Every
time any notable baseball event occurs outside of the realm of
Perfect Game, it is rewarding to look at the players that take the
field and see if they have crossed paths with ours.
Whether
it be the College World Series, the upcoming Futures Game or any
player from any game at both the minor league and major league
levels, the number of players that has previously attended a Perfect
Game event continues to grow exponentially. This year's MLB draft saw a record 1,323 players selected who had attended PG events.
This
year the number of former Perfect Game players that graced the
rosters of the teams in the College World Series was particularly
impressive. Here are the number of players from each of the final
four teams:
Florida:
33 of 34
South
Carolina: 30 of 33
Vanderbilt:
34 of 35
Virginia:
30 of 34
That's
127 out of 136 players that have previously attended a Perfect Game
event, or over 93-percent of the player pool. That percentage raises
a point when you just look at the rosters of the Florida and South
Carolina programs, who advanced to face each other in the finals.
In
addition, 87-percent of the players from all eight teams that made it
to Omaha, which includes California, North Carolina, Texas and Texas
A&M, were Perfect Game alumni.
More
than 70 of those players attended the Perfect Game National Showcase,
and seven of the
players (Jack Armstrong, Sonny Gray, Conrad Gregor, Austin Maddox,
Scott Silverstein, Karsten Whitson and Mike Zunino) had participated
in the Aflac All-American Classic, now known as the Perfect Game
All-American Classic presented by Rawlings.