Pat Casey calls it a career as Oregon State baseball coach
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Oregon State baseball head coach Pat Casey has announced his retirement and is calling it coaching career after a storybook season in 2018 that concluded with College World Series national championship.
The 2018 squad, which might have been the best team Casey has ever fielded in terms of top-to-bottom talent, finished the season with a 55-12-1 overall record and led the nation in nearly every offensive statistical category as the Beavers boasted one of the most potent offenses in CWS history.
Casey spent 24 seasons as the head coach of Oregon State baseball, compiling an overall record of 900-458-6 (.662). He leaves Corvallis as the winningest coach in OSU athletics history. The Beavers are the only program to ever win six elimination games in Omaha, doing so in 2006 and 2018.
The decision to retire wasn’t an easy one for Casey who noted that several times in the past couple months, he tried to hang it up, only to be swayed by his players and coaching staff.
“I’ve struggled with this from the day we got off the plane,” Casey said. “I came in and told my staff that I was going to retire and those guys marched across the office and talked to Scott (Barnes) and then back to me to change my mind. Ed (Ray) helped me out because when I went to him, I felt that I was letting everyone down and he told me don’t make a decision based on that. I feel like I’m letting people down, and I guess you feel like that whenever you retire.”
In his last two seasons, Casey guided the Beavers to a 111-18-1 record, the second-most wins over a two-year stretch in conference history. OSU went 57-6 (.905) at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field over that stretch; the Beavers posted winning records at home in 21 of Casey's 24 seasons at the helm.
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"I would first like to thank all the players who have given me the opportunity and honor to coach them over the last 31 years," Casey said. "Your dedicated commitment has truly made the journey what it is and made what we do more than special; I will be forever grateful. You have left me with memories I will never forget. You are true warriors.”
During his tenure at Oregon State, Casey (59) turned around a program that was one of the cellar-dwellers in the conference prior to his arrival, and with hard work, determination, and great talent, he took the Beavers to unimaginable new heights and set a standard for what success looks like with Beaver baseball.
“There’s nothing about this that I feel good about because I’m a coach,” Casey said. “Maybe I’ll miss it. Maybe I made a mistake. If I did that, I would be the first guy to tell you I’d try and get back in coaching. Coaching is hard on me. A Tuesday game is just as important as a Stanford Friday night game and I mean that. That’s a hard thing. I’ve had coaches tell me, we’ve won 19 in a row, can you just back off a little bit. That’s hard for me to do. Coaching is hard, and that’s the way I’ve always done it.”
The Beavers won national championships in the 2006, 2007, and 2018 seasons and made the College World Series six times during the Casey era.
“It’s all about the players,” Casey said. “They’ve absolutely driven me to be the best that I can be. National championships are awesome, and they go in trophy cases and people get to look at them, but they don’t mean one damn thing if you don’t have a relationship with the people that you work with. Those guys made me the coach that I am and I’ve learned more from my players than they ever learned from me.”
The good news for the Oregon State is that despite Casey leaving the dugout, that doesn’t mean he’s going to leave OSU. Actually, quite the opposite as Casey will remain at Oregon State as a Senior Associate Athletics Director/Special Assistant to Vice President and Director of Athletics Scott Barnes.
"It's very difficult to put into words what Coach Casey has done for Oregon State University, the state of Oregon, college baseball overall and the tremendous impact he has made on the lives of so many young people during his coaching career," Barnes said. "While I'm saddened to lose Coach Casey in the dugout, I'm thrilled to have Coach Casey remain on staff to serve as an ambassador for our department, be a mentor for other coaches, and play a role in fundraising."
Associate head coach Pat Bailey has been named the interim head coach for the 2019 season and OSU will begin a national search at the end of the 2019 campaign. Bailey has been with the team for 11 seasons and has been Casey’s right-hand-man for many years, including acting as the interim head coach earlier this season when Casey was suspended for four games.
“I’m focused on today and we’re supposed to live one day at a time,” Bailey said of his interim tag. “That’s what my focus is going to be and I’m going to give it my best shot. I’m a really good communicator and our guys are going to have very clear expectations of what’s expected of them on the field. As a committed Christian, I can say that God expects us to work hard. He expects me to work hard and so they’re going to get my best shot each and everyday.”
With Oregon State having to defend their national championship come February, don’t look for the Beavers to be any different on the field under Pat Bailey, who is going to keep business as usual at Goss Stadium.
“It’s going to be business as usual,” Bailey said. “Pat [Casey] and I are really close friends and we have different personalities so there will be some differences from a personality standpoint, but c’mon. I’m always amazed at coaches that go into a successful place and try and change things. That’s ridiculous. Honestly, I wouldn’t be coaching with Pat if we didn’t have similar philosophies.”
While Casey will take some time off before settling into his new role with Oregon State, he is still unsure of what he’s going to do with his newfound free time. He added that despite heading into the new position, he’s always going to be a coach.
“I got no oceans to sail, no mountains to climb, I got no hobbies, I don’t know what the hell I’m gonna do. Whatever I do, I’ll do it as well as I can. I do have a natural tie to the people who support Oregon State and I would be beneficial being around those people. They can dress me up and call me whatever they want, but I’ll always be coach.”