Carleton baseball was f l a t l i n i n g.  The incumbent head coach, Steve Tsonos, had seen enough; poor results; a dearth of talent; virtually no institutional support - so he left.  From every perspective, dissolving the team was the sensible route - every perspective except one.

Enter Ben Rich, a 24-year-old graduate student from London, Ont., who came to Carleton in 2010 to pursue a Master’s degree in political science, and whose arrival just happened to coincide with the departure of Tsonos, who served as head coach of the Carleton Ravens baseball team from 2004-2009.

Catcher Benjamin Rich, armed with a baseball pedigree that included two provincial championships with the London Badgers, three Ontario University Athletics titles with the Western Mustangs, and the 2005 OUA Hitter of the Year and Most Valuable Players awards, jumped at the prospect of extending his baseball career with Carleton, and immediately began scouring the internet for information on the team. What he found instead was a sobering ultimatum that stung like an errant fastball between the letters: find a head coach or discontinue the program. For Rich, an NCCP Level-II coach, the decision was a no-brainer.

“I was enthused about it right from the get-go,” Ben recalls.  “I sent the Carleton Athletics manager (Bob Rumscheidt) a cover letter stating my intentions, and my baseball résumé.  After a couple follow-up calls, he offered me the position and I got to work prepping for the season.  [It] only became official in late July ... so it was a time-crunch.”

Rich weathered financial and logistical storms on top of serious time constraints in his effort to ensure that Carleton fielded a team in 2010, and, at the same time, reinvigorated a core of veterans disillusioned by seasons under a dispassionate coaching staff.  Ostensibly, the new regime was as unsuccessful as its predecessor.  Carleton finished 4-12 in 2010, which was identical to their record the year prior. But of more import than results was the mentality that Ben had worked so strenuously to cultivate, both among the players and with the athletic department, that baseball deserves to be taken seriously at Carleton.

Throughout the 2010 academic year, well after the baseball season concluded and every diamond had succumbed to the cold Ottawa winter, Rich remained unrelenting in his fundraising and promotional efforts. His enthusiasm whet the passion of the veterans who remained at the end 2010, and left them eager to begin the 2011 campaign.  And then, he was gone.  In the summer of 2010, Mr. Rich was offered a job in Toronto that forced him to leave his post at Carleton University.

But his contributions are still felt today in a way that he probably never even thought was possible. Ben’s efforts to raise the profile of the baseball program at Carleton were instrumental in attracting more ballplayers to the school, and directly factored into the team’s success this season. The Carleton Ravens amassed a record of 9-6-1 during the 2011 regular season, eclipsing their win total from the previous two years combined.  In the Northern semi-finals, the squad swept their arch-rivals the Ottawa GeeGees. Then they defeated the mighty pennant winning Concordia Stingers to take the Northern Conference Championship. Next up, the Carleton Ravens are heading out for Moncton, New Brunswick where they will play for the big prize against the best in university baseball at the CIBA Nationals hosted by Crandall University.               

With Rick Young back at the helm - he previously served as head coach from 1998-2003 - a revamped roster and equally remodeled attitude, the Carleton Ravens no longer lie precariously in traction on the operating table in intensive care. In fact, if you stand in their way, they might just put you there.

Jonah Birenbaum, Carlton Journalism