Lynnfield High varsity baseball coach John O’Brien is one of four coaches who will be inducted into the Massachusetts Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame next month.

O’Brien said he was “completely caught off guard” when he learned the news.

“I’m on the board and we got together a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, but since I’m not a computer guy, I didn’t get advance word,” he said. “So I’m just sitting there and was told I had to leave the room. I came back in and was really surprised. I was so humbled all I could say was ‘thank you.’”

A 1975 graduate of Belmont High School, where he played baseball and hockey, O’Brien joined the carpenters’ union and then “was eventually lucky” to get a job at Boston Gas.

His career as a baseball coach began in 1989 when he happened to run into a friend coaching Senior Babe Ruth in Winchester. The friend asked him to help coach the team and eventually asked O’Brien to sign on as an assistant coach at Winchester High, where he coached from 1990-93.

He happened to meet Lynnfield High coach Steve McBride, who asked him to help out in Lynnfield as an assistant. After serving in that role from 2002-04, McBride stepped down. O’Brien said he was just in the right place at the right time.

“Steve recommended me for the job and Bob Hassett, who was the principal, hired me,” O’Brien said. “It was just sheer luck.”

Since taking over the reins, O’Brien has collected 254 wins, but it’s the kids he’s coached since then who have provided O’Brien the most satisfaction.

“I’ve coached some pretty special teams and have had some great kids along the way,” said O’Brien, adding that he estimates that more than 100 of the players he has coached have gone on the play in colleges ranging from Ivy League schools like Columbia, Northeastern, Marist, Seton Hall, Bentley, Brandeis, Endicott, and nearly every school in the Massachusetts state college system.

“OB has been a longtime associate of mine going back to when he was with the JV team at Lynnfield and he’s very much deserving of being in the Hall of Fame,” said fellow Hall of Fame member Frank Carey, the longtime coach at North Reading High who is Massachusetts’ all-time leader in high school wins (736). “I’ve said this many times, but his biggest attribute besides being  a good coach is he always helps his kids who desire to play in college get there. He never oversells and does a great job making sure his kids end up at the right schools. He has a lot of connections all over New England and knows the kids need direction – and he gives them the direction they need.”

O’Brien joins Harry Jameson as the only Lynnfield coaches to be elected into the Hall. Jameson was a member of the Class of 2003.

“He was always very supportive of me and always came to the games,” O’Brien said. “We changed the name of the team MVP Award to his name. He meant the world to me.”

O’Brien said once the news leaked out, he got many calls from former coaches and players, some of whom plan to attend the Jan. 27 induction ceremony at the Sheraton Four Points Hotel in Wakefield.

“I’m looking forward to it,” O’Brien said. “I’ve been very lucky to have had great coaches. The high school staff has always been supportive of me and all my kids and have let me do my thing. It’s been terrific, but, honestly, most guys could take my place in a heartbeat. It’s been like a big fraternity that you don’t find in some of the other sports.”

The other members of the Class of 2024 are Kirk Fredericks (Lincoln-Sudbury/Wellesley), Charlie Eppinger (St. John’s Shrewsbury) and Steve Wilson (Harwich/Monomoy). The Hall of Fame was established in 1969.