July 6, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. – Since USA Baseball began selecting players and operating an official National Team to represent the United States in 1984, over 400 collegiate players have donned the Red, White, and Blue uniform from 117 colleges and universities across the country.
But there have clearly been five campuses that have consistently produced more USA Baseball National Team players and candidates than any others: Stanford, Georgia Tech, Southern California, Miami-FL, & Cal State Fullerton. Those five collegiate baseball powerhouses continued to top the list in a study updated by USA Baseball that ranks the Top 50 Collegiate Baseball programs that have produced USA Baseball National Team players, since 1984.
The most impressive statistic was the fact that the Stanford Cardinal had placed a member of their roster on the USA Baseball National Team for a staggering 18 consecutive summers dating back to 1986. However, that run came to an end with the announcement this past week of the 2005 National Team roster, in which no Cardinal players were selected. But Stanford is still at the top of the list having had a player selected in 19 of 22 summers, and they have produced a total of 24 National Team members – seven more than Georgia Tech.
After the 2005 USA Baseball National Team players were added to the list, several schools moved up in the rankings, most notably the Ramblin Wreck – who moved into 2nd all-time as infielder Wes Hodges and freshman Matt Wieters made the roster. The University of Miami moved into 3rd with outfielder Jon Jay and pitcher Chris Perez making the squad. Southern California and Cal State Fullerton rounded out the top five, each garnering one player each on this year’s Team USA.
The Texas Longhorns moved into a tie for 8th with Arizona State, trailing Florida State & Clemson, while Tennessee moved into 13th, and Rice moved up to 16th by having both infielder Josh Rodriguez and pitcher Joe Savery make the ’05 squad. Also moving up this year were: Arizona (T-18), Missouri (T-29), Florida (T-29), Virginia (T-35), and Vanderbilt (T-43). Oregon State University became the 117th school to have a player represented on the National Team, when pitchers Jonah Nickerson and Kevin Gunderson were selected this year.
In the study, USA Baseball calculates three main categories, and then adds up the three numbers for the school’s grand total. View the entire list of the Top 50 schools.
