Before I met USM baseball coach Ed Flaherty, I already knew a great deal about him. I knew about his playing career at the University of Maine, his two national championships, and the storied baseball program he’s put together here at USM.
Heck, I even knew how tall his eldest son was.
But it didn’t strike me until this week, when I first shook his hand, that the center of the Maine baseball universe is located in the Costello Sports Complex.
Since the venerable Dr. John Winkin stepped down as coach at Husson College earlier this year due to health problems, our own coach Flaherty is becoming the new face of baseball in the state of Maine, and with good reason: he’s everywhere.
Sitting beside Flaherty in the dugout following the Huskies’ come-from-behind win against Thomas College, I was, for one of the first times in my life, strapped for words. I didn’t want to ask any stupid questions or annoy the legendary skipper.
But Flaherty’s influence transcends the 675 wins he has amassed during his tenure at USM and the litany of Hall of Fames across the country that he belongs to.
Take, for instance, the impact he’s had outside of just box scores.
His son Ryan is arguably the best shortstop in all of college baseball, a lock to be an early round draft pick, and, I might add, the ideal candidate to represent Maine baseball at the highest level.
If you don’t believe me, check out a little blog called Flash’s Journal, a project of his that can be found at vucommodores.com. I certainly don’t think Ryan learned how to be such a great role model without one of his own.
But good baseball genes aren’t all that coach Flaherty brings to the table. He’s also a consummate teacher, or so I’m told by many.
In fact, on the same day that I met him after the Thomas game, I heard a fellow student behind me tell one of his buddies that “Flaherty is awesome in class” and that he couldn’t wait to take another one. And this is not to mention the renowned baseball clinics that he puts on every year for local athletes.
It is one thing to be a good coach, but it is another thing to be an active member in a community. That is what made coach Winkin such a special coach and makes him such an important person, not only to baseball, but the state of Maine. He didn’t just fill out line-up cards or teach proper pitching mechanics.
He improved the community through his service off the baseball diamond, not unlike Flaherty.
I don’t think anyone can sufficiently emulate the work that John Winkin did around the state. After all, it was on coach Winkin’s field that I played my high school baseball games and it was the program that coach Winkin built just a few decades ago that produced the likes of Flaherty, Mike Bordick and others.
But if there is anyone who can even come close, it’s the guy you’ll find sitting quietly cross-legged in a dugout at Towers field when the Huskies are playing ball.