Baseball

Oregon State baseball coach Pat Casey announces retirement: 'I've truly been blessed'

By Cody Benjamin Sep 6, 2018
(Photo Courtesy: Kendall Rogers/Twitter)

After 900 wins, six College World Series appearances and three championships, Pat Casey has called it a career.

Almost 30 years after he first arrived in Corvallis to become Oregon State’s baseball coach, the 59-year-old manager has announced his retirement, as D1Baseball’s Kendall Rogers first reported Thursday afternoon. The decision comes just over two months after Casey led the Beavers to their first national title in more than a decade.

A pillar of Oregon State’s baseball program by virtue of his tenure but also his accomplishments, Casey got his start in coaching with George Fox, a Christian university in Oregon, back in 1988, then moved to OSU in 1995. Characterized as a man who “works tirelessly to balance an intensely competitive spirit with a deep faith in God,” he said in his parting statement that “I’ve been truly blessed” to man the dugout almost 1,400 times with the Beavers.

“I don’t have enough space or time to thank all the individuals who I’ve had the pleasure of working with throughout the years. You know who you are and I want to thank each and every one of you …

“I have always expected that I be at the same level at which we ask our players day in and day out, and right now, I’m not sure I can’t do that, but I’m also not certain I can. Therefore, I believe it is the right time to step down as head coach of the Oregon State baseball program.”

Casey leaves Oregon State as a three-time national champion, having guided the Beavers to baseball supremacy in 2006, 2007 and again this year. The first championship was the first in Oregon State baseball history.

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