Derek McIntosh entered his senior baseball season at Saint Joseph’s College in Standish with eyes wide open, keenly aware that his one year in exile from the team cost his starting job, his seniority and at least some of his respect in the clubhouse.
That same spring ended with McIntosh’s eyes practically popping out of his head. The catcher from Auburn had to rattle his own mask between pitches as he wondered, am I really crouching in the same dirt where Carlton Fisk began his journey to the Hall of Fame and where Jason Varitek became a folk hero?
“It made me feel like a little kid,” McIntosh said of his whirlwind journey to the New England College Baseball All-Star Game at Fenway Park in Boston on Sunday, June 5.
True, but a T-Ball backstop probably wouldn’t have enjoyed that same historical perspective, nor would a bubble gum-chomping child have recognized as many of the names affiliated with the graffiti on the bullpen wall.
McIntosh was chosen for that once-in-a-lifetime honor along with former Edward Little High School teammate and recent Washington Nationals’ minor-league acquisition Bryan Lambert. And when you consider that McIntosh’s flirtation with the big time came only eight months after his greatest challenge was trying to figure out what to do with his free time, it was, indeed, an honor.
He played six innings behind the plate and has relived them all ever since.
“When you stop and think about all the history there and especially with the Red Sox winning the World Series, it’s humbling just to step on the field,” McIntosh said. “Everything about it was amazing. I was so nervous that I think I forgot how to play baseball for a few minutes.”
McIntosh led St. Joe’s in six offensive categories while helping steer the Monks to a 31-10 record and the North Atlantic Conference championship. He batted .453 with 58 hits and averaged an RBI per game.
His greatest achievement was earning the playing time and the right to accumulate such gaudy numbers after what appeared to be a career-ending separation from the team.
After a sophomore season in which McIntosh said he and head coach Will Sanborn simply had a difference in philosophy, McIntosh sat out his junior campaign. He returned to school last fall expecting to concentrate on his senior studies when Sanborn approached him on the sidelines at a soccer game.
“We’re great friends. For a while, I was just kind of pig-headed and trying to be something I wasn’t,” said McIntosh. “One week into the school year, he came over to me and said that he knew we’d had our times, but that I was a great ballplayer and there was no reason the best baseball player in the school shouldn’t be playing.”
Once back in the team’s good graces, McIntosh immersed himself in the experience.
When he wasn’t in a class or study hall, he wandered down to Ward Field and spent hours in the batting cage. He also assumed an immediate leadership role in indoctrinating a large group of incoming freshmen to the rigors of a collegiate program.
“Baseball is like a family. There’s nothing like it. That’s definitely what I missed the most,” McIntosh said. “You never would have guessed from seeing our team in fall ball that we would win more than 30 games and a conference championship. Coach did a great job getting us to hang out over the fall and winter and making us become the best of friends.”
For his role in that dramatic U-turn, McIntosh was invited to the playground of another baseball family whose exploits put the fun’ in dysfunctional.
The coincidence wasn’t lost on him.
“You look at the Red Sox last year and the Yankees this year and you see the difference. The Red Sox have grown on me over the years,” McIntosh said. “Once you’ve walked on that same field and looked out at the Green Monster, how can you not be a huge fan?”
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