Barry Bonds Honored As Member Of College World Series Legends Team
May 7, 2010: It may not help get him into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, but Barry Bonds has received a prestigious honor by being named to the official College World Series Legends Team.
The NCAA and College World Series, Inc., unveiled the 28 members of the Legends Team as part of the commemoration of the 2010 Men’s College World Series June 19-30. The series will be the final such event held at Omaha’s Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium, where the Men's College World Series has been played since 1950.
Beginning in 2011, the Men's College World Series will be held at TD Ameritrade Park, located in downtown Omaha, which is scheduled to open in Spring 2011.
Bonds played in the CWS for Arizona State in 1983-84, compiling an all-time top ten CWS batting average of .438 and setting a record with eight consecutive hits. He ranks as the all-time MLB leader with 762 home runs, including a single-seson record 73 in 2001, and won seven MVP awards, but his career has been tarnished by allegations of steroid use.
Voting for the team was based solely on the former student-athletes’ performance when they were competing in the NCAA College World Series, and not for any regular season or post-collegiate performances, according to the NCAA.
Among other players on the Legends Team who went on to outstanding MLB careers are Dave Winfield, Nomar Garciaparra, Fred Lynn, Robin Ventura, Burt Hooton, J.D. Drew, Sal Bando, Bob Horner and Will Clark. (Complete roster below.)
Also on the team is Dustin Ackley, who led North Carolina to the CWS 2007-08-09 and holds the all-time record with 28 hits. Ackley was taken No. 2 overall in the 2009 draft by the Seattle Mariners behind Stephen Strasburg, taken No. 1 by the Washington Nationals.
The members of the Legends Team are former student-athletes and coaches who had the best CWS performances throughout the 60 years the event has been played at Rosenblatt Stadium. The NCAA and College World Series said the honorees were chosen from an original list of 95 nominees after more than 100,000 votes were cast by college baseball fans, college baseball writers and Division I head baseball coaches.
Clark was the leading vote-getter with more than 3,000 votes; Winfield, who went on to play 23 seasons in the majors and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001, was second with just under 3,000 votes.
The 28 CWS Legends Team members will be invited to attend the final College World Series at Rosenblatt Stadium as guests of the NCAA. The members will be formally honored on the field during the CWS opening ceremonies June 18 and invited to attend the first day of CWS competition June 19.
A complete 28-card NCAA Legends Team set featuring the players and coaches in their college uniforms with college stats on the reverse can be downloaded at http://www.NCAA.com/cws.
“With the history of the College World Series and all the great players to have been involved in the event, it’s an honor to be named to the Legends Team,” said Ventura, who led his Oklahoma State team to consecutive College World Series appearances in 1986 and 1987 before embarking on a 16-year MLB career, ten of those seasons with the Chicago White Sox.
According to Garciaparra, former Georgia Tech shortstop who played 14 MLB seasons before retiring prior to the 2010 campaign, “It’s a great honor. I’ve always believed that one of my favorite experiences in baseball was the College World Series.”
COLLEGE WORLD SERIES LEGENDS