Shortstop Jeffrey F. Handler overcame two knee surgeries to shine offensively and defensively on the 1990 national championship baseball team, earning spots on the NCAA Division III Northeast Regional and national tournament all-tournament teams that season.
The Harwich, MA native transferred to Eastern after one year at Miami Dade College, batting .316 with 120 hits and collecting 274 assists in 111 games for the Warriors during the 1988-90 seasons. After splitting time at shortstop as a first-year sophomore in 1988, Handler hit .338 with 98 hits and 199 assists as the everyday starting shortstop in 1989 and 1990.
On star-studded teams which won nearly 70 percent of their games (90-40 record) and advanced to the regional championship series each year, Handler was named second-team All-Northeast Region and second-team All-New England as a senior and third-team All-New England in his second season in 1989.
The 6-foot-1 inch, 190 pound right-handed hitter batted in a number of positions in the order in his career, but was inserted as the everyday No. 2 hitter in 1990 after returning to the lineup in early May after missing seven games while recovering from his second knee surgery in six months.
As one of six seniors on the 1990 national title team – the second of four national championship teams under former head coach Bill Holowaty – Handler was rock-solid defensively, helping the Warriors turn 44 doubles plays in 46 games, with ten of them coming in seven post-season tournament games. In the post-season that year, Handler handled 40 chances without an error, one of the very few starting shortstops from a national champion to ever play flawless post-season defense in the 31-year history of the NCAA Division III tournament.
Handler’s astounding fielding percentage of .976 (four errors on 164 chances) during the 1990 championship season was all the more remarkable considering the fact that he had totalled 30 errors and fielded at just .906 on 320 chances in his first two seasons.
Handler’s season fielding percentage in 1990 remains a program season record for a starting shortstop. In fact, only ten players accruing at least 100 assists in a season since 1969 have managed a fielding percentage as high as even .960 (the closest to Handler’s record is second baseman Mike DeLucia, who fielded at .968 in 1986). Handler was named recipient of the team’s Gold Glove Award in 1990 – the only middle infielder in the 42-year history of the award to earn that distinction.
Handler was named the all-tournament shortstop in both the Northeast Regional and national tournaments in 1990. After batting .354 in the regular season, he batted .357 (10-for-28) in seven post-season games, with a .424 on-base percentage, three doubles, a home run, sacrifice fly, six runs scored and four RBI. Batting behind first-team All-America Ortiz in the order, Handler was a primary reason why the Warriors never trailed in four national tournament games.
Hoping to combat a Murderers’ Row lineup stacked with five left-handed hitters, Eastern’s first five opponents in post-season play in 1990 chose to start left-handed pitchers, which favored top-of-the-order right-handed hitters Ortiz and Handler, who became the only two players on the team to earn all-tournament recognition in both the regional and national tournaments.
In a regional-opening win over No. 5 nationally-ranked Ithaca College, Handler set the tone for the nationally12th-ranked Warriors when he homered on the ninth pitch of the game – just his fourth blast of the season.
With Eastern trailing 3-0 after a half-inning of Game 2 against defending regional champion and host Southern Maine (ranked ahead of Eastern all season in the New England polls), Handler proved to be the catalyst again when his one-out, opposite field double down the right field line sparked a four-run rally. He also went the other way in the second inning with a ground ball to second which helped build another run in an eventual 5-3 victory.
Down 3-0 in the eighth inning of the regional title game against Ithaca, Handler drew a one-out walk and rode home on All-America DH Brian Mercado’s game-tying home run, and the Warriors went on to a 4-3, 11-inning triumph that secured the regional title and a trip to the national tournament.
The red-hot Handler contributed three hits in each of the team’s first two national tournament victories over CSU-San Bernardino (8-4) and UW-Oshkosh (7-4), when the Warriors’ quiet regional bats finally awoke (they had batted an unthinkable .354 during the regular season) to bang out 23 hits. Handler had two doubles and scored three runs in the opening win and helped build a run in the third against Oshkosh with a hit-and-run single -- again to the opposite field -- to score Ortiz.
Behind a brilliant complete-game shutout by senior righty Rusty Greene, Ortiz and Handler opened the first inning with singles and Daniels’ ground ball gave the Warriors an early lead in an eventual 4-0 win over Aurora that moved Eastern to within a victory of the national title. A worn-out Aurora team (twice playing Eastern on less than 12 hours rest) was no match in the final. Riding senior righty Chris Kebalka’s first complete game of the season – a four-hitter -- and collecting 12 hits, the Warriors wrapped up the title with a convincing 8-1 triumph. Eastern ended the season on an 18-game winning streak en route to what was then a record 40 wins in 46 games.
While the Warriors’ reputation during the year was built on devastating offense (65 home runs and a .546 slugging percentage), it was pitching and defense in the post-season which carried them to the title. The team commited only six errors in seven post-season games, with two of its three errors in national tournament play coming with the title game well in hand.
“We’ve got the best defense in the country,” asserted Kebalka after the national championship celebration. Pointing to the team’s maturity and selflessness, Holowaty labelled the 1990 Warriors as “one of my favorite teams,” and as “the best team I’ve ever had” through the first 22 years of his 45-year coaching career.
Handler holds a B.S. Degree in Physical Education and owns Sport Rx Athletic Performance Systems on Cape Cod. He resides in his hometown of Harwich with wife Sara. The Handlers have three children.
