Carey to Be Inducted Into Hall of Fame

Lynnfield resident Frank Carey has been coaching baseball at for 48 years, and on Nov. 30, he will be inducted into the National High School Baseball Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame at a convention in St. Louis.

Carey played baseball in high school and at the University of Rhode Island, where he studied physical education. He is a physical education teacher at North Reading High School as well as coach of the baseball team.

He is committed to high school baseball programs and is involved with every aspect of the game, he said. Some of the many accomplishments achieved throughout his career: over 600 wins, pioneering a New England All-Star series and holding some of those games at Fenway Park, a battle with the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletics Association (MIAA) and more.

He started the New England All-Star series in 1978, he said. The purpose was to showcase players in each state to promote high school baseball in New England.

“It took me 12 years to get our All-Star game to Fenway,” he said.

After trying for many years, he was finally able to arrange a meeting with Red Sox officials. The day of their meeting happened to be the day of a major snowstorm. Despite the weather, Carey drove into the city only to discover that the ballpark had closed. The unsuccesful trip took him six hours due to the storm.

Eventually, he was able to have that meeting with Sox officials, and his All-Star games were played at Fenway Park from 1994 to 2004.

His battle with the MIAA was centered around wood bats. The MIAA wanted to implement a rule stating that Massachusetts high school baseball teams had to use wood bats. Carey was able to help prevent the MIAA from enlisting that rule by utilizing results from testing and experiments which proved that aluminum and wood bats are essentially the same. He saved the school about half a million dollars, and saved other schools money in the process.

“It was about a five year battle. We brought in testimony from all over the country," he said. “To bang heads with the MIAA and win, is a big thing to do.”

Carey was pleased and proud, he said, when he heard that he would be inducted into the hall of fame. 

“You always feel grateful and quite honestly, something like this, you never think it’s going to happen to you,” he said. “What happens in baseball, happens in baseball, but to get recognized by the National High School Baseball Coaches of America, the biggest high school association in the country… it was really quite meaningful to get this award.”

At the convention in St. Louis in November, Carey will be inducted into the hall of fame and presented a hall of fame ring. His daughters and grandchildren are planning to attend, he said, something he is looking forward to.

Related Topics: Greatest Person and north reading frank carey