College baseball's worst, 2008

Don't ask me why; I just wanna know.

The worst I have found purely for record is Division I Coppin State, which finished the year at a gaudy 4-52 (team batting average .225; team ERA 11.72, with 10 of 14 pitchers used over 10).

Anything worse than that down in the lower levels?

 

D'Youville College, Buffalo, NY. Division III, Northeastern Athletic Conference.

Record: 1-30.
Team average: .218
Opponents' average: .417
Team ERA: 11.58
Outscored 439-86 (during a schedule of 30 seven-inning games and only one nine-inning game).
One HR.
Allowed 20 or more runs seven times (29-2, 26-8, 24-0 (twice), 24-1, 21-3 and 21-0).

 

I saw them play last year. The numbers don't do them justice.

They had about 11 guys on the roster. They took two vans to the game...I can imagine that got real old on the New Jersey Turnpike. Their shortstop made David Eckstein look tall and buff...and he ended up coming on to pitch in the second inning of one of the games. At least two games were called due to the mercy rule. They were non-competitive and just got their asses handed to them by a progra, that wasn't and isn't very good. it was really, really brutal.

There is a real interesting feature story/state of the game among African-Americans there, though: The traditionally African-American school had several Caucasians on the roster.

EDIT: Holy shit. The 4-52 mark represented a gigantic improvement. They were 0-44 last year. that's right. 0-44.

http://www.coppinstatesports.com/multimedia/docs/CSU_quickfacts_BB08.doc

Look at those stats. Holy shit. And look at how many underclassmen they lost from '07.

 

According to the schedule you linked, there was a four-day stretch when they played games at Jackson State, Southern, Grambling and Alabama State. Lewis and Clark got more downtime on the road than that.

 

BYH, it's not just Coppin State -- all of the HBCUs have lots of whites and latinos on their teams because there are simply not enough black kids playing baseball to fill out the rosters. I'm pretty sure the coach for Bethune-Cookman (if I'm remembering the right school) recruits heavily in Puerto Rico now because it's the only way for them to get some good players.

In fact, just looked up the roster (so i didn't look like an assclown if i was wrong):

http://bccathletics.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/mtt/beth-m-basebl-mtt.html

 

Yes Mervyl Melendez took Bethune-Cookman to the Oxpatch Regional a couple years back. Pretty sharp cat.

Gave a good account of themselves, played the Confederates pretty tough.

 

I read a few articles about the lack of African-Americans playing college baseball at HBCUs about 18 months ago (I can't recall who wrote it). It's sobering to see the major drop-off and interest of baseball among African-Americans. I love the game and still play it when my joints isn't locking up, but it does feel lonely to head out to watch the AAA team here in Des Moines, and I'm the only brother among 9,000 who's watching.

But I have to take into account that the reality is that football and basketball are the top two sports being played. I'll save that debate for another day. Anyhow, back to the article I read, many HBCU alums and administrators were at first against recruiting or bringing any non-black students to campus to play athletics. When some schools began to realize that in order to field teams and stay competitive in their conferences, it became a no-brainer to do it.

I follow the smaller leagues and the D-2 and D-3 baseball more than I do D-1 (I won't follow it until the regionals start), but I'm a sucker for watching no-names kids play baseball.

 

The shitty college team I cover is frantically flipping through its rolodex to find Coppin State's number.

 

One of their pitchers in the astronomical ERA area is a Caucasian kid from an affluent suburb around here. He was his small high school's No. 2 pitcher last year. He's about 5-8.

 

With regard to established programs - a damn poor season is being finalized this weekend by Mississippi State.
A few of you might recall last season, when State made its (10th ?) Omaha CWS appearance.

Longtime coach Ron Polk, one of the men who helped develop college baseball to what it is today, announced a few months ago that this would be his last season at MSU.

The Bulldogs have responded with about a 20-and-40 record.
It's the only losing campaign at MSU that Polk's ever had and the worst record for any State team that I can recall.

No successor has been named, though Polk's hand-picked one of his longtime assistants.

Tough season, for sure.

 

State's actually trying for a rare sweep today, after winning Thurs. and Fri. against Arkansas
Overall record's not as bad as I alluded to earlier.
Still, a tough season for Polk and the program.

Story link below
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080517/SPORTS030102/805170354/1079

 

The kid I mentioned for Coppin State is 5-8, 140. But it gets better than that.

They have another freshman pitcher who appeared in 26 of their 56 games. He's 6-0 ... and 130 pounds.