At Harvard, DePodesta just missed the dawning of the Walsh era, having missed the Harvard coach's tenure by a year. But the two have gotten to know each other well, and Walsh appreciates the degree to which DePodesta maintains his Crimson ties.

"He's very loyal," Walsh says. "I remember a couple of years back when we beat UCLA, and he emailed me saying, 'Thanks, Coach. You just made my week.' He keeps track of what's going on here, and cares a lot about the team."

Reckoning Forst

Walsh did get to know Dave Forst quite well during his playing days at Harvard, and fondly remembers the time the two shared at the beginning of the program's recent resurgence.

"He was as good a player as we've ever had here," Walsh recalls. "As shortstop and captain, he had a way of actually making his teammates better. That's a very hard thing to do in our sport; it's easier to think about something like that happening in basketball or hockey. But if you were on Dave's side, you knew that he expected a certain amount of you, that he wouldn't accept anything less."

If you were one of Forst's teammates, you grew to expect the very best from him. After sitting out his freshman year with a wrist injury, he became a fixture during his three remaining years at O'Donnell field.

Forst was a sure thing at shortstop and grew to be just as automatic at the plate, batting .407 and setting a team record with 67 hits in his senior year. He was an All-Ivy selection in his senior year, and was voted a third-team All-American by the College Baseball Writers Association of America.

However, the accolades and big numbers that accompanied Forst's success are secondary in Walsh's mind. "The special thing about Dave is that he had passion that you can only find in so many players," Walsh said. "Watching him out there, you could see that he didn't want to leave. He played every game like it was his last."