Coach Stallings Listed on National College Baseball Hall of Fame 2010 Ballot
2/15/2010 2:26:00 PM | Baseball
LUBBOCK, Texas – The College Baseball Foundation announced that voting is under way for the 2010 class of the National College Baseball Hall of Fame in Lubbock. The ballot to select this year's inductees features 44 players and 17 coaches, including legendary Georgia Southern head coach Jack Stallings.
“We always look forward to seeing who the voters will elect each year,” said Mike Gustafson, co-chair of the College Baseball Hall of Fame and Executive Director of the College Baseball Foundation. “Each person on the ballot is a deserving collegiate baseball contributor as a player or coach so we never know what to expect.”
Coach Stallings led the Eagles from 1976-1999 and holds the record for most coaching wins (858) and years as head coach (24) at Georgia Southern. Stallings boasts a career record of 1,257-799-10 in 39 seasons as head coach and took the Eagles to five NCAA tournaments, including the 1990 College World Series trip to Omaha. He owns one Southern Conference Championship title in 1996 since Georgia Southern's membership began in 1992. A 2004 inductee into the Georgia Southern Athletics Department Hall of Fame, Stallings was honored in 2005 by having the playing field named after him. His #1 jersey was just the second jersey ever retired in the Eagles' baseball program.
Among those on the ballot are seven “vintage era” (pre-1947) candidates, including George Sisler and Eddie Collins, who have also been recognized for their excellence as major leaguers by being enshrined in Cooperstown.
Schools from across the country also are represented on the ballot, from Maine to the University of Southern California. Several schools have multiple candidates on the ballot, led by Arizona State, USC and Texas with four.
The members of the 2010 College Baseball Hall of Fame class will be announced this week once all the ballots have been tallied and the results verified. Those selected will join previous inductees including coaches Skip Bertman of LSU, Jerry Kindall of Arizona, Gary Ward of Oklahoma State and New Mexico State, Ron Polk of Mississippi State and the late Rod Dedeaux of USC, and players Dave Winfield of Minnesota, Burt Hooton of Texas, Derek Tatsuno of Hawaii and Floyd Bannister of Arizona State.
The voting panel is composed of approximately 120 members. It is comprised of national and regional college baseball media, active and retired coaches, media and coaches from the "small school" category, a group of about a dozen former players, a group of "college baseball historians" and about ten members of the SABR collegiate baseball committee. Past College Baseball Hall of Fame inductees also vote.
“Maintaining a regional balance on the voting panel is a priority,” said Jeff Chase, co-chair of the College Baseball Hall of Fame. “We've added several new voters to assure that we maintain our regional balance.”
To be eligible for the College Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, players must have completed one year of competition at a two-year or four-year institution and/or earned verifiable national acclaim.
The 2010 class will be inducted as part of the College Baseball Foundation's annual celebration of the past and present of college baseball. This year's induction will take place on July 1, with the College Baseball Awards show being held the following night.
