March 29, 2024

All-College Teams (A Rosenblatt Farewell)

June 29, 2010 by · Leave a Comment 

Before I begin, I’d like to thank Mike Lynch for this opportunity to contribute to Seamheads. It’s great to be a part of this amazing lineup of contributors.

I live in Omaha, Nebraska, home of Rosenblatt Stadium and the College World Series. The final CWS game to ever be played at Rosenblatt will be either tonight or tomorrow night (depending on tonight’s outcome). I figured that this would be a perfect opportunity to add College data and All-College Teams to The Baseball Gauge.

Prior to compiling the numbers, it was safe to assume that schools such as Southern Cal, Arizona State, Texas, Florida State, and Stanford would dominate the leaderboards. That was no surprise upon viewing the final totals. What I believe is most interesting are the small schools that have only produced a handful of Major Leaguers in their entire history.

St. Joseph’s College in Renssalaer, Indiana has had a baseball team for 75 years, and has probably fielded hundreds of players in that time. Out of all of those players to wear a Puma uniform, just ONE player has ever become a Major Leaguer, Gil Hodges. No one else has ever made a Major League appearance while Hodges was the best first baseman of the 1950’s. There are a number of instances similar to this, for example…

  • David Justice / Thomas More College
  • Mike Hargrove / NW Oklahoma State University
  • Bill White / Hiram College

The following are two lists which show the top schools of All-Time and the top schools up until 1919. Notice the difference between the two and the number of Ivy League schools in the second list. These days, a big deal is made if a player comes from the Ivy League, while it was commonplace for a “College Boy” to come from the Ivy League in the Dead Ball Era.

The Top 20 Schools of All-Time according to Win Shares:

# School
Mascot
City
State
Players
WS
1 University of Southern California
Trojans
Los Angeles
CA
100
4,491.1
2 Arizona State University
Sun Devils
Tempe
AZ
94
4,420.6
3 University of Michigan
Wolverines
Ann Arbor
MI
77
3,083.3
4 University of California, Los Angeles
Bruins
Los Angeles
CA
67
2,863.7
5 Saint Mary’s College of California
Gaels
Moraga
CA
62
2,844.0
6 University of Texas at Austin
Longhorns
Austin
TX
101
2,709.3
7 University of Notre Dame
Fighting Irish
South Bend
IN
71
2,709.2
8 University of California
Golden Bears
Berkeley
CA
55
2,033.7
9 Louisiana State University
Tigers
Baton Rouge
LA
62
2,028.6
10 Stanford University
Cardinal
Palo Alto
CA
85
1,999.5
11 Mississippi State University
Bulldogs
Starkville
MS
42
1,954.9
12 University of Alabama
Crimson Tide
Tuscaloosa
AL
62
1,928.2
13 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Fighting Illini
Champaign
IL
69
1,868.9
14 Fordham University
Rams
Bronx
NY
56
1,817.6
15 Oklahoma State University
Cowboys
Stillwater
OK
51
1,817.0
16 San Diego State University
Aztecs
San Diego
CA
37
1,802.3
17 Georgia Institute of Technology
Yellow Jackets
Atlanta
GA
45
1,764.0
18 University of Arizona
Wildcats
Tucson
AZ
67
1,741.2
19 University of Tennessee
Volunteers
Knoxville
TN
39
1,722.8
20 College of the Holy Cross
Crusaders
Worcester
MA
77
1,640.1


The Top 20 Schools during the 19th Century and Deadball Era
(1871-1919)

#
School
Mascot
City
State
Players
WS
1 College of the Holy Cross
Crusaders
Worcester
MA
45
1,093.2
2 University of Pennsylvania
Quakers
Philadelphia
PA
34
527.5
3 University of Notre Dame
Fighting Irish
South Bend
IN
33
1,458.2
4 Brown University
Bears
Providence
RI
31
700.3
5 Saint Mary’s College of California
Gaels
Moraga
CA
26
1,378.9
6 Fordham University
Rams
Bronx
NY
26
919.9
7 Villanova University
Wildcats
Villanova
PA
25
618.6
8 Georgetown University
Hoyas
Washington
DC
24
776.0
9 Manhattan College
Jaspers
Riverdale
NY
19
283.0
10 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Fighting Illini
Champaign
IL
18
501.0
11 Bucknell University
Bison
Lewisburg
PA
18
927.0
12 Santa Clara University
Broncos
Santa Clara
CA
16
469.3
13 Princeton University
Tigers
Princeton
NJ
15
51.6
14 Tufts University
Jumbos
Medford
MA
13
30.4
15 University of Michigan
Wolverines
Ann Arbor
MI
13
343.4
16 Dartmouth College
Big Green
Hanover
NH
12
110.3
17 Yale University
Bulldogs
New Haven
CT
12
256.3
18 Boston College
Eagles
Chestnut Hill
MA
12
340.0
19 Pennsylvania State University
Nittany Lions
State College
PA
12
749.2
20 University of Maryland
Terrapins
College Park
MD
11
417.1

A special note: This data only includes each player’s stats from their time in the Major Leagues. A few players may have attended a school without playing on the Baseball team but are still included. Raw College data can be found at The Baseball Databank

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