“I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

NEW YORK >> Robert Frost wasn’t thinking of Charlie Baker or Marty Walsh as he wandered the woods of New England seeking poetic inspiration.

Nor was he foreshadowing the careers of a former Massachusetts governor or Boston mayor when he penned The Road Not Taken during his time in Old England.

Baker, the former governor, says he “left public life because I was depressed over the state of the business.”

Perhaps the business of the Commonwealth played a role in Baker’s shift from the State House to NCAA headquarters. The salary didn’t hurt either. Walsh left the Biden administration as labor secretary to lead the NHLPA — where his reported pay jumped from $220,000 to $3 million per year.

Walsh and Baker officially launched their unusual transitions from politics to pro sports within a two-week span in early 2023. Both have drawn generally favorable reviews in their current roles, despite challenges. Baker’s NCAA tenure has coincided with a flood of NIL money and mounting litigation. The NCAA and its Power 5 conferences recently agreed to a $2.8 billion settlement involving athlete back pay and future NIL limits.

Walsh, meanwhile, initially faced questions about his closeness with some NHL owners, including the Jacobs family. But he’s since won over players using the same retail politics honed as a union leader and state rep on Beacon Hill.

For Baker, navigating the Massachusetts Legislature was less contentious than dealing with the SEC.

“It’s just different. I had served in two administrations before I became governor. And I ran the second-largest nonprofit health plan in New England. I knew everybody — and had known a lot of them for years when I ran and got elected governor,” Baker said Monday while speaking to the Associated Press Sports Editors at their annual Commissioners Meetings. “Part of the reason I said I wanted to talk to all 97 conferences in my first 100 days was because I had a lot of learning and relationship development to do — stuff I didn’t have to do when I got elected governor. Almost everybody I was dealing with in the legislature and in the community — I knew those people. I had known them forever. It was a really different learning experience coming into this job. That was probably the biggest difference. If you’ve known somebody for 10 or 15 years, it’s just different than if you’ve known somebody for 10 or 15 days.”

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman had high praise for Walsh on Tuesday. The league’s current CBA with the players’ union expires in September 2026, and labor peace remains a question until a new deal is signed. The last work stoppage shortened the 2012—13 season from 82 to 48 games. But from the NHL’s 27th-floor executive offices in Midtown Manhattan, the skies looked clear on this spring morning.

“He’s terrific. He’s had an unbelievably successful career — whether it was heading unions in Massachusetts, being the mayor of Boston, or being Secretary of Labor. He’s knowledgeable. He’s smart,” Bettman said of Walsh. “He understands the importance of collaboration and working together. He’s been a terrific partner. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t forcefully advocate for his constituency — he does. But he’s been great to deal with, both on a professional and personal level. I’m thrilled to have him as a partner in the NHL family.”

Baker wouldn’t speculate on whether the jump from Bay State politics to national sports leadership was a “Massachusetts thing” or pure coincidence.

“Marty and I are a little unique. He’s the son of a guy who ran the laborer’s union in Boston. He ran the laborer’s union before he ran for the state legislature and before he became mayor. He was Labor Secretary. And obviously, because he is from Boston, he’s a hockey fan — just like every good, red-blooded Bostonian. Including me. It’s just a bizarre coincidence,” Baker said.

Walsh, 58, hails from Dorchester and is the son of Irish immigrants. He dropped out of college before eventually earning his degree in 2009, served in the legislature from 1997—2013, and was elected Boston mayor in 2013.

Baker, 10 years Walsh’s senior, has Colonial-era New York lineage — think “A. Hamilton” and “A. Burr.” He’s the fourth Charlie Baker in his family. His father served in the Nixon and Reagan administrations. He went from Needham High School to Harvard and later earned an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School. He likely mastered Frost along the way.

“We talked shop the entire time I was governor,” Baker said. These days, they talk “some.” But their jobs are now as different as they were a decade ago — when Baker led the Commonwealth and Walsh occupied the mayor’s office at Boston City Hall down the street.

“His gig is a lot different than mine. They have 30 teams. We have 1,100. They’re a much smaller organization. They’re organized a lot differently than we are. And it’s professional, as opposed to collegiate,” Baker said.

Still, Baker sees one constant whether you’re running the NHLPA, the NCAA, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, or the City of Boston: “You don’t get to make all of the decisions.”

“You have to coerce, cajole, negotiate, engage to sort of make things happen. That part of it we’re both fairly familiar with,” he said.

Gov. Healey, the WNBA is on Line Two.

Contact Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos on X) • bsperos1@gmail.com