OSUBasketballJunkie
Never Forget 31-0
Dispatch
4/12/06
4/12/06
COLLEGE BASEBALL HALL OF FAME
OSU’s Arlin among inaugural nominees
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Steve Arlin is Hall of Fame worthy, which is news to the former Ohio State pitcher.
The College Baseball Foundation is considering inducting Arlin into the new College Baseball Hall of Fame. But somebody forgot to tell Arlin.
"Anything like that is an honor, so I’d like to thank them, whoever they are," said Arlin, one of 46 nominees for the inaugural class. Finalists will be named April 26, with induction July 4 at the hall of fame museum being built as part of a new college stadium on the campus of Texas Tech in Lubbock.
Arlin, 60, led Ohio State to its only national championship as a junior in 1966. He went 11-2 and was named MVP of the College World Series. In 1965, he went 13-2 and struck out 20 in a 15-inning, 1-0 win over Washington State. The Buckeyes were national runners-up that season.
"Those were some real good times," he said. "The thing I remember the most was the Big Ten wasn’t well respresented at the College World Series. We didn’t play as many games, because we couldn’t get outdoors because of the weather. So we weren’t expected to do anything when we got there."
It is Arlin’s second major honor in the past five years. In 2000, the College World Series named him to its 50 th anniversary allstar team.
Hall of Fame voting is being done by current and retired college coaches, retired players, NCAA commissioners, sports information directors and media.
The breakdown of nominees is 22 players, 12 coaches and 12 coaches/players who played before 1947.
"It sounds like a really nice thing, maybe something that’s overdue," said Arlin, who recently retired from his dental practice near San Diego. "They have hall of fames for college football and basketball, too. And Texas might be a great seat for it. Where is it? Lubbock? I’ve never been there, but it’s got to be a good place to get chicken fried steak."
Other nonimees include Dave Winfield, Pete Incaviglia and Robin Ventura, who will be listed among 46 nominees formally announced today.
"Just like Canton and Cooperstown, sports fans around the nation will begin to turn their attention to Lubbock every summer," said John Askins, chairman and CEO of the College Baseball Foundation, which established the hall.
The nominees will be voted on strictly because of their college achievements. The list will be pared through two rounds of voting by an 80-member committee. Players become eligible five years after their final college season, and can’t be active at any level of professional baseball. They must have completed at least one year of competition at a four-year school, and been an All-American or made an allconference team.