The "Boss" on Third Hal Carey helps "manufacture" runs the old-fashioned way. Leader in base larceny. Photograph by David Carmack

In the third game of the 1998 NCAA regional baseball tournament in Baton Rouge, Harvard's prospects looked dim. Entering the bottom of the seventh inning, they trailed Tulane, the nation's sixteenth-ranked team, 11-7. But the Crimson pushed across seven runs in the next two frames and won, 14-11.

Harvard built its triumph on a brand of baseball that has become rare in college ranks: the aggressive "National League" style--stolen bases, bunts, hit-and-run plays. In baseball argot, this style is called "manufacturing runs." As coach Joe Walsh explains, only half in jest, "For us, a perfect game would mean scoring nine runs on six hits." Team captain and third baseman Hal Carey '99 says, "It's doing a lot of little things, instead of waiting for the home run--we move men up, we do a lot of situational hitting." This contrasts with most college baseball, which Walsh summarizes as "Get the big boys in the middle of the lineup and try to hit the ball where grass doesn't grow."

Harvard's unconventional approach has proven tremendously successful. With records of 34-16 and 36-12, the Crimson have won the Ivy championship the past two years and have startled the college baseball world with their postseason play in the NCAA tournament. In 1997 Harvard upset UCLA, the country's fourth-ranked team, 7-2, in the NCAA's first round, and in 1998 they beat Nicholls State (Louisiana) as well as Tulane. Last year the squad went 17-0 at home and was the top-ranked team in New England.

Yet when Carey arrived at Harvard in the fall of 1995, the team was in disarray. During the past two seasons they had played dismal .329 ball (23-47), and the 1995 team (10-25) had the fewest wins since 1961. Their former coach had resigned in the spring, and by September there was no replacement on board. "We didn't know what was going on," Carey recalls. "There was no coach, no set practices. We were in a state of confusion and anxiety." When Walsh appeared in October, matters quickly improved; under him, Harvard has gone 93-45 (.674).

Carey's own debut was not auspicious. "In my first inning I made two errors, and could have had a third," he recalls. Yet at practice after practice, "Hal just did everything right, 100 percent of the time," says pitcher Andrew Duffell '99. "I thought, 'We should follow this guy,' and I started calling him 'Boss.'" That nickname has lasted, and Duffell notes that "Boss"'s work ethic has had "a major influence on younger players." Walsh says, "Hal's a throwback; he could have an 0-for-4 day, but if the team wins, he's excited. In fact, a lot of our guys are like that."

Carey bats in the leadoff position, where he ignites Harvard's offense. As a freshman second baseman, he played in all 40 games and hit .329, leading the team in hits, doubles, and runs, and was Ivy League Rookie of the Year, the first ever from Harvard. Carey hit .282 as a sophomore, and belted his first college home run during the Beanpot Tournament in Fenway Park, where the ball hit the foul pole as it cleared the Green Monster in left field.

Last year Carey hit .374, and led the team in doubles, runs, and stolen bases, with 25--the third highest total in Harvard history, on a team that ranked third in the country in base larceny. "Hal's without a doubt the best base runner I've coached here," says Walsh. Midway through the season, Carey switched to third base for defensive reasons. "There's more reacting at third--less time to think down there," he says. "You also need a lot stronger throwing arm. Most errors at third are throwing errors."

Carey previously patrolled the left side of the diamond as a shortstop for Catholic Memorial High School in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. (Many college infielders are former shortstops; it's a demanding position typically occupied by a team's best fielder.) In high school, Carey also pitched: "I was pretty successful pitching, but I didn't have great stuff," he says.

Luckily, several of Carey's teammates do have great stuff; Harvard boasts the Ivy League's deepest pitching staff. The Crimson roster is strong overall, despite graduations like those of power hitter Brian Ralph '98 and shortstop David Forst '98, who are now with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Boston Red Sox organizations, respectively. Coach Walsh, now in his fourth season, aims high, and wants to take Harvard to the College World Series and some day be "the last team left standing." Carey says, "Players like him [Walsh]. He's so passionate about the game... You'll see Coach in his office late at night, even in December. His attitude is contagious."

If so, the "Boss" is a key carrier of the contagion. An English concentrator, Carey passes on some of his athletic enthusiasm to local grade-schoolers as a volunteer with the Mather House HAND (House and Neighborhood Development) Program. Eventually, he may work with kids professionally, perhaps as a teacher, but at the moment his plans extend only to finishing college and playing some more baseball over the summer. "There's a childlike excitement in the game," he says. "You're never going through the motions." vcraig lambert

Winter's Endings

The men's hockey team (14-16-2, 8-12-2 ECAC) eventually lost to Rensselaer in the ECAC quarterfinals, but won five of their preceding eight games, including triumphs over Yale, Princeton, and Cornell....The wrestlers (8-6 overall, 2-3 Ivy) finished 20th in the NCAAs. All-Americans Dustin DiNunzio '99 and Joey Killar '00 took fourth and sixth, respectively, at the grapple-off. Wrestling at 141 pounds, DiNunzio is also the first Harvard matman to be named Ivy League Wrestler of the Year....The competitive highlight for the men's basketball team (13-13 overall, 7-7 Ivy) was Harvard's stunning 87-79 overtime upset of Princeton, their first win against the Tigers since 1990.... Women's basketball (10-15 overall, 7-7 Ivy) edged Brown and Yale with shots at the buzzer before ending on a loss to Dartmouth....The men swimmers (9-0) dominated the Ivies, won the Easterns, and took 24th at the NCAA meet....The women swimmers (7-3 overall, 5-2 Ivy) came in third at the Ivy Championships.

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