‘He was just a tremendous game manager. He was always able to see trouble brewing.’
Among the circle of prep baseball coaches around the New Orleans metro-area, there were few who stood out like Pat O’Shea from the late-1970s into the mid-1990s. His legacy lasted well after he departed those ranks and well after he turned a fairly new program into a powerhouse.
Today, many are mourning the loss of the coach who lifted the Shaw baseball program into relevancy and beyond. O’Shea died Thursday (July 12) after a long bout with cancer. He was 67.
O’Shea, who graduated from Jesuit in 1969 and later UNO, briefly was an assistant with the Blue Jays. He then took over at the Marrero campus before the 1977 season, and the Eagles won their first Catholic League title the following year before clinching two more in 1983 and 1984.
Overall, he was 253-191 in 18 prep seasons and was 345-149 in Legion.
He also was a Civics teacher at the school until he left at age 43 in 1994, citing family and business reasons for his departure, telling The Times-Picayune then, « I think I am leaving this program at a good time because things have been going so well. » Current Hahnville coach David Baudry took over for him, and O’Shea later became an assistant at Delgado from 1995-2000.
O’Shea’s ’83 team lost to New Iberia, 1-0, on a two-out unearned run in the first inning of the AAAA championship game at Alex Box Stadium. The 1978 Legion team won the state championship and advanced to the Mid-South regional, and the ’81 Conmaco team was a state runner-up to Lafayette.
« The one thing that stood out about him was how competitive he was, » said former Shaw assistant and math teacher Bryan Lazare, who attended Jesuit with O’Shea and coached with him for 15 years. « He didn’t take excuses. He laid out how he expected you to play and how he expected you to perform, and just go out and do your job….
« He just was competitive, and he could get emotional at times, whether it be with his players or the other team or umpires. That’s just how he was. He wanted things to be a certain way in order to be successful. And it wasn’t about winning as much as making kids as good as they can be. He said many times, ‘We’ll be satisfied if we play to the best of our capabilities. It may not be winning a championship, but if we play the best we can, everything is good,’ «
Several former players and other Shaw alumni got together in March at the baseball stadium on campus to celebrate O’Shea, as the school dedicated the Eagles dugout in his name at a ceremony.
Some of the prominent players he coached include Joey Zimmerman, who pitched at LSU, outfielder David Smith, who played at Tulane and in the minors for several years, former Hahnville and Nicholls State coach Darren Barbier and Darin Fernandez, who pitched at UNO from 1986-89. He also coached former LSU quarterback Mickey Guidry in the early 1980s and Terry Joseph, who was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 1995 and played in the minors until 1998.
His son, Ryan, was an exceptional pitcher at Mandeville and then UNO in the mid-to-late 2000s.
O’Shea also had plenty of influence among those in the coaching ranks, and former Jesuit coach and current athletic director David Moreau got his start at Shaw in the early 1980s, coaching the Eagles’ junior varsity team in 1981 and 1982 before leading the Blue Jays to 532 victories in 22 seasons.
« I certainly learned a great deal from Pat, » Moreau said. « He was so insightful, and he was quickly able to able to analyze a situation, whether it was in a ballgame or how to deal with his players. He knew how to make a quick decision that always seemed to be correct.
« As far as baseball goes, he was just a tremendous game manager. He was always able to see trouble brewing, and one of the things I thought I learned from him was when you see that trouble about to happen, you need to get out there and do what you can to stop it right then. I carry so many things from him with me, but certainly that. »
There was much more than baseball to O’Shea. He had a personality in which often made him the life of the party and unsusceptible to pressure.
« Everybody knew Pat, nothing fazed him, and he was just cool to be around, » said Hannan athletic director Joey Hines, who was a lifelong friend of O’Shea’s before later coaching against him in the Catholic League at De La Salle. « I can remember when he was in the Legion playoffs and he had qualified for the (Mid-South) regionals and he had some time off so he went vacationing to the beach.
« His quote as he was getting ready for the pressure-packed playoffs, he said, ‘Que sera.’ That was just his way to look at things. That’s just the way he was…. When our group was together, he was the center of attention. When he walked in, it was like, ‘There he is. What’s going on? What stories do you have for us? Who’d ya bet on? He was that kind of guy; just loose and he lit up a room. »
O’Shea, who spent the past three decades living in Mandeville, is survived by his wife Tammy, his son, Ryan, and his daughters, Katie and Shannon.
There will be a wake Tuesday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at EJ Fielding Funeral Home in Covington and a funeral mass at Mary Queen of Peace in Mandeville at 10 a.m.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks donations be made to the Shaw baseball team in care of the Eagle Diamond Club at 1000 Salesian Lane, Marrero, LA 70072.
*****************
Jim Derry can be reached at jderry@nola.com or 504.826.3531. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/JimDerryJr .
