Although the 2020 College World Series was canceled in March because of the coronavirus pandemic, ESPN still wanted to celebrate the baseball postseason that would have been.
If you took the best player at every position in college baseball history, who would make the all-time team? We’re here to find out.
Voting will be available for each position for three days, and when it’s over, we’ll have a final lineup reveal.
Voting order is as follows: catcher, shortstop (both expired), second base, first base, third base, relief pitcher, left field, right field, center field, two-way player, left-handed pitcher and right-handed pitcher.
Players with an asterisk (*) are members of the College Baseball Hall of Fame.
Third base
Tonight’s programming, on ESPNU/ESPN App:
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2005 NCAA baseball super regional, Game 2: Nebraska vs. Miami (Fla.), 6 p.m. ET (featuring Alex Gordon)
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2013 West Coast Conference baseball championship: San Francisco vs. San Diego, 9 p.m. ET (featuring Kris Bryant)
*Sal Bando (Arizona State)
Bando hit .364 as a sophomore, leading the Sun Devils to the WAC title and their first College World Series appearance in 1964. He was even better in 1965, hitting 12-for-25 in the College World Series to earn Most Outstanding Player honors while leading Arizona State to its first national championship.
Kris Bryant (San Diego)
Bryant won the Golden Spikes Award — and a bunch of other national player of the year awards — in 2013 after hitting 31 home runs, the most by any Division I player in the past 15 seasons. He rewrote the San Diego record book in his career, finishing with 54 home runs, 196 runs scored and a .702 slugging percentage.
Pat Burrell (Miami)
Burrell hit the ground running as a freshman, leading Division I with a .484 batting average and helping Miami reach the 1996 CWS championship game. Despite the Hurricanes’ loss, he was named CWS Most Outstanding Player. He capped his career by winning the Golden Spikes Award in 1998; his .442 career average is ninth highest in Division I history and his .886 slugging percentage is third highest by a Division I player.
Alex Gordon (Nebraska)
Gordon won the Golden Spikes Award on his way to sweeping the national awards in 2005 and leading Nebraska to its third College World Series appearance. He still ranks in the top 10 in Nebraska history in seven offensive categories, including home runs (44, tied for fourth) and RBIs (189, fourth).
*Keith Moreland (Texas)
Moreland was a two-time first team All-American and co-captain of the 1975 Texas team that finished 56-5 and won the College World Series. He hit .399 as a sophomore, eighth best in Texas history, and followed that up with a .410 average as a junior, fourth best in school history. He ranks third on the Longhorns’ all-time list with a .388 career average.
Phil Nevin (Cal State Fullerton)
Nevin won the Golden Spikes Award in 1992 while leading Cal State Fullerton to the College World Series; he went 10-for-19 with 11 RBIs in Omaha and was named CWS Most Outstanding Player despite the Titans’ loss in the national championship game. He still ranks fourth in school history with a .631 slugging percentage, fifth with 184 RBIs and tied for seventh with 39 home runs.
Anthony Rendon (Rice)
Rendon did his best work early in his collegiate career, earning National Freshman of the Year honors in 2009 before earning a handful of national player of the year awards as a sophomore in 2010. He ranks in the top five in Rice history in home runs (52, third) slugging percentage (.679, fourth) and batting average (.371, fifth).
*Robin Ventura (Oklahoma State)
Ventura burst onto the national radar in 1987, when he broke the Division I record with a 58-game hitting streak as Oklahoma State reached the national championship game. A three-time first team All-American, he followed that up by winning the Golden Spikes Award and playing for the gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic team in 1988. His .428 career batting average is a school record and one of the best 20 marks in Division I history.
Second base
Bill Bates (Texas)
Led Texas to the College World Series championship game in each of his three seasons (1983-85), helping the Longhorns win their fourth title as a freshman. Bates left Texas among the top five in eight offensive categories, and still holds the career record for most runs scored in Omaha with 21.
Kody Clemens (Texas)
The Clemens legacy continued at Texas as Kody became the third member of the family to play in the College World Series. In 2018, he became the third Longhorn named Big 12 Player of the Year after finishing second in Division I with 24 home runs, also the second most in a season in Texas history.
*Bob Horner (Arizona State)
Horner won the inaugural Golden Spikes Award — presented to the nation’s top amateur player — while leading Arizona State to the championship game at the 1978 College World Series. His 56 home runs in three seasons with the Sun Devils were the NCAA record at the time and still stand as the school record.
Nick Madrigal (Oregon State)
A key contributor to Oregon State’s third national championship team in 2018, the slick-fielding second baseman finished the season with a .989 fielding percentage. The two-time All-American capped his college career in the top 10 in school history in batting average (.361), hits (221) and stolen bases (39).
Marshall McDougall (Florida State)
McDougall might have had the best game in college baseball history, breaking the Division I record with six home runs and 16 RBIs against Maryland on May 9, 1999. He finished that season with 28 home runs, the second most in ACC history, and was the Most Outstanding Player at the College World Series after leading the Seminoles to the championship game.
Chase Utley (UCLA)
Utley hit 15 or more home runs in each of his three collegiate seasons, and his 53 career home runs are still in the top 10 on the Pac-12 all-time list. He capped his Bruins career with a .382 batting average and 108 hits — tied for second most in UCLA history — in 2000.
*Todd Walker (LSU)
Walker became the first SEC player to eclipse 100 RBIs in a season when he led Division I with 102 in 1993. That season ended with Walker being named CWS Most Outstanding Player after leading the Tigers to their second national championship. He finished his career with 310 hits, 234 runs and 246 RBIs — all SEC records at the time.
Rickie Weeks (Southern)
Weeks put up video game numbers during his college career, finishing with a .465 batting average and .927 slugging percentage, both Division I records. He is one of two players in Division I history to lead the nation in batting average in back-to-back seasons (2002 and 2003) and won the Golden Spikes Award in 2003 — the only player from the SWAC to win the award.
First base
Dustin Ackley (North Carolina)
Ackley hit over .400 in each of his three collegiate seasons to finish with a .412 career batting average, second best in ACC history. North Carolina reached the College World Series in all three of his seasons; he finished with 28 career CWS hits, tied for the most all time.
*Lance Berkman (Rice)
Berkman made a run at the Division I Triple Crown as a junior, hitting 41 home runs (third most in Div. I history) and driving in 134 runs (second most in Div. I history), while hitting .431. He capped the 1997 season by leading Rice to its first College World Series appearance in school history and being named NCBWA Player of the Year.
*Will Clark (Mississippi State)
Clark fell just short of the SEC Triple Crown in 1985, hitting .420 while leading the conference with 25 home runs and 77 RBIs on his way to winning the Golden Spikes Award. His 61 career home runs are tied for sixth most in SEC history, and his .381 career average is the highest by any Mississippi State player.
*Eddy Furniss (LSU)
Furniss features prominently in the SEC record book; his 80 career home runs and 308 career RBIs both represent the most in conference history and in the top six in Division I history. He is one of three players in SEC history with a pair of 25-homer seasons, and he led Division I with 26 home runs and 103 RBIs in 1996.
*Dave Magadan (Alabama)
Magadan hit his way into the record books in 1983, winning the Golden Spikes Award on the strength of a .525 batting average, which is an SEC record and the fifth-highest mark in Division I history. He’s still the only player in SEC history to finish a season hitting over .500, and his .439 career average is 14 points higher than any other player in conference history.
Frank Thomas (Auburn)
After tying for the conference lead with 21 home runs in 1987, Thomas led the SEC in batting average in 1988 and 1989, becoming the third (and most recent) player in SEC history to accomplish this in back-to-back seasons. He earned first-team All-SEC honors three times and has the highest career slugging percentage (.722) and on-base percentage (.527) in Auburn history.
Andrew Vaughn (California)
In 2018, Vaughn became the fifth sophomore to win the Golden Spikes Award, hitting .402 and tying the school record with 23 home runs. The two-time first-team All-American finished his career with a .688 slugging percentage and became the third player to hit 50 home runs for the Golden Bears.
*Tim Wallach (Cal State Fullerton)
Wallach became the first player in Cal State Fullerton history to hit 20 home runs in a season, finishing 1979 with 23 home runs and a 102 RBIs, which still stands as the school record. He capped the season by winning the Golden Spikes Award and leading the Titans to their first College World Series title.