Baseball America College Podcast: Addressing Eligibility Issues, 2020 What Ifs

Image credit: Photo by Bill Mitchell

On this episode of the Baseball America College Podcast, Teddy Cahill and Joe Healy continue to discuss the news associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in college baseball. 

Since the last episode of the show, every Division I baseball conference effectively canceled its season and the NCAA announced that it wants to provide eligibility relief for players affected by spring sports cancellations. The latter will continue to be a topic around college baseball as they determine the parameters of such an arrangement. The only thing for certain now is that nothing has been set in stone with how that will work and that very little has been officially discussed as of yet. 

The hosts also ran through a number of what ifs for the 2020 college baseball season. The cancellation of the season robbed us of getting to see a number of storylines play out. Among the what ifs Teddy and Joe debate are: 

• Was Florida the favorite to win the national title?
• Who would have won Player of the Year? Could Nick Gonzales have kept up his torrid pace to bring home the award?
• Could Spencer Torkelson have broken the walks record after being treated like Barry Bonds all season?
• Could the SEC or ACC have broken a record and gotten 11 teams into regionals?
• Who would have won the home run race? Would we have seen a showdown between big names like Gonzales and Torkelson for the lead or would a player from a smaller conference pace the country?
• Could Pepperdine or Long Beach State parlay fast starts into hosting in June?

Finally, Teddy and Joe introduced an interactive segment for the show. Beginning next week, the hosts will do a deep dive into one game each week on Joe’s recent list of ten great college baseball games available on YouTube, featuring a guest who was involved in that specific game. To get things started, they’ll be talking about the 1995 College World Series championship game between Cal State Fullerton and Southern California. 

Here’s what you need to do to get involved. First, watch the game on YouTube, which is available at the link below. Send any specific questions or observations you have about the game to Teddy or Joe. You can do so on Twitter at @tedcahill or @JoeHealyBA, or via email. Once the weekly guest has been scheduled, that will be announced as well. 

It’s not the same as watching college baseball as it happens, but the hope is that creating a community around these classic games will help us all get through an extended offseason. 

WATCH THIS WEEK’S GAME