

, but was swept by

in the best-of-three Ivy League Championship Series. Harvard then made three consecutive NCAA tournaments, after last having qualified in 1984. It defeated Princeton in the championship series in each season. As the sixth seed in the 1997 NCAA tournament, it placed third in the six-team, double-elimination Midwest Regional. After defeating first-seeded

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, 7–2, and fourth-seeded

Stetson Stetson is a brand of hat manufactured by the John B. Stetson Company. "Stetson" is also used as a generic trademark to refer to any campaign hat, in particular, in Scouting. John B. Stetson gained inspiration for his most famous hats when he ...

, 8–6, to open the regional, it lost consecutive games to host

Oklahoma State Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New M ...

and UCLA and was eliminated. As the fifth seed in the 1998 NCAA tournament, it again finished third in its regional. After losing its opening 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 Pepperdine University () is a private research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California. Pepperdine's main campus consists of 830 acres (340 ha) overlooking the Pacific Ocean and th ...

and VCU. 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. It went 0–2 in both. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, the program struggled, winning no Rolfe Division titles and finishing last in the division in 2008, 2011, and 2014. On July 31, 2012, Walsh died of a heart attack in his Chester, New Hampshire home. He was 58 years old and had coached the program for 17 seasons, appearing in five NCAA tournaments. Beginning in 2014, the NEIBA All-Star Game was named for Walsh. In September 2012, the school hired

to replace Walsh. Decker came from

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

Trinity (CT), where he had been the head coach for 22 seasons and won the 2008 National Championship. Prior to the 2013 season, several players were implicated in an academic cheating scandal and were forced to withdraw from Harvard. The 2013 team's record was 10–31 (7–13 Ivy); it finished third in the Rolfe Division.

Conference affiliations

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

(1865–1916, 1918–1932, 1943, 1946) * Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League (1933–1942, 1947–1992) *

(1993–present)

Venues

Early venues

In its first few decades, the team played at several venues around Cambridge and Boston. Besides occasionally using sites on Cambridge Common or Boston Common, the school had regular venues on campus. It spent its first two seasons (1865–1866) playing at the Delta, where

Memorial Hall A memorial hall is a hall built to commemorate an individual or group; most commonly those who have died in war. Most are intended for public use and are sometimes described as ''utilitarian memorials''. History of the Memorial Hall In the aft ...

currently stands. From 1867 to 1883, the team's main venue was

Jarvis Field The Harvard Crimson baseball team is the varsity College baseball, intercollegiate baseball team of Harvard University, located in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. The program has been a member of the Ivy League since the conference officially beg ...

, which Harvard also used for football at the time. From 1884 to 1897, the baseball team used

Holmes Field The Harvard Crimson baseball team is the varsity intercollegiate baseball team of Harvard University, located in Boston, Massachusetts. The program has been a member of the Ivy League since the conference officially began sponsoring baseball a ...

, which also doubled as one of Harvard's early football venues.

Soldier's Field / Joseph J. O'Donnell Field

In 1890, Major Henry Lee Higginson donated a parcel of land on the Allston-Brighton side of the Charles River for Harvard's use. Higginson dedicated the site Soldier's Field, for six of his friends who had died fighting in the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

. For the start of the 1898 season, the baseball program moved to the site and shared the venue with the football and track and field teams. The venue's first game came on April 27, 1898. Harvard defeated

, 13–7. 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.

Head coaches

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.

, who held the position from 1911–1914, was the team's first professional coach. The position became a full-time position beginning with the 1996 season, thanks to a $2.5 million

endowment Endowment most often refers to: *A term for human penis size It may also refer to: Finance *Financial endowment, pertaining to funds or property donated to institutions or individuals (e.g., college endowment) *Endowment mortgage, a mortgage to b ...

from program alumnus Joseph O'Donnell. In the early years of the position, men commonly held it for only one season. (Prior to the 1930s, the position was held for a single season 11 times.) Since then, however, five men have coached the team for at least a decade: Fred Mitchell, Norman Shepard, Loyal Park,

, and Joe Walsh. Walsh, who was the program's head coach for 17 seasons (1996–2012), served the longest tenure of any coach in program history and is also its wins leader, with 347.

Current coaching staff

Harvard's coaching staff for th
2019 Season
consisted of head coach

and assistant coaches Bryan Stark, Brady Kirkpatrick, Kyle Decker and Morgan Brown.

Bill Decker

Bill Decker has been the program's head coach since the start of the 2013 season. A 1984 graduate of

Ithaca College Ithaca College is a private college in Ithaca, New York. It was founded by William Egbert in 1892 as a conservatory of music and is set against the backdrop of the city of Ithaca (which is separate from the town), Cayuga Lake, waterfalls, and go ...

, Decker's coaching career began with assistant positions at

schools Wesleyan (CT) and

Macalester Macalester College () is a private liberal arts college in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Founded in 1874, Macalester is exclusively an undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 2,174 students in the fall of 2018 from 50 U.S. states, four U.S t ...

. After these, he was named the head coach at Trinity (CT) for the start of the 1991 season. Decker spent 22 seasons at Trinity, compiling a 529–231 record. He was named New England Coach of the Year and NESCAC Coach of the Year four times each. Under him, Trinity appeared in nine NCAA Tournaments and won five

NESCAC The New England Small Collegiate Athletic Conference (NESCAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising sports teams from eleven highly selective liberal arts institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. Th ...

Tournament titles. In the 2008 season, the team nearly went undefeated, in the end finishing at 45–1 and winning the Division III National Championship.

Assistant coaches

Bryan Stark
joined the Harvard baseball team as an assistant coach in the fall of 2014 after two seasons at Navy in the same capacity. Stark was promoted to Associate Head Coach in the summer of 2019. In 2019, Stark was a member of the staff that coached the Crimson to its first Ivy League title and NCAA appearance since 2005. Seven members of the team earned Ivy League honors, including Jake Suddelson, who was named Ivy League Player of the Year. Stark and the Harvard staff were instrumental in helping two of its players
Patrick McColl and Hunter Bigge, become MLB draft selections
In his fourth season with the Crimson, Stark accompanied a successful Harvard team to a Beanpot Championship title—its first since 2014 and fifth in program history — and its most wins since 2005 with a 22–20 overall record. Harvard tied for third in the conference with a record of 12–9, with contribution from seven All-Ivy players and four NEIBA All-New England selections. In 2018, Stark was a part of the coaching staff that helped Noah Zavolas and Simon Rosenblum-Larson become 2018 MLB Draft picks for the Seattle Mariners and Tampa Bay Rays, respectively. In addition, the team was recognized for the NCAA Academic Progress Rate Public Recognition Award, with 21 players recognized by the ECAC for academic accomplishments. In 2016, Stark helped Harvard to their most successful season since 2010, going 17–24 overall, and 9–11 in Ivy League play. Under his mentorship, John Fallon and Matt Rothenberg emerged as dangerous threats in the Harvard lineup. In his first season at Harvard, he played a key role in helping the team to an 18–24 record in the 2015 season, giving the program its most wins since 2007.
Brady Kirkpatrick
was added to the Harvard baseball staff in July 2018. Kirkpatrick will primarily work with the pitching staff and comes to Cambridge after a two-year stint at Monmouth University, with prior coaching and recruiting experience at the University of Rochester and the University of San Diego. In his first season with the Crimson, Kirkpatrick helped guide the team to its first Ivy League Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance since 2005. Kirkpatrick served as the team's pitching coach, helping the team to 27 victories, the most since 2005. One of his players, Hunter Bigge, earned All-Ivy League honors after holding opponents to a .254 average and striking out 76 batters in 74.2 innings pitched. After the season, Bigge was selected by the Chicago Cubs in the 12th round of the MLB Draft. Kirkpatrick was also instrumental in helping Kieran Shaw break the Crimson saves record in 2019. Shaw totaled 13 saves, most in the Ivy League and tied for 11th in the NCAA. While at Monmouth, Kirkpatrick helped lead the Hawks to a MAAC regular season title in 2018 and coached Dan Klepchick to MAAC Rookie of the Year as well as a Collegiate Baseball News Freshman All-America recognition. Prior to his coaching career, Kirkpatrick pitched collegiately for three seasons at the University of Maryland before completing his career at the University of San Diego while obtaining his master's degree. With the Terrapins, Kirkpatrick started 11 games as a junior and held opponents to a .256 batting average, third on the team, after pitching to a 3.04 ERA as a sophomore. In total, he tossed 169 innings as a Terp, striking out 122. He was part of the 2014 South Carolina Regional championship team as well as the first Super Regional Team in Maryland history. He spent the summer of 2012 pitching for the Brewster Whitecaps in the Cape Cod Summer League, throwing to a 3.51 ERA.

Yearly records

The 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

, or from 1944–1945, because of

Notable former players

The following is a list of notable former Crimson players and the seasons in which they played for the program, where available. * John Chase (1926–28) *

Walter Clarkson Walter Hamilton Clarkson (November 3, 1878 – October 10, 1946) was a pitcher in Major League Baseball. He played for the New York Highlanders from 1904 to 1907 and the Cleveland Naps from 1907 to 1908. Clarkson attended Harvard University, ...

(1898–1903) *

Jocko Conlon Arthur Joseph "Jocko" Conlon (December 10, 1897 – August 5, 1987) was a professional baseball player for the Boston Braves in Major League Baseball. Conlon was an alumnus of Harvard College, class of 1922, where he captained the Crimson baseba ...

(1922) * Charlie Devens (1930, 1932) *

David Forst David Lee Forst (born May 18, 1976) is an American baseball executive with the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball. He is the general manager of the Athletics. Early and personal life Forst was born in Santa Monica, California, and rais ...

(1994–98) *

Erwin Gehrke Erwin Lawrence Gehrke (April 25, 1898 – June 8, 1966) was a professional football fullback, halfback, and quarterback in the first American Football League. In his one-season career he played for the Boston Bulldogs in 1926. Prior to jo ...

Brent Suter Brent Michael Suter (born August 29, 1989) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Colorado Rockies of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Milwaukee Brewers. Amateur career Suter played high school b ...

Tanner Anderson Tanner Ackley Anderson (born May 27, 1993) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Sultanes de Monterrey of the Mexican League. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Oakland Athlet ...

Shawn Haviland Shawn Parker Haviland (born November 10, 1985) is an American former professional baseball pitcher who is a pitching coordinator for the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB). Playing career Amateur baseball Haviland attended Farmington ...

* Percy Haughton (1899) *

Frank Herrmann Frank Joseph Herrmann (born May 30, 1984), is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played for the Cleveland Indians and Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles and Chiba Lotte Ma ...

(2003–05) * Michael Hill (1990–93) *

Robert Kernan Robert Peebles Kernan (July 18, 1881January 1, 1955) was an American football player and businessman. Kernan was born in Utica, New York in 1881 and raised in Brooklyn. He attended the Brooklyn Polytechnic School before enrolling at Harvard Col ...

* Tony Lupien (1937–39) * Eddie Mahan (1914–16) *

Saul Mariaschin Saul William Marsch (born Saul George Mariaschin; August 10, 1924 – December 20, 1990) was an American professional basketball player. He played college basketball at Syracuse University for one season in 1942–43 before leaving to join the Un ...

(1902–05) * Robert McKay (1911) * Jeff Musselman (1982–85) * George Owen (1923) *

Ray Peters Raymond James Peters (August 27, 1946 – May 4, 2019) was an American professional baseball player and a former Major League pitcher. Peters, a , right-hander born in Buffalo, New York, attended Harvard University, where he played college ba ...

(1967–68) * Kevin Reilly (1949) *

Jack Robinson Jack Robinson may refer to: Sportspeople *Jack Robinson (catcher) (1880–1921), American baseball player *Jack Robinson (footballer, born 1870) (1870–1931), England, Derby County and Southampton football goalkeeper * Jack Robinson (footballer, ...

(1899–1902) *

(1977–79) *

(1873–79) *

Pete Varney Richard Fred "Pete" Varney Jr. (born April 10, 1949) is a retired American college baseball coach and a former professional baseball catcher. A graduate of Harvard College, he also played a notable role in the 1968 Yale vs. Harvard football game, ...

(1968–71) *

Barrett Wendell Jr. Barrett Wendell Jr. (April 19, 1881 – June 3, 1973) was an American investment banker. Early life Wendell was born on April 19, 1881, in Boston, Massachusetts. He was the eldest child of Edith ( Greenough) Wendell and Barrett Wendell, a well-k ...

(1902) * Rick Wolff (1970–72)

Major League Baseball Draft

2008

In 2008,

was selected in the 33rd round of the

2008 Major League Baseball draft The 2008 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft continued Major League Baseball's annual amateur draft of high school and college baseball players, and was held on June 5 and 6, 2008. First round selections ;Key Supplemental first rou ...

by the

. In 2006, Haviland was named

Pitcher of the Year. In 2005, Haviland helped Harvard win the

Ivy League Baseball Championship Series The Ivy League Baseball Championship Series is the conference baseball championship of the NCAA Division I Ivy League. The top two finishers from the round-robin regular season participate in a best of three series held at campus sites, with the ...

, qualifying the team for the

2005 NCAA Division I baseball tournament The 2005 NCAA Division I baseball tournament was held from May 30 through June 26, . Sixty-four NCAA Division I college baseball teams met after having played their way through a regular season, and for some, a conference tournament, to play in t ...

2011

One Crimson player was selected in the

2011 Major League Baseball Draft The 2011 Major League Baseball draft was held from June 6 through June 8, 2011, from Studio 42 of the MLB Network in Secaucus, New Jersey. The Pittsburgh Pirates selected Gerrit Cole out of the University of California, Los Angeles, with the first ...

. P Max Perlman was selected by the

in the 35th round and chose to sign a professional contract.

2012

Three players were selected in the

2012 Major League Baseball Draft The 2012 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft was held from June 4 through June 6, 2012, from Studio 42 of the MLB Network in Secaucus, New Jersey. The Houston Astros, with the first overall pick, selected Carlos Correa from the Puerto R ...

: P Brent Suter by the

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. The Brewers are named for t ...

(31st round), P Andrew Ferreira by the

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...

(32nd round), and 3B Jeff Reynolds by the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...

(38th round). All three players elected to sign professional contracts with their respective clubs.

Rivalry with Yale

History

Harvard's baseball program has a long history in the school's well-known rivalry with

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

. Overall, Harvard has a 194–178–1 record against Yale, whom they have played more than any other team. The two schools' first athletic competition was a crew race in 1852– the United States' first intercollegiate athletic competition. Harvard first played Yale's baseball program on July 25, 1868. The Crimson won, 25–17, and went on to win the teams' first eight meetings. Yale won five of the next seven, including a 5–0 win in 1877 in which pitcher Charles Carter threw what later became known as a perfect game. The two teams have played in nearly every season since, with a few exceptions. In 1891, Yale refused on account of Harvard's refusal to play

in 1890 and 1891. The rivalry also was not played in 1917, 1944, or 1945, when Harvard did not sponsor a team due to

the World Wars A world war is an international conflict which involves all or most of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World WarI (1914 ...

. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, baseball games between Harvard and Yale attracted much attention. At the end of each season, the teams played two games, one each in Cambridge and New Haven; if the teams split these games, a third was scheduled to decide that year's champion. In 1913, for example, when Yale won 2–0 in New Haven and Harvard won 4–3 in Cambridge, a third game was scheduled at

Ebbets Field Ebbets Field was a Major League Baseball stadium in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York. It is mainly known for having been the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team of the National League (1913–1957). It was also home to five p ...

, the home field of

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association (19th century), American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the ...

; Harvard won, 6–5. The games regularly drew crowds of over 10,000. The 1913 championship game at Ebbets saw an attendance mark of 15,000; a June 23, 1908, game (which Harvard lost 3–0) was attended by 14,000 spectators, including Secretary of War

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...

, a Yale alumnus who had unofficially been named the Republican nominee for president only days earlier. The two teams became conference rivals in the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League after Harvard joined for the 1933 season. Both teams were competitive in the league– Harvard won 21 titles, while Yale won 10. The teams finished 1–2 in the league standings five times (1937, 1947, 1955, 1980, and 1984). In 1980, the two teams met in the EIBL tiebreaker with an NCAA Tournament bid at stake; Harvard swept Yale in two games, 11–3 and 6–2, to advance. Since the two teams began competing in the Rolfe Division in 1993, the teams have finished 1–2 in the division standings four times. In those four seasons, Yale won the division once (in 1993), while Harvard won it the other three times (1996, 1997, and 1998).

Format

The format of the team's yearly meetings has changed frequently. From 1868–1871, the teams played only a single game. The home-and-home format popular for much of the rivalry's early history was adopted in 1872, and the tiebreaker game was played, as necessary, starting in 1877. The home-and-home format was stretched to four games during several seasons in the late-19th century, with a fifth, tie-breaking game played on multiple occasions. When Harvard joined the EIBL for the 1933 season, the tiebreaker format was scrapped. From 1935–1940, the teams instead played a regularly scheduled third game in

New London, Connecticut New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States, located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut. It was one of the world's three busiest whaling ports for several decades ...

, on the same day as the

Harvard–Yale Regatta The Harvard–Yale Regatta or Yale-Harvard Boat Race (often abbreviated The Race) is an annual rowing race between the men's heavyweight rowing crews of Harvard University and Yale University. First contested in 1852, it has been held annually s ...

. The rivalry's schedule became irregular during the years of

. Following the war, formats varied until the schools began playing a regular three-game series in 1954. The rivalry consisted of three-game series from 1954–1960, two-game series from 1961–1966, and a mix of single games and doubleheaders from 1967–1980. In the last years of the EIBL (1981–1992), the two teams played one doubleheader each season, alternating home teams between seasons. Since the Ivy League began sponsoring baseball in 1993, Harvard and Yale have played a yearly four-game series, held entirely at one school, as part of Rolfe Division play.

Popular culture

"Call Me Maybe" video

During the 2012 season, the program received attention from national media outlets fo
a Youtube video
in which members of the team dubbed the

Carly Rae Jepsen Carly Rae Jepsen (born November 21, 1985) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. After studying musical theatre for most of her school life and while in university, Jepsen garnered mainstream attention after placing third on the fifth season of ...

song "

Call Me Maybe "Call Me Maybe" is a song recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen for her EP ''Curiosity'' (2012) and later appeared on her second studio album and first international album ''Kiss'' (2012). The song was written by Jepsen and T ...

." 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. The video was choreographed and directed by senior

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

Connor Hulse. Eight players appeared in the video: in the front row, from left to right, senior

catcher Catcher is a Baseball positions, position in baseball and softball. When a Batter (baseball), batter takes their at bat, turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home plate, home) Umpire (baseball), umpire, and recei ...

Jon Smart and junior pitcher Joey Novak; in the middle row, sophomore pitcher Andrew Ferreira, senior

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

/pitcher Marcus Way, and junior second baseman Kyle Larrow; in the back row, sophomore

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

Jack Colton (who was asleep), senior

infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns playing offensive and defensive roles. ...

/catcher Jeff Reynolds, sophomore catcher/first baseman Steve Dill and cameraman Connor Hulse.

''The Little Book''

In the 2008

Selden Edwards Selden Spaulding Edwards (born 1941) is an American writer and educator. His first novel '' The Little Book'' was a ''New York Times'' bestseller. His second novel ''The Lost Prince'', a sequel to ''The Little Book'', was published by Dutton in ...

novel ''The Little Book'', protagonist Wheeler Burden plays baseball for Harvard in the early 1960s.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Ivy League baseball navbox

History

19th century

Pre-World War II

Post-World War II

EIBL

Ivy League

Conference affiliations

Venues

Early venues

Soldier's Field / Joseph J. O'Donnell Field

Head coaches

Current coaching staff

Bill Decker

Assistant coaches

Yearly records

Notable former players

Major League Baseball Draft

2008

2011

2012

Rivalry with Yale

History

Format

Popular culture

"Call Me Maybe" video

''The Little Book''

See also

Notes

References

External links