Rewind: Georgia baseball’s improbable national title

As Georgia prepares to head to Omaha for their first College World Series outing in 18 years, I thought it might be worthwhile to hop in the way back machine and take a look at the 1990 Diamond ‘Dawgs, winners of the school’s only NCAA baseball championship. Fortunately YouTube remains undefeated. You can watch the final two and a half innings of the Red and Black’s thrilling win over Oklahoma State to take home the title.

A few interesting notes about that 1990 team:

• The Bulldogs had actually made it to Omaha in 1987, but were sent back to Athens without winning a single game. That 1990 squad was in large part led by the freshmen from that 1987 team, all grown up.
• The 1990 national champions weren’t loaded with star power. In fact, only one player from that squad, All-American relief pitcher Dave Fleming, logged any significant time in the major leagues.
• They also weren’t a model of consistency. The 1990 Dawgs lost three out of their first five games, then reeled off a fourteen game midseason win streak. But they then managed to drop their last five regular season contests to finish second to LSU in the regular season SEC title chase.
• But they did play defense and pitch well down the stretch, which remains a great way to go deep into the postseason. Fleming shut out Mississippi State in the Omaha opener to win 3-0, then Mike Rebhan gave up two runs to the Mike Mussina-led Stanford Cardinal in a complete game victory. All told the UGA pitching staff gave up only 7 runs in 4 games leading up to the title matchup with Oklahoma State.
• On a final note, I also happen to believe they wore the most iconic baseball hat design in Georgia Bulldog history. That block “G” on a red background with the black bill was much sought after in the days before the campus bookstore had online ordering, and was a bit of a status symbol among junior high schoolers in my neck of the woods. My aunt, a recent grad, was able to snag one for me for Christmas in 1990 and I still miss that sucker.

I hope you enjoy this walk down memory lane. We’ll be back shortly to talk about this year’s College World Series. Until then…

Go ‘Dawgs!!!