Kirk McCarty called up by Cleveland

[usmstud]

https://www.mlb.com/press-release/press-release-guardians-make-a-series-of-roster-moves

 

[usmstud]

Scheduled to make his first start against the Yankees on Saturday.

 

[Eagle of Monte Cristo]

Just for the record, McCarty (although sent back down to the minors) was the 21st former USM baseball letterwinner to play in the MLB during the regular season (although USM Sports Information department seems to only count 20 as they forget about Matt Skrmetta while counting Brent Leach). There are (in order of when they debuted in the MLB):
1. Hugh "Laurin" Pepper
2. Fred Waters
3. John "Bubba" Phillips
4. Jim Davenport
5. Mickey Harrington
6. Frank Baker
7. Kevin Young
8. Pat Rapp
9. Bill Selby
10. Chad Bradford
11. Tommy Davis
12. John Bale
13. Matt Skrmetta - transferred to Jacksonville after lettering at USM in 1992
14. Bob McCrory
15. Brent Leach - transferred to Delta State after lettering at USM in 2002 & 2003
16. Jarrett Hoffpauir
17. Brian Dozier
18. Scott Copeland
19. Cody Carroll
20. Nick Sandlin
21. Kirk McCarty

 

[Houston Eagle]

I'm kind of surprised Wilson Plunket never made the MLB. He led the nation in homers(13) with only 28 games played in 1974. Those must have been the days of playing at Smokie Harrington or maybe the field where the football practice field is now located. I would also think Ray Guy could made it if he wanted.
I once asked where did the baseball players have their own clubhouse before the Rogers Welch Thames Center, and the response I received was "their dorm room" LOL!!!!

 

[Eagle of Monte Cristo]

Making it to the MLB is so unpredicable. Plunket did put up some huge college numbers. My favorite USM baseball player of all time was Fred Cooley. Seems like everytime I went to a game he hit a home run. He's still in the top 5 at USM for career home runs and rbi's and was a very good pitcher as well. I think he had knee problems in the minors that shortened his career and never made it past AA even though he put up good numbers there. Also we've had a bunch of guys that have made it to Spring Training with MLB teams but never made it to the regular season. I'll have to do some research on that to see what kind of list I can come up with. I know recently we have had Wallner and Robinson. A couple of years ago we had Mason Robbins who had back-to-back really good spring trainings (combined .455 batting average--albeit a small sample size) then the season after his second spring training has a very solid AA/AAA season then gets cut and never plays baseball again.