50 Fun Facts About College Baseball

Which future US president played first base for Yale in the first two College World Series?

George H. W. Bush was Yale's captain, and he was waiting on deck when California recorded the final out of the 1947 series.

Which four-sport UCLA letterman hit just .097 in one college baseball season before reaching the Hall of Fame?

Jackie Robinson was better known at UCLA for football, yet in his first baseball game there he went 4-for-4 and stole home twice.

Unlike wood-only pro leagues, college baseball hitters since the mid-1970s mostly swing bats made of which metal?

Aluminum bats send the ball off faster than wood, so in 2011 the NCAA tightened its bat rules to make metal perform more like timber.

Which Hall of Fame hitter coached San Diego State's baseball team for 12 seasons in a ballpark named after him?

Tony Gwynn went back to his alma mater and coached future No. 1 draft pick Stephen Strasburg. On his own draft day in 1981, both the Padres and the NBA's Clippers selected him.

Which Oklahoma Sooner did the Oakland Athletics draft ninth overall in 2018, months before he won the Heisman Trophy?

Kyler Murray took a $4.66 million signing bonus from Oakland, then chose the NFL anyway, becoming the first player drafted in the first round of both sports.

Which future Yankees great pitched and played first base for Columbia before signing a pro contract in 1923?

Lou Gehrig also played fullback for Columbia's football team, and left for the Yankees after two years of engineering classes.

Coastal Carolina, 2016 national champion, takes which nickname from a rooster in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales?

Chanticleers was picked when the school was an extension of the University of South Carolina, to sit alongside the parent campus's own fighting bird.

Which pitcher transferred from Air Force to LSU, won the 2023 national title, then went first overall in the MLB draft?

Paul Skenes and LSU outfielder Dylan Crews went first and second in 2023, the first college teammates ever taken with the top two picks.

Which Richard Linklater comedy follows the lives of Texas college baseball players in the fall of 1980?

Everybody Wants Some!! draws on Linklater's own experiences at Sam Houston State in Texas, and the director has called it a spiritual sequel to Boyhood.

Which Minnesota pitcher was named 1973 College World Series MVP, then drafted by four teams in three different sports?

Dave Winfield was even picked by the NFL's Minnesota Vikings, though he never played a down of college football.

Which ballpark hosted the College World Series from 1950 through 2010 before its site became a zoo parking lot?

Rosenblatt Stadium was bought by the neighboring Henry Doorly Zoo and torn down by 2013, though a mini-ballpark memorial marks the spot where it stood.

Which USC coach won 11 national titles, including five straight, and later coached the actors in Field of Dreams?

Rod Dedeaux took a salary of just $1 a year from USC because his trucking business paid the bills, and in 1999 he was named Coach of the Century.

Which award, created by USA Baseball in 1978, goes each year to the best amateur baseball player in the United States?

Golden Spikes Award winners include Bob Horner, who took the first one in 1978, went first overall in the draft and was MLB's Rookie of the Year the same season.

Which Michigan pitcher, born without a right hand, became the first baseball player to win the Sullivan Award in 1987?

Jim Abbott pitched the final game as the United States won the 1988 Olympic baseball tournament, then threw a no-hitter for the Yankees against Cleveland in 1993.

Which Florida State catcher, later a Giants MVP, played all nine positions and hit a grand slam in one 2008 game?

Buster Posey struck out both batters he faced as a pitcher that day, in a 10–0 win over Savannah State.

Which future 70-home-run slugger played at USC as a teammate of pitcher Randy Johnson before the 1984 Olympics?

Mark McGwire was The Sporting News college player of the year in 1984, and the Oakland Athletics drafted him tenth overall that summer.

Which future seven-time Cy Young winner was on the mound when Texas won the 1983 College World Series?

Roger Clemens went 25–7 in two All-American seasons and became the first player to have his baseball number retired by the University of Texas.

Which coach won national titles at both Cal State Fullerton and Texas, and once cut Kevin Costner from his team?

Augie Garrido stayed friends with Costner, who later cast him as the New York Yankees manager in the film For Love of the Game.

Which school's Dudy Noble Field is known for the Left Field Lounge, the fan area beyond the outfield fence?

Mississippi State alumnus John Grisham wrote about his days in the Left Field Lounge for a book on the ballpark, and ESPN Magazine once called the lounge the country's best tailgating experience.

Long Beach State's baseball team took which nickname from the rough Pony League field where the 1989 squad practiced?

Dirtbags is used only for baseball, since every other Long Beach State team is officially known as the Beach.

The first two College World Series, in 1947 and 1948, were played in which Michigan city before the event moved west?

Kalamazoo staged the event at Hyames Field before it spent 1949 in Wichita, Kansas, and settled in Omaha the year after.

Which best-of-three round, added in 1999, sends its eight winners on to the College World Series in Omaha?

Super regionals arrived when the field grew to 64 teams. Each one pairs two first-round winners, usually at the home park of the higher seed.

Each four-team regional in the NCAA baseball tournament, like both brackets in Omaha, is played under which format?

Double elimination alternates with best-of-three series all the way through, so a team can lose four games in total and still be crowned champion.

Top college players spend their summers swinging wood bats in which showcase, the setting of the film Summer Catch?

The Cape Cod League counts more than 1,000 former players who went on to the majors, and for a time it was the only college summer league that had given up metal bats.

Skip Bertman's 1997 LSU Tigers, who hit 188 home runs in 70 games, earned which nickname for their slugging style?

Gorilla ball summed up an era when juiced metal bats sent balls flying out of parks, and the 1997 Tigers rode it to a second straight national title.

Which school won the 2008 College World Series as a No. 4 regional seed, the lowest seed ever to take the title?

Fresno State beat Georgia in the final. A No. 4 regional seed is roughly the equal of a 13 seed or lower in the NCAA basketball tournament.

Which SEC school went from the last team admitted to the 2022 NCAA tournament field to national champion?

Ole Miss had never even reached the championship series before, then swept Oklahoma in two games to complete its last-to-first run.

Which SEC school was one out from the 2018 national title when a foul pop-up dropped between three fielders?

Arkansas led 3–2 with two outs in the ninth when the ball fell between three Razorbacks. Oregon State rallied to win that game and then the deciding one.

Which Yankees slugger turned down offers to play tight end at Notre Dame and UCLA to concentrate on college baseball?

Aaron Judge preferred baseball, and after his college career in California the Yankees took him with the 32nd pick of the 2013 draft.

Which Michigan State All-American wide receiver played just one season of college baseball before a long MLB career?

Kirk Gibson only tried the sport at the suggestion of his football coach, then batted .390 with 16 home runs in 48 games.

Which Oklahoma State third baseman hit safely in 58 straight games in 1987, shattering the Division I record of 47?

Robin Ventura was a three-time All-American for the Cowboys and also led Division I in runs batted in two years in a row.

Which Tennessee slugger, college baseball's 1995 player of the year, was a quarterback ahead of freshman Peyton Manning?

Todd Helton was playing quarterback for the Volunteers in 1994 when a knee injury brought on Manning, who went on to break several records.

Which slugger won amateur baseball's top award in 2010 as a 17-year-old at the College of Southern Nevada?

Bryce Harper left high school after his sophomore year and earned a GED to get there early, playing in a conference that used wooden bats.

Which two-time Cy Young Award winner was exclusively a shortstop in his first two seasons at Stetson?

Jacob deGrom only began pitching in his third college year, first as Stetson's closer while he was still playing shortstop.

Which future Dodgers ace went to Cincinnati as a basketball walk-on before baseball scouts noticed his pitching?

Sandy Koufax was mainly a basketball player in his youth and had pitched in only a few games before he signed with Brooklyn at age 19.

Which university produced No. 1 overall draft picks David Price and Dansby Swanson under coach Tim Corbin?

Vanderbilt won its first national title in 2014, when Swanson was the College World Series Most Outstanding Player a year before the draft made him the top pick.

Which Texas school, coached by Wayne Graham, won the 2003 College World Series for its first team national title?

Rice beat the Texas Longhorns twice along the way, behind a rotation of three sophomores: Jeff Niemann, Wade Townsend and Philip Humber.

Which Florida State shortstop, later manager of the 1985 champion Royals, is honored by college baseball's top trophy?

Dick Howser was twice an All-American shortstop for the Seminoles, whose ballpark also carries his name. The trophy was created after he died of brain cancer in 1987, aged 51.

Which Washington State star, famous for fielding in a batting helmet, gives his name to the two-way player award?

John Olerud wore the helmet after surgery for a brain aneurysm he suffered in college at age twenty, and still won three Gold Gloves at first base.

Which university's ballpark, Sunken Diamond, sits in a hollow left by digging dirt for the football stadium next door?

Stanford dug the hollow in 1921 and opened the baseball field in it a decade later; batters there face south, an unorthodox alignment.

Which Oklahoma State slugger hit 48 home runs in 1985, then reached the majors without playing a minor league game?

Pete Incaviglia also drove in 143 runs that year. After Montreal drafted him he refused to spend a day in the minors and was traded to the Texas Rangers.

Which Arizona State outfielder was the very first player chosen in Major League Baseball's first amateur draft in 1965?

Rick Monday went to the Kansas City Athletics, who with no rival clubs to bid against signed him for a bonus of only $104,000.

Which Florida State coach retired with a Division I record 2,029 wins despite never winning a national title?

Mike Martin took the Seminoles to 17 College World Series in 40 seasons and was the first coach in the sport to reach 2,000 victories.

Texas outlasted which ACC school 3–2 in a 25-inning regional in 2009, the longest game in NCAA baseball history?

Boston College held the Longhorns for more than seven hours before the marathon was finally settled by a single run.

Which New England college, also the 1947 NCAA basketball champion, won the 1952 College World Series?

Holy Cross, coached by Jack Barry, is among the few schools to have won NCAA championships in both baseball and basketball.

Which college beat Williams 73–32 in 1859 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in the first intercollegiate baseball game?

Amherst won a contest unlike the modern sport: the first nine-man college game under the Knickerbocker Rules came four months later in New York.

Which Miami coach, nicknamed the Wizard of College Baseball, won national titles in 1982 and 1985?

Ron Fraser also managed the United States at the 1992 Olympics, the first Games where baseball was an official medal sport, with a squad of college players.

Which acronym names the standard that metal bats must meet in college baseball, limiting the speed of the batted ball?

BBCOR stands for Batted Ball Coefficient of Restitution. The cap exists because pitchers cannot protect themselves when the ball leaves the bat too fast.

Which LSU ballpark is named for a Tiger letterman killed in North Africa during World War II?

Alex Box Stadium honors Simeon Alex Box, a 1942 letterman and Purple Heart recipient. Its playing field carries coach Skip Bertman's name.

Which LSU infielder won the 1996 College World Series with a two-out, ninth-inning home run, his only one that season?

Warren Morris had missed 42 games that year with a broken hamate bone, and his shot off Miami's first pitch cleared the fence by inches for a 9–8 win.