Lou Boudreau was the captain of Illinois’ 1937 basketball team. A decade later Robin Roberts was the captain at Michigan State. Dave Winfield was a star forward on Minnesota’s 1972 Big Ten championship team. Charlie Gehringer lettered in basketball at the University of Michigan.
Today all four of those players are in the Hall of Fame.
No, not the Basketball Hall of f=Fame. None of them ever played basketball seriously after their college days. Each of them has a plaque in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Frank Howard (Ohio State) and Dick Radatz (Michigan State) weren’t Hall of Famers, but both had successful baseball careers that included multiple All Star Game appearances. Both played college basketball before turning to baseball.
That’s basketball, Now let’s consider football.
Tom Haller was a quarterback at Illinois. Ted Kluszewski was a two-way lineman at Indiana. Bill Freehan played linebacker at Michigan. Steve Garvey (strong safety) and Kirk Gibson (wide receiver) played at Michigan State. Moose Skowron enrolled Purdue intending to play football and baseball but changed his mind and decided to focus only on baseball.
Every one of the had a long and productive career in major league baseball.
Yes, there is another list.
Barry Larkin (Michigan), Paul Molitor (Minnesota) and George Sisler (Michigan) are Hall of Famers. None of them was ever associated with any other sport at the collegiate level. Neither were Ron Perranoski (Michigan State), Jim Sundberg (Iowa), Ken Holtzman (Illinois) and Harvey Kuenn (Wisconsin).
The conclusion is this: There is a glittering list of baseball players who have come from Big Ten universities, but more than half of them are people who came to the school in order to play a “revenue” sport. Baseball was often an afterthought. Baseball is typically an afterthought in the Big Ten.
After all, the conference stretches across America’s snow belt. Most of its baseball games are played in the early spring when the weather is usually cold, damp and windy and the grandstands are nearly empty.
Despite the glittering list of stars that have graced Big Ten diamonds, there have been very few glittering teams. Sixty years have passed since the last Big Ten team won a national championship.
That’s six decades. During those 60 years only 13 Big Ten teams even qualified for the College World Series, which is college baseball’s final eight. Two other Big Ten schools — Nebraska (3) and Penn State (1) — reached the CWS but neither was a Big Ten school when it did.
But, if we take the entire conference as currently constructed, the Big Ten can boast 17 CWS appearances and zero championships in the last 60 years. Okay, there’s probably a better verb for that sentence than “boast.”
But let’s look at next year. Next year those numbers will be much different.
Next year Southern California, UCLA, Oregon and Washington will be Big Ten schools. Next year the Big Ten will be able to claim 35 CWS appearances and 11 championships in the last 60 years. Next year the baseball picture in the Big Ten will be radically different than it is today.
The four newcomers hail from milder climates and at least three of them take their baseball very seriously. The incumbent members of the conference are going to be hard-pressed to compete with them.
I thought of all that last weekend, as I watched a Rutgers-Nebraska game on television, I also thought of my days as a student at Rutgers. Back then a big game — if there was one — was likely to be against somebody like Lafayette or Delaware. Nobody could have dreamed that the day would come when Rutgers would be part of the Big Ten and would routinely host schools such as Nebraska, Ohio State or Michigan.
I haven’t wrapped my head around that yet, and now I’m trying to digest the notion that UCLA and Oregon will be sending their baseball teams to Piscataway.
And — uh — Southern California, too. Can you believe that? The mighty Trojans own 12 national championships. They’ve produced players like Randy Johnson, Tom Seaver, Ralph Kiner, Fred Lynn, Mark McGwire, Barry Zito, Dave Kingman and dozens of others. They’re going to be in the same conference as the Scarlet Knights. At some point they’re even going to be in the same ballpark.
Bear with me for a moment while I gasp.
Give me another moment while I gasp again. Or, perhaps, I’ll just faint and get it over with.
Somebody else might faint, too. The schedule-maker has to know they’re not going to please everybody. They have to know that whatever they do, it won’t make any sense. There’s no sense to be made of a league consisting of 17 schools scattered from coast to coast.
The Big Ten, like every major conference, plays its league games on weekends when each team can play a three-game series against its assigned rival. Each team plays 24 games over a nine-week span, which means it plays eight weekend series. That much will probably stay the same.
If it does, that means each team will get to play only eight of its 16 conference rivals in any given year. That would probably mean that Rutgers will play UCLA and Southern California no more than once every two years and possibly less frequently than that.
There’s no point in planning the schedule too far ahead. There is plenty of speculation that the Big Ten is getting ready to expand some more.
North Carolina is believed to be ready to plunge into the conference and, if it does, that will add another quality baseball program. There’s a chance that Florida State, a traditional baseball powerhouse, will come on board as well. Media speculation suggests that Clemson, Duke, Virginia, Notre Dame, Utah and SMU are all under consideration.
I think I need another gasp break.
SMU doesn’t have a baseball program, but most of the others have good ones. The day might be coming when Big Ten baseball is something to behold. If it does, Rutgers will at least be a small part of it.
The days when a Rutgers-Delaware game is a big deal are long past.
A FEW STATISTICS (Wednesday’s games not included): On Tuesday Ranger Suarez of the Phillies became only the second pitcher to log a complete game. The first was Ronel Blanco of the Astros, who threw a no-hitter … The White Sox have a 2-14 record. This is the 125th season in franchise history. They got off to a better start than that in every one of the first 124 years … Paul Blackburn has made three starts for the Athletics. After 19 1/3 innings his ERA is still 0.00 … Mike Trout of the Angels has seven home runs in 17 games, but he has only 10 RBIs … The Tigers bullpen has a combined 8-2 record and an ERA of 1.70 … Bryce Harper of the Phillies leads the majors in only one category — he has grounded into six double plays … Three players share the lead in walks with 16 apiece. Two of them are Yankees teammates Aaron Judge and Juan Soto … Tyler O’Neill of the Red Sox has hit seven homers but has no doubles or triples … Kyle Hendricks of the Cubs has allowed seven homers in 17 innings. Six of the blasts have come on the road … The Royals are 20-for-23 in stolen bases … Marcel Ozuna of the Braves has driven in 22 runs. That’s 10 more than any other designated hitter … Michael Siani of the Cardinals has been to bat only 18 times. Nevertheless, he leads the majors in sacrifice bunts with three … The Guardians are 9-2 on the road but only 3-3 at home … Last year, with the Brewers, Jesse Winkler batted .199. The year before, with the Mariners, he batted .219. This year he’s with the Nationals and his average is .373. He leads the majors in on-base percentage with a .500.
Former Hall of Fame voter Jay Dunn has written baseball for The Trentonian for 56 years. Contact him at jaydunn8@aol.com
