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Walsh named Bourne Braves GM

03/06/2003 8:38 AM

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for immediate release: 6 March, 2003
      

Former Cape League PR Director Named
Bourne Braves General Manager


BOURNE, MA – The Bourne Braves of the Cape Cod Baseball League announced today the hiring of former CCBL Director of Public Relations Sean Walsh as the franchise’s new general manager.


    Walsh served as the CCBL Director of Public Relations from January 2000 through December 2002 and also served as the league’s official photographer and web site editor/director during that time.


    “I cannot think of anything more exciting than being given the opportunity to help one individual Cape League franchise reach new heights,” Walsh said. “For three years my focus has been on marketing, promoting and doing everything physically possible to help the league as a whole. Now I have this precious and welcomed chance to place that focus on just one team and I can’t think of a more generous, kind and fan-oriented team to do that with than the Bourne Braves.”


    A longtime youth sports coach on Cape Cod, Walsh also currently serves on the Barnstable Little League Board of Directors, is an active coach with the YMCA-Cape Cod and Barnstable Silver Bullets Youth Football Program. Walsh will no longer serve as the web site editor and league photographer when the 2003 Cape League season commences.


    “This was a difficult choice to make,” Walsh said. “Working on the web site has been akin to having a fourth child. It’s a hard thing to let go.”


    A baseball player until his early 20s, Walsh began coaching in conjunction with serving as the Director of Little League Baseball for the town of Newfield, NY in 1987, and then shifted chiefly to coaching when he managed the Falmouth Senior Babe Ruth team to a 16-5 record and playoff berth in 1993. He also served as the manager for the Cape Cod Senior Babe Ruth All-Star Team that year, leading the team to the Eastern Massachusetts State Championship.


    In 1994, Walsh began managing the Barnstable Senior Babe Ruth Baseball Team, leading the team to four consecutive playoff appearances. In his tenure as Barnstable’s head coach, Walsh managed seven Div. 1 collegiate players and served as the assistant coach to the Cape Cod Senior Babe Ruth All-Stars, helping lead the team in 1995 to the Eastern Massachusetts State Championship, Massachusetts State Championship and New England Runners Up titles.


    Immediately following his tenure in Barnstable, Walsh began coaching youth soccer, basketball and baseball with his sons and has managed or coached 16 teams in soccer, football, basketball and baseball and has conducted youth sports clinics for the Cape Cod YMCA.


    Immediately upon graduation from Acton-Boxborough Regional High School, Walsh was stationed in the United States Marine Corps at Parris Island, SC, and attained the rank of Private First Class upon graduation. Immediately following graduation from USMC Recruit Training, Walsh attended Ithaca College and served four years in the United States Marine Corps Reserves. Walsh graduated from Ithaca College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English & American Literature in 1989. In the Fall of 1989, Walsh began graduate studies at New York University and received his Master of Arts in English and American Literature in 1991.


    In 1991, Walsh moved from New York City to Hyannis Port and began writing for the Falmouth Enterprise, followed by stints with The Register, Boston Globe and then On The Water Magazine. During his career as a news reporter, features writer and news photographer, Walsh garnered First Place for Best Feature Story by the Suburban Newspaper Association, a prestigious national award for journalism and several awards for news stories by the New England Press Association. While with On The Water magazine, Walsh garnered five awards for outdoors writing and photography, including First Place for Best Scenic Photography by the New England Outdoor Writers Association.


    In 1997, Walsh became Sports Editor at Memorial Press Group in Plymouth and served there for three years, garnering Best Sports Column honors by the New England Press Association. In 2000, Walsh began working simultaneously for the Cape Cod Baseball League and JM Wechter & Associates. Walsh currently serves as a creative director for JM Wechter, a private firm that manufactures toys and other products domestically and internationally.


    In his tenure with the CCBL, Walsh and Steven Wilson combined efforts to take the league’s official web site from 1.5 million hits in 2000 to nearly 7 million hits in the summer of 2002 alone, making the web site the league’s chief marketing tool to baseball fans across the world. As the first-ever official league photographer, Walsh spent countless hours archiving thousands of baseball images of every team and event. Some of Walsh’s work is now displayed at the Cape Cod Baseball League Hall of Fame at Heritage Plantation in Sandwich, MA. He is expected to show more of his work during an art exhibit at the Centerville Public Library in August 2003.


    As CCBL Director of Public Relations, Walsh directed the league’s publications, creating a new layout and design for the annual all-star game program which sold out each issue each season. He also helped individual franchises with their publications as well as serving as editor for the annual CCBL yearbook.


    “Working with the Cape League allowed me so many opportunities I simply would not have had time to seek out had I remained a full-time journalist and it allowed me the opportunity to focus on my true love: baseball,” Walsh said. “I’ve also met and connected with so many countless people in the world of baseball and I am grateful for the relationships that have fostered from those experiences. The Braves open a new chapter in that same vein.”


    Walsh lives in Marstons Mills, MA with his wife Jennifer and three children, ages 8, 6 and 3. He may be reached at (508) 241-1412 or via email at [email protected]