By Bob Marra
When a 31-year old amateur baseball player rips up his left knee and fractures a tibia in a skiing accident, it usually means that any future need for a bat and glove is pretty much finished. Competitive athletics is a young person’s pursuit.
But no one told that to Steve Walsh–and if they did, he didn’t believe it. Walsh, now 43 and eleven years beyond his skiing mishap, last week completed his 25th season in the Yawkey Baseball League—and he’s probably not finished yet.
Walsh was the unquestioned leader on a team filled with players about half his age that missed out on a Yawkey League Championship in a Game 7 loss to the rival Brighton Black Sox on August 26. Walsh enjoyed a torrid playoff season and led all players with 16 post-season hits. He credits his youthful teammates for his motivation.
“These young players keep me going,” Walsh said. “Their energy and love for the game a made (the 2024) season special, even though we fell short in game 7. After having a great postseason with these talented group of young players, I feel as though we have unfinished business to take care of.”
Whether Walsh plays next year or not, his lifetime is already stamped with baseball accomplishments. The East Boston native, with extensive family connections in Revere, cultivated his love for baseball in the same way many kids do: by swinging at a wiffle ball pitched by his Dad in the back yard. From there, it was on to Little League at age 7, then eventually East Boston High School, where he graduated in 1999.
That year, the East Boston Athletic Board awarded Walsh the Al Festa Memorial Award as Baseball Player of the Year, and the following year Walsh began his long and winding quarter-century of Yawkey League baseball.
“I started playing in the Yawkey League back in 2000 with the Boston Padres,” said Walsh. He remembers that team manager Ed Neal had two teams, one in the Boston Park League and one in the Yawkey. “I played for both of his teams.”
In 2002, East Boston became home to its own Yawkey League team, when Donald King and Paul Deleo launched the East Boston Blue Sox, and Walsh was on the hometown roster. Three years later, the team was re-christened as the East Boston Bombers. When the Bombers jumped to the Intercity League in 2007, Steve had to make a choice. “I’ve always stayed loyal to the Yawkey League, so I joined the Harbor Point Dodgers.” Walsh spent six years with the Dodgers but, never tiring of baseball, he simultaneously played a couple of seasons with the East Boston Intercity League entry.
The years went by, and baseball was on Walsh’s calendar every summer. In February of 2013, however, Walsh was the victim of a skiing accident. He tore the anterior, median, and lateral cruciate ligaments in his left knee—the dreaded Unhappy Triad—and fractured his tibia. Surgery, and a long, exhaustive, and painful recovery period wiped out baseball for 2013 and seemed to spell the end of Walsh’s baseball life.
But by the summer of 2014, he felt well enough to give baseball another shot, and he rejoined Yawkey Baseball with the Brighton Minutemen. In 2016, Walsh joined the Brighton Braves, his current team. The Braves won the Yawkey League championship in 2018, and came oh-so-close to another championship this year.
Over his long haul of Yawkey League baseball, Walsh has racked up some impressive numbers. This summer he smacked his 400th hit in a game against the Al Thomas A’s at Cunningham Park in Milton. Coincidentally, that’s where Steve picked up his 350th hits a few seasons ago. He batted .400 during the 2022 season. Just last month, in Game 5 of the Yawkey League championship semi-finals, Walsh clouted a walk-off homerun to break a tie game and send the Braves into the League championship series.
He has lost count of how many times he’s been named a Yawkey League All-Star, or won a League Silver Slugger or Gold Glove award—“a few,” he says—but individual awards are secondary to team accomplishments.
It’s the team accomplishments and team objectives that help Walsh manage the tough juggling act of baseball amid a full-time job at Massport and teaming with his partner Milena to raise their six year-old daughter, Isabella.
But as long as he can, and as long as the competitive spirit still burns, Steve Walsh will continue to play the game he loves. When the Yawkey season ended last week, he suited up for the Framingham Orioles playing in the annual Cape Cod Classic Tournament.
“I try to tell the young guys to continue to work hard and try to get better every day,” Walsh says. “You’re never too old to learn something new.”
With that attitude, it’s likely that Steve Walsh will keep his glove and bats nearby and ready to go for years to come.
