On a July afternoon in 1991, Mike Walsh was sitting at a rest stop somewhere between Stamford and Cape Cod waiting to see which way the weather would turn.
Rain to the east and he would head back to Stamford, in the west and he would be off for the Cape.
Walsh wasn’t picking just the right time for a vacation, he was commuting back and forth between the Senior Babe Ruth team he was coaching in the New England Regionals and his son Mickey’s Springdale Little League team he was also coaching, which was playing in the state tournament in Darien.
He made the trip back and forth to the Cape several times that summer, even running to his car immediately after a Little League game ended and driving the three hours to the Cape just in time for the first pitch of the Senior Babe Ruth game.
“He was that devoted to doing it,” his assistant Babe Ruth coach and former Trinity Catholic Athletic Director Tracy Nichols said. “He was the coach of the Babe Ruth team, but no way was he going to miss his kids playing, so, he made that drive almost every day during those tournaments.”
Walsh did not always have to go to such extremes, but over his 40 years coaching summer youth baseball in Stamford he coached all three of his sons at various levels as well as the Senior Babe Ruth team as they traveled all over New England and the North America.
That is right, for over 40 years he coached youth baseball in the city.
And that was the addendum when he was named as a 2016 inductee into the Fairfield County Sports Hall of Fame.
As he was being introduced at the press conference announcing the honor his impressive record as coach of the Trinity Catholic boys basketball was mentioned first with his state and FCIAC titles getting trumpeted.
Almost as an afterthought it was added, “and he coached youth baseball in Stamford for over 40 years.”
Walsh will be formally inducted into the Hall of Fame at a ceremony in October at the Greenwich Hyatt.
Had he never coached a game of Trinity basketball, the youth baseball record may have gotten him into the Hall of Fame by itself.
Walsh would not mind that at all as he actually considers himself a baseball guy first.
“I love baseball. I’ll be honest with you, I love coaching baseball more than basketball,” Walsh said. “I got into basketball because there was an opening at Trinity. I was an assistant to Gary Liberatore and when he left I took over basketball, but my first love was always baseball.”
Walsh coached many successful Babe Ruth teams, taking 10 to the World Series, including the 1990 team.
Greg Smyth, who was eventually picked in the MLB draft and played for Walsh on the Senior Babe Ruth team in 1990 and 1991, said Walsh was one of the best baseball minds he has ever been around.
“He, and Tracy (Nichols), really knew their baseball. He coached a lot of great players with talent, but he got everyone to perform to the best of their ability,” Smyth said. “He understood the game, but he also knew how to deal with kids from all over Stamford. We had kids who had money and some kids who couldn’t even afford sheets for their beds on the road trips. Mike understands kids so well and knew how to find the approach that worked for each player.”
With Walsh spending his summers coaching, that left little time for family vacations, so trips to baseball tournaments became his families’ getaway.
Luckily for Walsh, his wife Lisa was on board with the non-traditional family summers.
“She went with us and she saw a lot of different kinds of motels, mostly in New Hampshire or Cape Cod,” Walsh said. “She would always take the kids and watch them while I was out there coaching, and she was always very supportive. She’s quite a woman.”
Nichols refer to her as “St. Lisa” for putting up with the baseball-filled summers and basketball-filled winters of a coaching junkie.
For her part, Lisa Walsh was a good sport about it all, even if that meant summers at ball fields instead of beaches.
“It was our only vacation,” Lisa Walsh said. “We had baseball vacations. Lots of New Hampshire, Cape Cod, Rhode Island and in 1995 we went out to British Columbia when Mickey was playing in the World Series out there. We always did that as our vacation. Mike just loved baseball so much.”
Lisa said the most memorable summer had to be the one when Mike was commuting back and forth to the Cape. She could not believe his level of dedication to both teams.
THE PIED PIPER
It is the same level of dedication he has shown as Trinity’s basketball coach since he took over the head job in 1979, and a big reason why he is sitting on the cusp of 600 career victories (he is currently at 596 wins, fifth all-time in Connecticut).
John Smyth was a sophomore when Walsh took over the team, playing three seasons and eventually having his number retired at Trinity before coming back to work as an assistant coach for Walsh.
“He brought a toughness to the team that was not there before,” Smyth said. “Mike always pushed me and challenged me to be better. He would put me in situations in practice which were uncomfortable for me, but that only made me a better player and a better person as an adult. He has shaped a lot of kids like that.”
Indeed, Walsh has touched many lives in his time at Trinity as evidenced by the scores of alumni that come back for nearly every Trinity game.
If you need to find Walsh after a home game, he is most likely surrounded by old players chatting in the corner of the gym.
Players that went on to college careers like Rashamel Jones, Torrey Thomas, Craig Austrie and Earl Johnson, to name a few, can often be found on the baseline at games, and that is because of the family atmosphere Walsh breeds at Trinity.
“It meant a lot to see those guys all come back,” 2015 Trinity graduate Tyrell St. John said. “I know when I am out of college I’ll be coming back too. Those guys don’t just come back and watch games, they come to practice and help the players playing now. People are just attracted to Coach Walsh. He’s a funny guy and even people that don’t play basketball would always be around him at Trinity.”
Walsh not only coaches the players, he personally makes sure they are in study hall every day and always leaves his office door open for anyone.
If a player is talented enough to play in college Walsh guides them through the process, calling in favors to his many friends in the college ranks, even if the player is not considering that school.
When Thomas was considering Holy Cross, where he ended up, Walsh asked Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski if he could put a good word in with the Holy Cross coach, which Krzyzewski did.
But he is about all the players on his team, not just the stars. Really, he is about any kids who need help whether in sports or in life.
“He’s there for those kids all the time,” Nichols said. “I call him the Pied Piper at Trinity because every day after school there is always kids surrounding him in the hallway outside the gym. It is almost like they are all his kids. He truly has a love for the kids and always puts kids first. He has a huge heart and not just for the star players and not even just for basketball or baseball kids but for every kid at that school.”
This is a recurring theme when people speak about Walsh.
“He cares for his players like they are his own kids,” 19-year Trinity assistant basketball coach Joe Vizzari said. “He does a lot for them, he’s not just Xs and Os — he really goes out of his way to make sure they are OK in all areas. Trinity is a family atmosphere in all sports, but Mike has always been about steering kids in the right direction.”
FAMILY MATTERS
Though the years Walsh has given guidance when needed, helped with school and getting kids ready for college and even opened his home at times, especially when his own children were school age.
“The family at Trinity is part of our extended family,” Lisa said. “Some kids didn’t live in town and they would come over for dinner. He takes a lot of pride in those kids, and when they graduate it doesn’t end. He is always keeping in touch with phone calls and many of them come back to see him.”
The family atmosphere is still alive and well at Trinity, but over the last few years Walsh has been trying to spend more time with his biological family as it grows. Walsh has five grandchildren and another on the way this winter.
Some around the program even say Walsh is softening a little, now marking off a few days on the calendar over Christmas break to go to Florida and spend time with his grandkids.
“That would not have happened 10 years ago,” Vizzari said. “He is so proud to be a grandfather and while basketball is still a big part of his life, as he has gotten older he has focused more on his family. Basketball used to come first. He hasn’t lost his drive with basketball, but he realizes that he wants family to be a bigger part of his life because of his grand kids.”
The man Nichols used to call “a workaholic” because of his tireless pursuit of success on the court now takes a few days off to spend with his family in season.
“The grandkids have definitely softened him,” Lisa said. “(Going to Florida in season) would not have happened years ago, but it was hard when Mickey moved to Florida. He did manage to make it for the births of all of our kids. Though one was born February 6 and Mike had a game that night, but he made it.”
Of course he made it for the birth of every kid. Just like he made it for both games in different states all those days in July.
Scott.Ericson@scni.com; @EricsonSports
