Last summer, Billy Wagner became the sixth native of Virginia to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The former closer shares a few things in common with Harrisonburg native and former Spotswood High School star Daryl Irvine – both starred in college at Ferrum, both pitched in The Show and each spent time with the Boston Red Sox.
“We crossed paths last year at a fundraiser at Ferrum,” Irvine said in a recent interview.
A right-handed reliever, Irvine spent all his time in the majors with the Red Sox, from 1990-1992.
A lefty, Wagner played in the majors from 1995-2010, with most of that time with the Houston Astros from his rookie year through 2003. He did pitch in 15 regular-season games with Boston in 2009 – and two in the playoffs that season.
Irvine grew up in Grottoes and was teammates in youth baseball with Dell Curry, who led Fort Defiance to a state basketball title in 1982 and starred in hoops at Virginia Tech before a long NBA career. He is famous to a younger generation as the father of Stephen Curry, the Golden State NBA star.
“Dell would pitch, and I would play shortstop. Then I would pitch, and Dell would play shortstop,” Irvine recalled. “Dell was 17, and I was 16.”
Irvine was drafted out of Ferrum in the first round of the January phase of the 1985 draft by the Red Sox. He made his minor league debut later that year in Greensboro, N.C., appearing in eight games with seven starts.
Irvine pitched for Double-A New Britain for three straight years, from 1987-1989, and in in the last of those seasons, his manager was Butch Hobson, a former third baseman who was a key to the Red Sox strong teams in the 1970s. Hobson ended up managing Irvine and the Red Sox in 1992.
One of the pitching coaches in the minors for Irvine was Rich Gale, a former big-league hurler whose son, Chris, pitched for the University of Virginia. “Rich was really good,” Irvine said.
In 1992, Gale was the pitching coach for Boston. “He thought I needed another pitch so he had me work on a cutter,” Irvine said. “Then I got traded.”
Irvine was dealt by the Red Sox to the Pittsburgh Pirates after the 1992 season – but he never got back to The Show. Irvine threw in 37 games out of the bullpen for Triple-A Buffalo in the Pittsburgh system in 1993 – his last appearances in a pro game.
In his last Major League game, Irvine pitched in relief at Camden Yards in Baltimore and gave up a hit to Cal Ripken Jr. In all, Irvine appeared in 41 games and was 4-5 with an ERA of 4.68, with no saves. He did finish 19 of the games that he appeared in for the Red Sox.
Irvine returned to the Shenandoah Valley after his pro career and spent time playing for the Grottoes Cardinals in the Rockingham County Baseball League. He also became an employee at Massanutten Resort, where he has been an assistant golf pro during nearly three decades of work there.
Valley to Boston
The Shenandoah Valley and nearby regions have several other ties to the Red Sox, past and present.
Former University of Virginia pitcher Connelly Early, 24, made his big-league debut for Boston in 2025 and pitched in the playoffs for the Red Sox last year. Kyle Teel was a first-round pick out of Virginia by the Red Sox in 2023.
Waynesboro High School graduate Reggie Harris pitched in four games in 1996 for Boston. Wayne Britton was a resident of Augusta County when he was a scout for the Red Sox. Among the players he signed for the Red Sox was slugger Mo Vaughn, who played for the Harrisonburg Turks in the Valley Baseball League.
Staunton native Larry Boerner pitched in 21 games, with five starts, in 1932 for Boston. He passed in Staunton on Oct. 16, 1969 – the same day the New York Mets beat the Baltimore Orioles in Game 5 of the World Series to clinch the title.
Harrisonburg native Nelson Chittum pitched in 1959 and 1960 for the Red Sox. The right-hander passed in 2024 in Kentucky and is buried at the Mount Crawford Cemetery in Rockingham County, per baseballreference.com.
Travis Harper, a Harrisonburg native and JMU star, was drafted by the Red Sox but pitched in majors for one team – Tampa Bay.
Sherman shines for ODAC champs
Waynesboro High School graduate Jackson Sherman, a senior right-hander, came up big for the Shenandoah University baseball team at the ODAC Championships in Tysons Corner the weekend of May 7-9.
Coming out of the bullpen, he pitched three scoreless innings on May 7 in a 5-3 win over Randolph-Macon. He faced just 10 batters, gave up one hit and lowered his ERA to 1.35 on the year.
Shenandoah defeated defending champion Lynchburg, ranked in the top two nationally most of the season, for the ODAC title on May 9.
The Hornets of Winchester will open play in a Division III regional at home on May 15 against Farmingdale State.
Other ODAC schools that earned spots in the regionals were Lynchburg, the 2023 national champ, Bridgewater and Randolph-Macon.
Lynchburg hosts a regional; Bridgewater is at the Washington & Jefferson regional in Pennsylvania; and Randolph-Macon is as the Russell Sage regional in upstate New York.
“This is the best year ever for the ODAC,” Sherman told the AFP earlier this season.
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David Driver
