College Baseball Hall of Fame elects 10

Print

College Baseball Hall of Fame elects 10
04/26/2006 2:43 PM ET
Associated Press

Dave Winfield is a Hall of Famer again, this time for his pitching and slugging excellence back when he was the big man on campus.
The former University of Minnesota star, enshrined in Cooperstown after even greater success in the major leagues, was among 10 former players and coaches elected Wednesday as the College Baseball Hall of Fame's inaugural class.
Winfield was joined by fellow former big leaguers Will Clark (Mississippi State), Bob Horner (Arizona State), Brooks Kieschnick (Texas) and Robin Ventura (Oklahoma State) as the other players selected.
The late Rod Dedeaux, who helped Southern California win 11 College World Series titles -- including an unprecedented five straight from 1970-74 -- headlined the list of coaches included in the hall's first class.
Also elected were LSU's Skip Bertman, Miami's Ron Fraser, Texas' Cliff Gustafson and Arizona State's Bobby Winkles.
"In talking to the guys elected, several of them were emotional about it," said John Askins, chairman and CEO of the College Baseball Foundation, which established the hall. "Many of them said this would probably be the highest honor they would achieve in their careers."
The honorees were the top 10 vote-getters from a list of 34 nominees, selected by an 80-member committee consisting of current and retired head coaches, former players, NCAA commissioners, sports information directors and media. Voting was based solely on players' and coaches' college achievements.
"This is really very special because it's the first class," Askins said. "I think this is very important for the sport of college baseball, and important for their respective universities."
The inaugural class will be honored during a two-day celebration in Lubbock, Texas - the site of the new hall. The hall of fame museum will be part of a new baseball stadium complex, which will be built on the campus of Texas Tech and is scheduled to open before the 2008 season.
Winfield, who never played in the Minors and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001, went 19-4 with a 2.24 ERA and 229 strikeouts in 169 innings in his three-year career as a pitcher and outfielder with the Golden Gophers. A few days after being picked as the Most Outstanding Player of the 1973 College World Series, Winfield made his Major League debut with the San Diego Padres and was on his way to becoming a 12-time All-Star slugger.
Clark honed his sweet swing at Mississippi State and helped lead the 1985 team that included future big leaguers Rafael Palmeiro, Jeff Brantley and Bobby Thigpen to the College World Series. Clark, the 1985 Golden Spikes Award winner, still holds the school career record with a .391 batting average.
Clark spent parts of two seasons in the Minors. In 1985, he played for Class A Fresno, batting .309 with 10 homers and 48 RBIs in 217 at-bats. He played six games the following years for Phoenix before getting the call to the Giants.
Horner, one of the Majors' top sluggers in the early 1980s, helped lead the Sun Devils to the national title and was the tournament's Most Outstanding Player in 1977. He was the first Golden Spikes winner the following season, and the top overall draft pick by the Atlanta Braves. Like Winfield, Horner never played in the Minors.
Kieschnick was one of college baseball's most versatile players, hitting .360 with 43 homers and 215 RBIs and going 34-8 with a 3.05 ERA for Texas from 1991-93.
He played 11 seasons in the Minors with stops in Daytona, Orlando, Iowa, St. Petersburg, Durham, Edmonton, Louisville, Colorado Springs and Indianapolis. Last year, he played with Corpus Christi and Round Rock. In all, he won three games as a pitcher, while as a hitter he batted .277 with 151 homers and 518 RBIs.
Ventura gained national recognition in 1987 with a 58-game hitting streak -- still a Division I record -- and had a career batting average of .428 at Oklahoma State. The 1988 Golden Spikes winner went on to a 16-year Major League career. He played one season in the Minors, in 1989, for Birmingham, where he batted .278 with three homers and 67 RBIs.
Players are eligible for the hall five years after their final college season, and can't be active at any level of professional baseball. Coaches are eligible after they end their college careers, but can't be active as coaches at the pro level.
Dedeaux won 1,332 games from 1942-86 and retired as the winningest coach in Division I history. He coached nearly 60 future big leaguers, including Mark McGwire, Randy Johnson, Tom Seaver, Dave Kingman, Fred Lynn and Roy Smalley. Dedeaux, who died in January at 91, had winning seasons in 41 of his 45 years with the Trojans.
Bertman led LSU to five College World Series titles -- in 1991, '93, '96, '97 and 2000 -- in 18 seasons before retiring from coaching in 2001 and becoming the school's athletic director.
Fraser won 1,271 games at Miami from 1962-92, including national titles in 1982 and '85. He was nicknamed "The Wizard of College Baseball" for his innovative marketing and promotional plans that helped fill the stands at Coral Gables.
Gustafson guided the Longhorns to College World Series titles in 1975 and `83, and had surpassed Dedeaux as the winningest coach in Division I history when he retired in 1996 with 1,427 victories.
Winkles took over Arizona State's program when it was first elevated to varsity status in 1959 and led the Sun Devils to the national title just five years later. He won two more College World Series titles in 1967 and '69, before leaving in 1971 to manage in the Majors for four years.
Later this year, the voting committee will also select two pre-1947 players or coaches for induction from a 12-man list that includes Lou Gehrig (Columbia), Christy Mathewson (Bucknell) and Joe Sewell (Alabama).
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues or its clubs.