Society for American Baseball Research
Collegiate Baseball Committee Newsletter
February 2003 (03-1)

Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the position or official policy of SABR or its Collegiate Baseball Committee

The Collegiate Baseball Committee is pleased to announce that we have established our own webpage. Committee member Jeremy Mills has graciously agreed to serve as our webmaster. The website is www.ncaa-baseball.com/sabr. You will now be able to access the latest committee newsletter, committee announcements and, most of all, our research efforts. Within a few weeks, we will begin posting pages, college by college, of all major leaguers, past and present, who played at that school. You will note as you look at a school’s page that some information is “unknown” or “not yet confirmed”. If you can help us complete these items on a player, please let Rick know. We also invite your corrections, additions, subtractions and comments as we move forward.

It is our goal to have all colleges with at least one major leaguer posted by the end of this year. In addition to a listing of all major leaguers who played at a college, the page will list the years a man played for the school, his major league debut date and if he is a member of his school’s athletic hall of fame. We have also added information on the team nickname, the years that the school has had a varsity team and a history of the name of the college. The rest of the website will contain information on college ball, such as schedules, standings, records, etc. Please check the site on a regular basis. The first schools posted are in the Atlantic Coast Conference with others to follow according to their conference affiliation (Big 12, Pac-10, SEC, etc). As part of our commitment to making our research available, we will be advising sports information directors and coaches when their school’s information has gone on the website. Even though the website address says NCAA, we will eventually include NAIA, junior colleges and closed schools. We anticipate there will eventually be around 1,000 colleges represented with their own page.

We hope as many of you as possible will plan to attend the SABR national convention in Denver this summer. The Collegiate Baseball Committee will meet at 1:00PM for an hour on Friday afternoon, July 11th. In addition to various committee meetings, panels, a trivia contest, etc., the entire SABR group will attend the Colorado Rockies game at Coors Field on Friday night. Start making your plans now for this fun-filled baseball event.

Thanks to all of you who have given us feedback and encouragement. We also want to welcome those new committee members who have joined since our first newsletter went out in November. In particular, we would like to mention several committee members. G. Reed Howard provided us with a lengthy list of 19th century major leaguers who played on college teams. Rod Nelson has provided us with a lot of information and suggestions (as he has done for the SABR Scouts Committee). Bruce Brown deserves thanks for continuing to keep our e-mail network updated.

Several new members have shown interest in researching colleges in their areas, including Patrick Laverty (New England), Sue Fitzpatrick (California), Stan Berger (Vermont) and Joel Rippel (Minnesota).

Information Requests

C.W. Bevis of the SABR BioProject Committee has asked if any of our members know of legitimate college baseball All-American selections prior to 1947.If any committee members know of such lists or have copies, please let us know.

Luke Klinker, who works for the Durham Western Heritage Museum in Omaha, is gathering artifacts from the College World Series for a future display. If anyone would like to contribute materials, e-mail him at ljk7110@nebrwesleyan.edu.

Research Findings

As we continue our research, we have determined that the 1976 Arizona State team may well be the most productive squad ever in terms of providing major league players. The Sun Devils that year included Gary Allenson, Chris Bando, Floyd Bannister, Mike Colbern, Bob Horner, Dave Hudgens, Darrell Jackson, Ken Landreaux, Chris Nyman, Bobby Pate, Ricky Peters, Ken Phelps and Gary Rajsich. An incredible 13 major leaguers! The Baseball America book “The Baseball Draft: The First 25 Years” states that 26 of the 27 men on the roster were selected in the amateur draft at least once during their college careers.

Here’s a note of interest on a school that didn’t start playing college ball until 1976. Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina was established as a junior college in 1954 and, after achieving four year status, fielded its first team in 1976. What is unusual is that all five of their major league players were born in New York state: Mickey Brantley (Catskill), Tom Romano (Syracuse), Kirt Manwaring (Elmira), Luis Lopez (Brooklyn) and Keith Glauber (Brooklyn).

Publications News

Just out is The Baseball Blue Book’s 2003 College Baseball Guide, which is spiral bound and 400 pages. There are details on every college program’s coaches, baseball SID contacts and schedule. All 2002 professional players are listed by college attended (even the junior colleges). The guide is $21.95 plus $5.00 for shipping/handling. You can call them at (800)473-9289 or check their website: www.baseballbluebook.com.

Committee member W.C. “Bill” Madden of Fishers, IN has announced his “College World Series Record Book” will be available in March but the number of copies is limited to 100. The book will contain all CWS records from 1947 to 2002. The cost is $9.95 plus $5 for shipping/handling. You can call him at (317)842-9856 or contact him via e-mail at wmadden@peoplepc.com. His website is www.baseballstoriesforthesoul.com.

One of this committee’s goals for a number of years has been the publication of a book on the College World Series. We have found out that Bill Madden has a contract with McFarland Publishing to produce a history of the College World Series. The scheduled publication date is 2005 and will include details on the 2003 CWS. Bill is looking for photos of leading players on the championship teams and can be contacted at the e-mail address in the above paragraph.