Society for American Baseball Research
Collegiate Baseball Committee Newsletter
August 2003 (03-4)

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

DENVER CONVENTION

We enjoyed the opportunity of meeting fellow committee members, prospective committee members and several hundred other SABR members who attended the national convention in July. Members of our committee who were in Denver included our coordinator Bruce Brown, Bob Andrews, Jean and Dan Ardell, Steve Krah, Bill Lamberty, Rod Nelson, Paul Rogers and Tom Zocco, among others. We are pleased to welcome as new committee members Herm Krabbenhoft, Bob Meisner, Jim Sandoval and Adam Ulrey.

During our collegiate committee meeting, we were able to update those present on future committee plans; upcoming publications of interest; and possible projects for the future. Rick also provided a visual presentation on the new database and how it can be used. There was also discussion on two ideas we feel are worthwhile for the future:

1.) Compiling a master list of all former major leaguers who have served as college baseball head coaches. Once an initial list is put together (player name, schools where they coached and years coached), we will send the list out. We would then like feedback from committee members on names left out, additions, corrections, etc. At some point, we will add the names of coaches to each school’s web page in our database. In addition to seeing the names of major league players at each school, you will also be able to see which players were head coaches at the school.

2.) Compiling a brief baseball history of each college, which would be added to a school’s web page. We certainly welcome help in writing these histories from each of you. Perhaps several of you have already done a history of your school’s program recently or would like to undertake writing it.

Both of the above projects will be ongoing for the next several years, most likely. Of course, we still want your input on fine-tuning information already on each school’s page, particularly a confirmation of years a man played on the school’s team.

WEBSITE UPDATE

As of mid-August, All NCAA Division II schools with major league players have now been posted on our website (www.ncaa-baseball.com/sabr). Work is underway on posting Division III schools with major leaguers. We anticipate that all D-III schools will be posted by December.

PUBLICATIONS UPDATE

Baseball America has published their Baseball Draft update book with a complete list of all draftees through the 2003 draft. The book is available from Baseball America for $29.95 plus shipping. We understand that a more extensive book on the draft is being planned by Baseball America in the future. A master alphabetical list of all draftees with the year(s), team(s) and round(s) would be included.

COLLEGE WORLD SERIES REPORT

Our webmaster, Jeremy Mills, a graduate of Rice University, had a chance to go to Omaha for two weeks and watch his alma mater win the 2003 NCAA national championship. We asked Jeremy to provide his thoughts on the CWS:

If the 2003 College World Series is remembered for just one thing, it will be for the number of batters hit by pitches during the fortnight. Rice pitcher Philip Humber hit three Longhorns in the 1st inning of the June 18th game – remarkably, no runs scored that inning. Texas was involved in three games that tied the old record for hit batters in a game for one team. Four Longhorns were hit in their opening game against Texas, four Owls were hit in Texas’ second game, and Owl pitchers plunked four Horns in their final meeting. That record was broken on June 19th when five Cal State Fullerton batters were hit by the Stanford pitching staff. And in a year where the wind uncharacteristically blew in for most of the Series, there were more hit batters (36) than home runs (32) in the sixteen-game tournament.

There were many other notable occurrences during college baseball’s 54th journey to Omaha to determine a national champion: