Rick Lashua sees no point in looking back at declining a Major League Baseball contract and opting to attend and play baseball for the University of Maine.

For the Auburn resident, swinging a bat for the late coach John Winkin was a privilege that led him to play a key role in guiding the Maine baseball team to four consecutive appearances in the College World Series from 1981-84, Lashua hit .337 throughout those four CWS competitions.

The Edward Little graduate, who played baseball and football for the Red Eddies, can go on and on about his wondrous four-year stretch with the Black Bears, who haven’t forgotten the center fielder’s exploits on the diamond. He and six other athletes will inducted into the University of Maine Sports Hall of Fame on Sept. 17 at Jeff’s Catering & Event Center in Brewer.

“A couple years ago I went into the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame and that was great,” he said. “The (Auburn-)Lewiston Hall of Fame (induction) was great, but this one means a little bit more. I don’t know why. I think it is because it is the University of Maine. Basically, the University of Maine was a turning point for me. 

“My best friends today are people I met at the University of Maine, whether they be players or classmates. So, emotionally, it means a lot. When I got the call (to be inducted), I had to take a deep breath because I never expected it. It’s been 35 years and I have never thought about it.”

ALL THE RIGHT MOVES

Lashua is not one to contemplate the road not taken and harbors no regrets about not taking a solid swing at the big leagues.

“Everything has to fall in the right place,” he said. “Of course, I was one of those kids that thought about playing professional baseball, but now at this age, I am glad at the way my life has turned out. I wouldn’t have met my wife. I wouldn’t have the two kids I have now.”

He said one the best decisions he made in his lifetime was saying no to an MLB contract.

“The Pirates offered me a contract right out of high school,” he said. “I didn’t accept it. I could have never gone to the University of Maine because I come from a very modest upbringing. My family could have never afforded to send me to college. I don’t care if it was $100 a year, I just couldn’t go.

“When the Pirates offered me a contract, Coach Winkin found some extra money, some aid some place, and that was turning point of me going to the University of Maine. Going up there to the University of Maine was the best thing that could happen to me.”

The Yankees did sign Lashua after his UMaine career ended and assigned him to their short-season Class A affiliate in Oneonta (New York), where he played briefly for future Yankees, Arizona Diamondbacks and Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter. The Yankees released him after one year, and Lashua returned to Auburn to begin a career in automobile sales.

SHAPED BY THE BLACK BEARS

Lashua is excited to attend the banquet and have a large family and friends there supporting him. 

“It is going to be quite a night,” he said. “I am looking forward to it because you get to acknowledge the people who got you there. I didn’t get there without my family. I didn’t get there without the coaches I had growing up. I don’t get there without the friends and teammates at the University of Maine (and) the six of us who made it all four years. I had a successful career because of the people I was around.

“How can you not get better being around these people? Every year, basically the upperclassmen ran the baseball team. They ran the team and ‘Wink’ set the schedules.”

Lashua, 59, spent 18 years selling cars and eventually became a general manager running a car dealership for Lee Auto in Auburn. After leaving Lee Auto, he moved on to working in construction and he still has hand in the business end of it. He also is a golfer, remains connected to family and friends and is a novice snowbird during the winter months.

Playing for the championship-bound UMaine teams was an unforgettable experience for him. The humble and soft-spoken Lashua appeared in more NCAA postseason games (22) than any player in the history of the Maine baseball program. He hit a combined .352 with 174 hits, 27 doubles, eight triples and 19 home runs during his final three years with UMaine and was a first-team All-New England selection in 1984.

In 1983, Lashua’s junior year, Maine finished 29-16, beat Harvard to win the Northeast as Lashua was named all-tournament for the second year in a row, then lost to Michigan and Arizona State in Omaha. Before his senior year, Lashua, who hit right-handed his first three years, became a switch-hitter. He regrets not having made the change sooner because he had his best year, batting .369 with eight home runs, 36 RBI and 65 runs scored. He was named the ECAC Division I New England Player of the Year and helped the Black Bears break 31 UMaine and 16 New England records.

“I remember the first year as a freshman, you hear seniors talking about, ‘Our goal this year is Omaha — get to the (College) World Series.’” Lashua recalled. “Well, I am like, ‘Really, the University of Maine, World Series?’ But when we made it my freshman year, then that became the standard every year.

“We worked harder every year because we (wanted) to go back. It was like it wasn’t going to be a successful season unless we made it back to Omaha.”

Lashua pointed out that Winkin took notice of him because of Lashua’s success for Edward Little on the gridiron.

“He was a believer in multi-sport athletes,” Lashua said. “Obviously, you knew you were playing for a legend, a great mind when you played for (Winkin),” he said. “He was quite a man. You knew the man, you respected him because of his knowledge of the game and his commitment to the game — and you knew you were playing for one of the best coaches in the country, but you didn’t know how much until years later. 

“It was old-school coaching. He was the Vince Lombardi-type coach. If I am not yelling at you, it means I don’t care anymore.”

Through the years, Lashua and his former teammates have shared  funny and fond stories of “Wink.”

“We all joke about all the things we used to laugh about Wink and all the Wink stories, and then we would laugh about, ‘Geez, we are doing this with our own kids,’” Lashua said. “When we start coaching Little League, we are doing the same thing John Winkin did when we were at Maine.”

Lashua will be joining six other inductees including — include Brittany Cheney, a three-time All-Conference softball selection; Jack Cosgrove, UMaine’s all-time football coaching wins leader and three-time conference coach of the year; Aaron Dashiell, two-time Associated Press All-American football player; Riley Masters, a two-time All-American in the mile run; Gustav Nyquist, 12-year NHL veteran and two-time Hobey Baker finalist; Raffi Wolf, two-time women’s ice hockey Olympian for Team Germany; and the legendary 1998-99 women’s basketball team.

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