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Former Alabama All-American first baseman Dave Magadan, who led the Crimson Tide to the championship game of the 1983 College World Series, was elected to the College Baseball Hall of Fame as the top vote-getter in the 2010 class.
“Dave Magadan was an overwhelming choice for this year’s class,” said Mike Gustafson, Hall of Fame chairman and executive director of the College Baseball Foundation. “He put up amazing numbers during his college career and will be a wonderful addition to the Hall of Fame.”
Joining Magadan are Alan Bannister (SS, Arizona State), Bob Bennett (head coach, Fresno Stare), Eddy Furniss (1B, LSU), Don Heinkel (P, Wichita State), Wally Kincaid (head coach, Cerritos College), George Sisler (P/OF, Michigan), B.J. Surhoff (C, North Carolina), Charles Teague (2B, Wake Forest) and Richard Wortham (P, Texas).
Magadan had a stellar three-year career with the Crimson Tide, capped by a phenomenal junior season that saw him set the SEC single-season record with a .525 batting average. The Alabama junior shattered school and Southeastern Conference records that still stand today in becoming the 1983 Golden Spikes Award winner, presented annually by USA Baseball.
His .439 career batting average remains at the top of the Southeastern Conference career records.
It’s a new year, but the same old story for Auburn baseball. The Tigers are set to begin a season with designs on stopping an agonizing SEC Tournament drought that has cast a shadow on a program that was once one of the best in the business.
The Tigers have missed the tournament six straight seasons, a disturbing fact considering every other league team has been to the tournament at least twice in the same span. Auburn will try to lay the foundation for a run at the tournament when it opens the season at 3 p.m. today against Southeast Missouri State in Plainsman Park in Auburn.
“The people at Auburn deserve a lot more than what we’ve given them,” said first baseman Hunter Morris. “For a lot of us, this might be the last opportunity we have to do it.”
But Auburn, which finished 31-25 overall and 11-19 in the SEC last year, will have to begin its march without some of its key players. Shortstop Casey McElroy, who started all 56 games on the way to being named to a freshman All-American team last year, will miss the start of the season with a fractured finger. Auburn announced last week that outfielder Trent Mummey is out with a severely sprained ankle. They combined for 22 homers and 77 RBIs last season.
Auburn returns some of its big boppers, but there might be some change of strategy. The Tigers hit a school-record 103 homers last season, but also took themselves out of rallies by striking out 484 times.
“I do believe that those guys now understand the importance of it,” said coach John Pawlowski.
Auburn returns six starters, including .300 hitters in second baseman Justin Hargett and outfielder Brian Fletcher. Fletcher complemented last year’s .301 batting average with 17 homers. But one of the departed players is Joseph Sanders, who led Auburn with 19 home runs.
Junior college transfer Justin Fradejas will get the first chance to replace Mummey. Wes Gilmer and Dan Gamache will get a look at third base. Creede Simpson will get a shot in right.
The pitching staff returns its top winner in middle reliever Bradley Hendrix, who had seven wins with a 5.09 ERA, and Austin Hubbard, who had 12 saves.
The Tigers will start the season with a rotation of John Luke Jacobs, who was 3-4 with a 5.74 ERA, followed by veteran Grant Dayton (2-6, 5.92 ERA) and newcomer Cole Nelson, who was 4-2 with a 3.19 ERA at Des Moines Area Community College last season.
By Charles Goldberg — The Birmingham News
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PASADENA, Calif. — Texas played without its best player for nearly 56 minutes. There’s an asterisk.
And midway through the fourth quarter, Alabama started looking a lot like Phil Mickelson on the 18th tee at Winged Foot. The Crimson Tide played most of the second half like it had one foot on the trophy stage, nearly giving away an 18-point lead to a team playing a freshman backup quarterback.
It may not have been a fair fight, and it may not have been pretty. And someday, when the state of Alabama sobers up, when the echoes of the “Rammer Jammer” cheer fade from the Arroyo Seco and thoughts turn to next season, Crimson Tide fans still won’t give a damn.
In the end, it doesn’t matter how you won the crystal football, only that you won it. The record books will forever say that in the 2010 Citi BCS National Championship Game, Alabama defeated Texas 37-21.
On the Rose Bowl field, as the trophy presentation went on, someone asked SEC commissioner Mike Slive how he thought Alabama’s first national championship since 1992 would go over in his hometown of Birmingham.
“It was cold this morning,” Slive said. “But I understand it’s very warm in Birmingham tonight. My guess is it will get much warmer.”
Alabama has re-established itself as a colossus. It is easy to forget the long, painful struggle it took to get there. It has been 17 years that felt like 170; years marked by two NCAA probations, a narrow escape from the death penalty and one wrong coaching hire after another.
There were losses to Northern Illinois and Louisiana-Monroe. There were seven consecutive losses to Tennessee. Years later, there were six consecutive losses to Auburn.
No one at the Rose Bowl could have enjoyed this victory more than athletic director Mal Moore. Three years ago, Moore went all-in on Nick Saban, committing $32 million over eight years.
“It is really very difficult to express how proud I am of this team, of these coaches, in particular Coach Saban and the effort he has put into this program in the three years that he has been here,” Moore said.
Before the game, as Moore weaved through the crowd to get to the press box, he couldn’t walk 5 feet without grateful Tide fans stopping him to shake his hand.
“It’s so great to be here,” one fan said.
“Bless your heart,” said another.
“To reach this level with a national championship is quite remarkable,” Moore said after the game, “and it’s so fitting that we were honored to play in the Rose Bowl for the national championship. It’s so fitting for Alabama to accomplish that for the history of it, of many years gone by. Older generations remember that. Generations to come will remember this.”
The Crimson Tide put southern football on the map on this field 84 years ago by defeating Washington 20-19. The Alabama fans are a proud people, which is why the cleansing breath of redemption flowed throughout the Rose Bowl.
The coaches prior to Saban proved that Alabama can make a coach out of anyone. Mike DuBose, Dennis Franchione and Mike Shula each had one 10-win season. But the pressure of the job consumed each man. The same thing happened to Mike Price, hired in December 2002 and fired five months later.
Saban arrived three years ago, taking over a team that went 6-7. The team’s fifth-year seniors have stories to tell. As the Million Dollar Band played in the background, linebacker Cory Reamer tried to explain.
“It’s been a long process,” he said. “It’s been five long years. We’ve been up and we’ve been down. And I never would have imagined that we’d have a chance to get this victory today and be in this position. We appreciate every bit of it.”
“I don’t think there’s one word that encompasses the feelings you have when you’ve been on a journey like we have, and been through and seen the things we’ve seen,” All-American guard Mike Johnson said. “Coaching changes and seven-loss seasons [2006] and six-loss seasons [2007].”
“The good thing is, the only place you can go from there was up,” fullback Baron Huber said. “People say a lot of different things. Our coaches always had the belief that we could do this. We made it right. We learned from everything. I believe if we hadn’t gotten embarrassed by Utah [31-17] in the Sugar Bowl last year, we wouldn’t be here.”
The head coach who brought this joy to Alabama is not of Alabama. Saban is a West Virginian by birth. He cut his college football playing and coaching teeth in the Midwest. He won a national championship at LSU, one of Alabama’s biggest rivals. But in three years, Saban has come to understand the feelings that fuel the Crimson Nation.
“I’m really happiest for all the other people,” Saban said, “to see them so happy about what was accomplished.”
On a plaza outside of Bryant-Denny Stadium, there stand statues of Alabama’s four greatest coaches — Wallace Wade, Frank Thomas, Paul “Bear” Bryant and Gene Stallings. When Moore returns to Tuscaloosa, he said outside the locker room, he will recommend to Dr. Robert E. Witt, the university president, that a fifth statue be commissioned.
“Immediately?” someone asked.
“We’ll talk about that,” Moore said. “But yeah, hell yeah.
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