RICHMOND, Va.
James Madison's 1983 baseball team no longer is Virginia's only College World Series qualifier. The University of Virginia is headed to Omaha, Neb.
That doesn't dim the Dukes' distinction, according to Brad Babcock, JMU's coach from 1971 through '89. It just reframes it.
"We'll always be the first team from Virginia to make it," Babcock, 70 and still a part-time JMU teacher, said yesterday.
Those Dukes, Babcock recalled, "had five scholarships and a bunch of overachievers," and seemed outclassed in an eight-team CWS that included Texas, Stanford, Arizona State, Alabama, Maine, Michigan and Oklahoma State.
"If (U.Va.'s run) does anything, it enhances the feeling that I have about my little group that went out there," Babcock said.
■ John O'Connor is a writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch
.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement