Hampshire Regional baseball coach Mark Baldwin announced his intention to retire at the conclusion of the 2026 season on Wednesday afternoon.
“My mind is willing, but my spirit and body say otherwise,” Baldwin said in a media release. “At the end of the 2026 season, I will retire from coaching varsity baseball at Hampshire Regional High School, my alma mater, Class of 1982.”
Baldwin has been involved with Raiders athletics for half a century, starting as a three-sport athlete in 1976, before multiple coaching stints at Hampshire that began in the late 1980s and resumed in 2019 after an extensive run at Northampton.
“It has been one of my greatest joys to coach baseball and help teach young men the game,” Baldwin said. “We still have much to accomplish this season and I am confident in the 2026 team’s abilities to have success in our new, incredibly competitive Suburban West League, in the Western Massachusetts tournament, and in the state tournament.”
A 2019 inductee into the Massachusetts Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, Baldwin has amassed more than 243 wins in over 26 years as a varsity baseball coach, plus 313 total wins at the high school level between posts as coach of the baseball, basketball, soccer and golf teams.
On the diamond, Baldwin has led the Raiders to respectable postseason performances over the years which include 19 postseason tournament appearances, two Western Mass. semifinals, eight quarterfinals and two league championships.
Baldwin also holds the wins record at Northampton with 198 victories.
In his statement, Baldwin credited former coaches Earl Tonet, Mike Dorunda and David Grills as valuable mentors during his time as an athlete at Hampshire.
Baldwin also thanked assistant coaches Scott and Casey Savino from Northampton and Brian Meunier and TJ Kilbride at Hampshire, plus his wife Mimi and daughters Emilie and Abby.
“I will miss teaching and coaching the young men and women at Hampshire, and I will miss the competition, but now is the time see what else the spring time holds for me,” Baldwin said.
