Still The One

The stakes may be lower, but playing for Team USA still resonates with players.

- John Manuel

Once upon a time, USA Baseball’s top-level team was the Collegiate National Team. It was collegians who represented the U.S. in top international baseball tournaments, from the Pan American Games to the first Olympics with baseball in it, in 1984 in Los Angeles. A dozen years later, players like Troy Glaus, Mark Kotsay, R.A. Dickey and Kris Benson won a bronze medal in Atlanta.

But the next year, the International Baseball Federation voted to end the amateurism restrictions that kept paid professionals out of international baseball tournaments, and the Collegiate National Team’s days as the pinnacle of USA Baseball were numbered.

USA Baseball sent a college team, coached by Ron Polk, to Italy in 1998 for the World Championships, but the U.S. failed to qualify for the medal round. The next year, in the Pan Am Games—which served as the 2000 Olympic qualifier—Team USA was filled with professionals.

In the meantime, summer collegiate baseball has exploded, with more options for college players than ever. Far beyond just the Cape Cod League and the old-school Alaska and Jayhawk leagues, leagues such as the Northwoods, Coastal Plain, West Coast and many others have grown and provided many more opportunities for college players to swing wood bats for scouts.