Feature Story: Ben Cherrington: Psi u gamma makes it to Fenway Park

Ben Cherrington: Psi u gamma makes it to Fenway Park

Ben Cherington, Gamma ’96 (Amherst College)

By Ron Ziemba, Gamma 1964

As Casey Stengel used to say, “You could look it up.” Yes, it’s right there, in the record books, in black and white: On the evening of October 27, 2004, the Boston Red Sox completed an unlikely but inevitable four-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals to capture their first World Series championship since 1918.

And exactly three years and one day later, the Sox replicated that amazing feat to become the first team in the 21st century to win two world championships.

For Red Sox Nation, the twin series sweeps – a first for Major League Baseball – were heady stuff indeed, following a mere 86 years of frustration. For Ben Cherington, Gamma ’96 (Amherst), World Series success didn’t take quite so long, but was arguably just as sweet.

Ben joined the Red Sox in 1998 as a scout in the mid-Atlantic region at the age of 24 – youthful even for a baseball executive. Ben rose through the front-office ranks to his current position, vice president of player personnel for the World Champions. Now, he and his colleagues are enjoying the fruits of their labor.

Ben was playing Legion ball when he was spotted by Bill Thurston, Amherst’s legendary baseball coach. The summer after his junior year at Lebanon High, Ben was pitching for the Hartford, Vermont, Post 26 American Legion team.

Ben majored in English at Amherst, with a focus on British literature. “English fit my skill set and my comfort level at the time,” he says. “I am certainly a reading and writing type of person, not oriented to the sciences. To be completely honest, I enjoyed the academic experience there, and I think I gained a lot in terms of how to write and think – skills I use a lot today.”

Another aspect of Ben’s positive experience at Amherst was finding and joining the Gamma chapter of Psi Upsilon. “I got to know Psi U my freshman year. A handful of baseball players were brothers, and they invited me to a couple of gatherings”

If the baseball team provided a sense of security at Amherst for this small-town guy, Psi U provided another. “I was pretty well prepared for Amherst, but there were times in class early on when I was probably a little intimidated,” he recalls. “The Psi U experience helped me keep my spirits up, and, frankly, helped me buy some time to adjust to the academic load.”

Ben believes fraternities definitely have a place in higher education in the 21st century. “Certainly when there’s criticism, it’s centered around the social aspects, partying and the like. But I remember a lot of those parties fondly. And in addition, there are other important aspects of the Psi U experience.

Some say that the only students who major in English are really smart people who have no clue what they want to do with their lives. But that wasn’t the case with Ben. “By my junior year, I was pretty sure I wanted to work in baseball, in some capacity.”

But not, as it happens, as a player. Following a good start in Amherst baseball, Ben hurt his shoulder toward the end of his sophomore year. That was the end of any remaining

dreams of becoming a player. “Even before that, I should have known that I would not have a career playing major league baseball,” Ben says. “But after the injury, I knew for sure.”

Ben missed most of the baseball season as a junior. Then, instead of pitching in his senior year, he played a little outfield and served as pitching coach. “The playing experience at Amherst didn’t end the way I was hoping it would,” he recalls. “It was during that time that I figured out that I’d have to make a living at this game some other way, off the field.”

Ben stayed on as a pitching coach for a year after his graduation while pursuing a master’s degree in sports management nearby at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. “I knew I wanted to get into baseball, but I hadn’t secured a full-time job yet,” he recalls. “I also wanted to coach at Amherst, and this gave me the opportunity to do that.”

Ben broke into Major League Baseball in 1998, with the help of Coach Thurston’s widespread contacts in organized baseball and the sizable network of Amherst College graduates working in Major League Baseball. “I’d started following the game closely, so I knew where most of the Amherst guys were working,” Ben recalls.

Among the Amherst players Ben met in this way were Dan Duquette, general manager of the Red Sox during the 1990s, and Neal Huntington, who worked for the Montreal Expos, then served as assistant general manager for the Cleveland Indians and is now general manager for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

At least 16 former Amherst College players are now working in Major League Baseball. Several of them have not only played under Thurston, but also coached under him. This “Amherst pipeline” probably began with Harry Dalton, who was general manager of the powerhouse Baltimore Orioles teams that won World Series titles in 1969 and 1971.

“There’s been a pretty significant history of Amherst alums working on the front-office side of the game,” Ben notes.

Ben’s first job in Major League Baseball came through Neal Huntington, who was then assistant general manager for the Cleveland Indians. Huntington helped Ben get an interview for a full-year internship with the Indians doing video advance scouting.

At the end of that year, Dan Duquette called to offer a job with the Red Sox as a scout in the mid-Atlantic region. Ben jumped at the offer and has been there ever since.

At the end of the 1999 season, Duquette invited Ben to come to Boston and work in the front office. In Ben’s current position, vice president of player personnel for the World Champion Red Sox, he is charged with “finding the best amateur players, drafting and signing them, and helping them become the best players they can be.”

Ben is very high on the Red Sox’ new ownership team of John Henry, Tom Werner and Larry Lucchino. “There’s a similarity between the Red Sox as an organization and Amherst as a college,” he says. “There’s an incredible yearning for information, a thirst for knowledge, an intellectual curiosity that extends to every area of the baseball operations.”

There’s also the sense that there is a larger responsibility to the game of baseball, just because it means so much to so many people.” Ben puts it this way: “Those of us who are involved in some small way have a responsibility to try to help the game thrive. This is a very focused effort over 12 months of the year to build a team that has the best chance to succeed, year-in and year-out.”

Ben Cherington and Red Sox assistant general manager, Jed Hoyer with co-owner Larry Lucchino

Photographer credit: Julie Cordeiro