As retirement nears, game still tugs at MMA coach Corradi

April 26, 2015

By Bill Higgins, Cape Cod Times Sports Editor

BUZZARDS BAY - It’s a cool, crisp and bright spring afternoon at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy on Taylor’s Point.

A barge is drifting through the Cape Cod Canal as soft, sun-dappled waves splash against the rocks. It’s a perfect day to be playing baseball, but the coach is away from his team, unsettled and uncomfortable.

Bob Corradi is out of his element. His players are beginning to practice, but he is trapped in an upstairs office, offering reluctant reflections while all around him are memorabilia and memories of his life staring back at him.

This is absolutely the last place he wants to be, inside, while the kids are playing outside. And yet, this is really the only place he wants to be.

Massachusetts Maritime, home port to Corradi’s beloved Buccaneers, has been his home for 43 years, more than half his life. But his days at the academy are dwindling and soon he will leave, officially retiring as director of athletics at the end of June.

His final regular-season baseball game is at 2 this afternoon at Hendy Field on the Buzzards Bay campus. He will be honored in a pregame ceremony. The Bucs claimed a share of the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference title on Saturday and will host the league tournament next week. Still, the season will soon be over and the impending reality is too much for him to handle.

“I intentionally don’t think about it,” said Corradi, emotionally choking to get the words out, his head dropping into his hands on the desk. “I ignore it. It’s a defense mechanism because I don’t want to think about it. I’m in the moment and I’m cherishing today. That’s where I want to be.

“This only happens,” he added, tears filling his face, “when people bring it up.”

Corradi is 71 but save for a full head of white-gray hair, looks and acts half his age. He still has what he likes to call “the juice,” the energy and enthusiasm to show up and go at it full speed every day.

This was never more evident than last week when MMA swept a doubleheader from Framingham State, winning both games in walk-off fashion in the final inning. They were the 574th and 575th wins in Corradi’s collegiate baseball coaching career.

“Unbelievable! I’ll tell you what, these kids, amazing,” he said, his voice so electric with excitement. “You want to talk about juice! This is what I live for, you know?”

Corradi also knows he has plenty left in the tank. He absolutely could stick around and still get the job done, still be an effective coach and administrator. But in his quiet moments he knows, too, it’s time to allow someone else the chance to steer the ship.

“I tell the kids all the time, you can't be selfish in a team sport,” he said. “If I stayed, I'd be selfish. It’s a young man’s game and it’s probably better to go a year or so earlier than a year too late. Other than my family, this place is my life. It has given me so much, everything really, and now I need to give it back.”

Corradi, a Bourne native, arrived at the academy in 1973. Along with being the head baseball coach, he was an assistant in football for 38 years and assumed his position as athletic director in 1989.

All total, he has coached more than 1,400 student-athletes in baseball and football. And that doesn’t count the many years he was a successful manager of summer baseball teams in American Legion and Babe Ruth.

With his career winding down, Corradi has been the recipient of numerous accolades for contributions to the game at all levels. In June he will receive an honorary doctorate degree at the academy’s commencement ceremonies, so add the title “Dr. Corradi” to his resume.

In the end, however, he’d rather be called Coach more than anything else.

“I love that term … coach. I’ve always asked my players on all my teams to give me everything you’ve got, no matter what that is,” said Corradi. “Some have more, but if you give me what you have as a player, I’ll do the same for you as a coach.

“We play a game and I want them to work every day to get a little bit better. You learn so much being part of a team, things that will help you for the rest of your life. There’s a reason we keep score. It’s important, you know? But what matters more is I’m trying to help them improve as players and people.”

The games are winding down for coach Corradi. Soon he will leave the field and Massachusetts Maritime Academy. He will pack up his office full of memorabilia chronicling five decades, go home to Kathy, his bride of 46 years, and have more time to enjoy their four grandchildren.

“It’s going to be a shock when it comes. I’m not prepared for it. I’ll miss this place tremendously, but I don't think anyone wants me hanging around, telling them how to go about things. It’s time.”

Not quite yet, however. There is at least one more game to be played. The sun is still bright and shining this day on Taylor’s Point and Bob Corradi has returned to the field, back to the office where he is most comfortable.

He’s where he belongs, with players, crouched near a batting cage, cajoling, chatting, coaching.

Always coaching.