Trying to push aside reality every time he climbs to his preferred station on the steps at the right side of a dugout has become unavoidable.
Danny Hall jokingly blames his wife, Kara, for this. She’s the one reminding him daily that every game, series, road trip, opponent, practice is one of his last as part of his farewell tour.
Take April 27, for instance. That’s when Hall’s Georgia Tech team broke a seven-game losing streak with a two-run homer in the ninth and then a walk-off homer in the 10th in a 7-6 win over Virginia. Kara’s postgame focus was only for Hall to take a picture with Virginia coach and friend Brian O’Connor.
“I’m like, ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea. They just lost on a walk-off?’” Hall laughed.
A little more than a month ago, when Hall announced the 2025 season would be his last as a college baseball coach, he said he didn’t anticipate the final two months of the season to be any different than his previous 31 years at Tech. But he admitted to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that that hasn’t gone as expected.
He’s recognizing unique moments, such as a trip to play Stanford for the first — and last — time in his career, or when former Tech athletic director Dan Radakovich, now the AD at Miami, stopped by the Yellow Jackets’ practice April 17 to congratulate Hall on his fine career.
A steady stream of former players from the previous three decades have popped up at Russ Chandler Stadium over the course of the past three weeks as well.
These things wouldn’t happen if Hall hadn’t informed his team March 27 that he wouldn’t be coaching in 2026.
“Surreal. It just puts another emphasis on this year,” Tech shortstop Kyle Lodise said. “Knowing his legacy and how many wins and big games he’s coached in, being able to learn from him and play under him — especially for his last year — it’s pretty cool. It’s for sure unique.”
Lodise, one of a handful of Jackets likely to be selected in this summer’s MLB draft, will join a long list (encroaching on 150) of Hall’s former players who have made it to professional baseball. The list is as impressive as it is lengthy, including Nomar Garciaparra, Jason Varitek, Matt Weiters, Charlie Blackmon, Jay Payton, Buck Farmer, Joey Bart and Mark Teixeira, to highlight a few.
Those players, and so many others (even sons Carter and Colin Hall), have helped Hall win five ACC tournament championships and seven ACC regular-season titles (including division crowns). His teams have made the NCAA Tournament 24 times, advanced to a Super Regional six times and played in the College World Series in 1994, 2002 and 2006.
The four-time ACC coach of the year sits at 1,238 career wins during his tenure with Tech.
“I’ve talked to some teammates and been like, ‘This is really crazy that we’re witnessing a living legend in his last year.’ I think that’s definitely had an internal spark as well,” Tech pitcher Mason Patel said. “I think I’ve seen him be a little bit more motivated than last year as well. I really hope we can just keep it up for him.
“He had told us his first-ever team went to Omaha and he said, ‘I really have the confidence in this team. I see it. I believe it. Put that in your head. That’s where we’re going. That’s what’s gonna happen.’
“I think just knowing it’s his last year we want to send him off in the best way possible and give him everything he deserves because he’s dedicated his entire life to this game. For us to be the last group of players that he has his hands on and works with, that’s a really unique feature.”
Hall grew up in southeast Ohio, where he became a standout infielder playing for his father, Danny Hall Sr., at Federal Hocking High School in Stewart, Ohio. In 1973, Hall was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the 12th round of the MLB draft.
Instead, Hall played for Miami (Ohio) from 1974-77 and was an all-conference performer as a junior and senior. He remained with his alma mater for two seasons as a graduate assistant before joining the Michigan staff as an assistant coach for eight seasons.
Hall’s first shot at a head coaching gig came in 1988 when he returned to Ohio to turn around the Kent State program. Twice he led the Golden Flashes to Mid-American Conference titles before Tech hired him ahead of the 1994 season.
And that 1994 season immediately set the precedent for years to come. The Jackets went 50-17, the 17th loss coming to Oklahoma in the national title game.
Hall and Tech made the trip to Omaha, Nebraska, twice more, but it has been nearly 20 years since the Jackets have returned to the CWS. As the years have passed without so much as a trip to a Super Regional (2006 being the last), there has been a steady tenor among a sector of the fan base discouraged by Tech’s inability to survive the opening weekend of college baseball’s postseason.
There was the 2019 team that won 43 games but lost to Auburn in Atlanta. The 2016 team lost at home to Florida. A 42-win season in 2011 ended in Atlanta with a loss to Mississippi State. A year earlier, the Jackets were ousted by Alabama after 47 victories.
Reaching, or not reaching, a Super Regional has become a barometer for Hall’s program by those on the outside. But the pillars of success for Hall are developing a team good enough to make the NCAA Tournament, graduating players and preparing Jackets for professional baseball.
Not to say he isn’t equally despondent over postseason shortcomings.
“It bothers every coach or every player when they don’t win it all,” Teixeira said. “The randomness of baseball, especially baseball with 18- to 22-year-olds, can be maddening. I know during my major league career, some of the best teams that I was on didn’t make it past the first round of the playoffs. You go through an entire 162-game season, or in college baseball a 60-plus game season, as one of the best teams in the sport, and a bounce doesn’t go your way, you run into a hot pitcher, you line out with the bases loaded and the game on the line — that stuff happens.
“That’s the beauty but also the pain of baseball.”
Hall now has 1,446 career wins spanning his time at Kent State and Tech. Assistant coach James Ramsey, with Hall since 2018, has been a part of a good chunk of that number.
Ramsey said when he finished his playing career and contemplated a career in coaching, Hall was one of the first men he telephoned for advice. Six months later, Ramsey moved to Atlanta to join forces with Hall.
“It has always stuck with me when he talks about how he wanted to leave somewhere in a better place than when he found it. I think he felt like that this was a good time to do that,” Ramsey said of Hall’s final season. “The one thing I admire about him is he lets players play. He’s coached through multiple different eras. He’s been able to last through all those because I think he’s a genuine person. He has a lot of trust in his players and staff. Coaching with him I’ve learned so many lessons because he has trusted me.
“By playing for coach Hall, he’s gonna run you out there, he’s gonna put you in the lineup, he’s gonna expect you to go about your business, and then I think you learn a lot about yourself as a player and a coach.”
Hall will be honored all weekend at Russ Chandler Stadium, where the Jackets (35-14, 15-9 ACC) host Louisville on Friday-Sunday and are looking to stay in the hunt for an ACC title and consideration as an NCAA Regional host. Tech is on a five-game winning streak and 1½ games back of first-place Florida State in the ACC standings.
At noon Sunday, Hall will be celebrated as part of a pregame ceremony. From there, he and the Jackets will continue on another quest to get to Omaha, Hall’s last chance to do so.
“I’m just happy for him. There’s very few players or coaches in our business that get to go out on their own terms,” Teixeira said. “For coach Hall to be able to, during a really good season, enjoy his last year, announce his retirement, say goodbye to people, be celebrated appropriately — that’s just really cool, in my mind.”
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