The 2023 Running Baseball Thread

It was like in the offseason they said, “Give me all the available white guys!”

 

and Todd Helton is about to be

 

Sewell played at Alabama before the formation of the SEC (1917-19).
This has compelled me to look up how many former college players are in Cooperstown.

 

Probably not a ton from before about 1960 or '70, I'd guess. Seems like guys from the first half of the 20th century either went straight to baseball to feed their families; didn't have the option at all (like the Negro Leaguers); or college baseball programs were glorified intramural teams and simply didn't exist to develop players like they do now.

 

Poor Cubs.

 

Yep. It's amazing.
Lots of small colleges. East Central. Texas Wesleyan. Mansfield. Gettysburg. Dean.
The Big Ten and Pac 10-12 have seven Hall of Famers. Only one other league we call a Power 5 outfit can claim any. That's the SEC with the aforementioned Big Hurt. Sewell is the only other inductee to have played at a current SEC school. So no Florida Gators or LSU Tigers or Georgia Bulldogs or Mississippi State Bulldogs.
You wouldn't expect the Big 12 to have any because it's young, and it doesn't. But what's wild is the Big Eight had none, either. As to the Southwest Conference, there are no Longhorns in Cooperstown. The only SWC alum, I think, is Ted Lyons, who was a pitcher for Baylor's 1923 league championship team.
Nobody who played in the ACC is in the Hall. Only two people who played at current ACC schools are in there: Eppa Rixey of Virginia, who died one month after the vote and is the only person to die between election results day and inauguration/induction day; and Yaz, who played at Notre Dame. Rixey was a collegian in the 1910s.

 

There are a couple more from Power 5 schools who should be in, but are getting left out because of the steroid thing — Rafael Palmeiro (Mississippi State), Roger Clemens (Texas), Mark McGwire (USC) and Barry Bonds (Arizona State).
I'd have figured the modern era — from the last 30 years or so — would have produced more, once college baseball became a bigger deal. Especially from the SEC and Pac-12, which have several deep and talented teams. But I guess most of the more modern HOF-caliber players turned pro straight from high school or are foreign players.
Even looking at the top active players, the only one who pops out as sure HOFer from a Power 5 conference is Max Scherzer (Missouri). Might be a bar room brawl between the Big 12 and SEC on who gets to claim him.

 

Posey will end that ACC drought

 

Everything about that video is remarkable. Non-sequitorian Communist imagery, shit, but also glorious early 80s production value, Grade Z background vocals, Grace V lyrics, but a Grade AAA bass line that saves it from oblivion, an actor who clearly is more familiar with cricket than baseball, Bob Geldof was a lot cooler for cavorting about with a snake and smashing a clock repeatedly in slow motion than he ever was for his charitable works. Essential early 80s shlock.

 

Starting to wonder if watching the Giants lose to the Tigers in extra inning for two straight days says more about the Tigers or the Giants.

 

Those mid-80s Mississippi State teams with Palmero, Will Clark and Jeff Brantley were really the Big Bang as far as driving spectator interest in SEC baseball. Right after that is when Skip Bertram started taking LSU to Omaha every year. Alabama and Auburn both got really popular with big runs in the 90s before tailing off but by then the SEC tournament was fully established in Hoover as a spectacle and the likes of Ole Miss, South Carolina and Arkansas were becoming national powers with fan bases to match.

 

The Giants are missing Slater, Haniger and Pederson. The Tigers are last in the American League in batting average and slugging percentage, and that's with a "full" compliment of players (minus Austin Meadows). Other than perhaps Riley Greene, I don't think another player on the roster would start for any other team in the majors.

So randomness and luck are playing a major factor. Plus, it's payback for 2012. When almost 40-year-old Miguel Cabrera bounces a seeing-eye grounder through a drawn-in infield, that's not really a glowing endorsement. This team's on the 100-loss train.