Team History
Former Haverford baseball players have enjoyed much success in various careers, and many of them have gone on to prominent careers in baseball, including...
- Josh Byrnes ’92 (General Manager, Arizona Diamondbacks)
- Thad Levine ’94 (Assistant General Manager, Texas Rangers)
- Ryan Isaac ’98 (Assistant to the General Manager, San Diego Padres)
- Ron Shapiro ’64 (Pioneering Sports Agent)
- Jeff Graupe ’06 (Baseball Operations Assistant, Cincinnati Reds)
- Jim Thompson ’04 (Minor League Scout, New York Mets)
- Daniel Render ’06 (Account Executive, Chicago White Sox)
- Nick Chanock ’05 (working for Haverford alumnus and super-agent Arn Tellem)
Chaon Garland ’91 was a 3rd round draft pick of the Oakland A’s who progressed to Double-A before an injury curtailed his professional career. Tal Alter ’98 (The Netherlands), Mark Welles ’01 (Belgium), Tim McLean ’06 (Belgium), Nat Ballenberg ’07 (Israel), Ben Field ’07 (Israel) and Travis Zier ’07 (Israel) played professional baseball overseas after graduating from Haverford. Hunter Rawlings ’66 had tryouts with Major League Baseball organizations before becoming the President at the University of Iowa and at Cornell University.
Recently, the baseball program has experienced a renaissance under the direction of Dave Beccaria. The Fords reached the playoffs in 2005 for the first time in 90 years and earned the College’s first-ever post-season win (a 12-4 victory against Gettysburg in the Centennial Conference Quarterfinals). A year later, Haverford won nine straight games—including two more playoff victories—en route to an appearance in the Centennial Conference Championship Series. The 2007 graduates own the distinction of being the winningest class (90-59) in the history of baseball at Haverford College.
Greg Kannerstein '63 took over as head coach in 1977 for 15 seasons. The teams of the early 1980's, featuring pitcher Rich Pressler '81, who beat Swarthmore four straight years, and outfielder Matt Sekelick '81, were quite strong. Haverford continued to play consistent baseball into the early '90's when All-America catcher John Loughnane '87 and pitcher Chaon Garland '91/3 led surges. Garland, who was drafted by the Oakland A's after winning 17 games in three college seasons, advanced to Double-A in the Oakland farm system but returned each fall to Haverford to complete his degree in economics.
Various versions of baseball were played at Haverford almost since its founding in 1833. In the 1880s, teams began to play a couple of games a year against outside opposition and once defeated Villa Nova College, as Haverford's Main Line neighbor was then called. During this period, Haverford's only full-fledged major-leaguer, Bill Lindsay '06, graduated and went on to play for the Cleveland Naps, precursors of the Indians. Not until after World War I did America's National Pastime become a full-fledged varsity sport at Haverford, its formal recognition delayed by the great focus on cricket at Haverford and in Philadelphia long after most places had abandoned it.