PETE INCAVIGLIA (Ok Sports HOF Inductees)
Based purely on college performance, Peter Joseph “Inky” Incaviglia is arguably the greatest collegiate baseball player of all time. According to Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball, what makes him one of the greatest NCAA players ever was his home run hitting ability.
Oklahoma State University recruited Incaviglia from a Pebble Beach high school after he was named California’s High School Player of the Year in his sophomore, junior and senior seasons. In his freshman year at OSU, he broke the Big Eight home run record, hitting 23 in 194 at bats, driving in 78 runs and hitting .371. He earned All-American honors and led the team to the College World Series.
He did the same thing again as a sophomore: All-American, College World Series, hitting .352, 29 home runs and 103 RBI.
As a junior in 1985, opposing pitchers were familiar with Incaviglia’s talents and did their best not to give him anything to hit. In one game, Wichita State intentionally walked him five times. His response was to hit an NCAA record 48 home runs, score an NCAA record 143 runs batted in, an NCAA record 285 total bases, and a phenomenal NCAA record slugging percentage of 1.140. He again led his team to the College World Series, was an All-American and was Baseball America’s 1985 NCAA Player of the Year.
In three seasons with the Cowboys, Incaviglia recorded 100 home runs in 213 games, and had a career slugging percentage of .915. He still holds the NCAA records for career home runs and for home runs and RBIs in a season.
Incaviglia was the eighth overall pick in the 1986 Major League Baseball draft, but was immediately traded to the Texas Rangers because he refused to play in the minor leagues. He thus became only the 15th player in draft history to debut in the majors without playing minor league ball.
In his first major league game on April 8, 1986, he collected his first hit. Two days later, he hit his first major league home run. In his first year with the Rangers, he hit 30 home runs and established himself as one of the most feared power hitters in the game. He also became known for strikeouts – 185 in his rookie season, four short of the record held by Bobby Bonds.
Incaviglia played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball from 1986 through 1998. He helped lead the Philadelphia Phillies to the World Series in 1993 before retiring in 1998 with lifetime totals of 206 home runs, 655 RBIs and a .246 average. After retirement, he turned to coaching and in 2008, was managing the Grand Prairie AirHogs in the independent American Association. He was inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007.
