Friday Five - Top 5 MLB Players From NC State

It's the first day of the college baseball season. My Wolfpack are home for three games against Seton Hall.  If it weren't going to be 40 this weekend I would consider venturing out for a game.  I will wait for a little warmer weather.  

In the meantime, here are a few former Wolfpack players who made their way from Raleigh to the Major Leagues.  No Hall of Famers, but maybe you know a few of these players.....

Honorable Mention- Adam Everett 

Everett played for the Astros, Twins, Tigers, and Indians during his eleven year Major League career.  You probably best remember him as a member of the Astros in the early 2000s.  Not much of a hitter, but he was a really underrated defensive player.  Everett ended his career with a .242/.294/.346 slash line.  That's really painful.  He also ended his career with a 15.6 dWAR, which included seasons of 2.2, 2.5, 3.3., and 4.1.  He finished in the top 5 in that category four different times during his career and he somehow managed to not win a Gold Glove.  

#5- Tim Stoddard 

Stoddard is the only Major League Baseball player who has both a World Series ring and an NCAA National Championship in basketball.  Stoddard was a member of NC State's 1974 National Championship team who beat Marquette for the title.  He averaged 20 minutes a game, scored 5 points per game, and grab 5 boards too.  Stoddard was not just sitting on the bench.  

He spent time guarding Bill Walton in the National Semi-Final Game against UCLA.  Former Braves and Indians outfielder Kenny Lofton played basketball at Arizona, appeared in World Series games and Final Four games, but won neither.  Interestingly enough, both Lofton and Stoddard went to the same high school outside of Chicago.  

Stoddard played 13 years for the Orioles, Yankees, Padres, and several other teams.  He spent his entire career as a fairly solid relief pitcher, including for the 1983 Orioles, who won the World Series.  Stoddard ended his career with a 41-35 record, a 3.95 ERA, and 76 saves.  

#4. Mike Caldwell 

Caldwell played a total of 14 years, most of those came with the Brewers after bouncing around between the Padres, Giants, Reds, and Cardinals early in his career.  His best seasons were almost all over 30 too, sort of a late bloomer.  At 29 in 1978, in his first full season with the Brewers, Caldwell won 22 games, and had an ERA of just 2.36.  He would go on to win in double digits for the Brewers six times and helped them win the American League East twice.  In 1982 the Brewers advanced to the World Series.  Caldwell won two starts for the Brewers against the Cardinals.  

#3. Dan Plesac 

Dan is on MLB Network, or at least the last time I checked he was on there.  He had a long career which had long stretches with the Brewers and Blue Jays, several other teams in there too.  At the beginning of hid career, Plesac was used as a closer, but spent the majority of his career as a middle reliever.  Not bad either, averaging almost a strikeout per inning over an 18 career.  Plesac made three All-Star Game rosters early in his career while he was serving as the Brewers closer.  Overall, he won 65 games, saved 158, and had an ERA of 3.64.

#2 Roger Craig 

Craig had some nice years for the Dodgers early in his career and helped the team win the World Series in 1955 and 1959.  He eventually ended up on the expansion Mets in the early 1960s and lost 46 games between the 1962 and 1963 seasons.  Craig was later traded to the Cardinals and picked up his third World Series ring in 1964, helping to beat the Yankees.  He ended his career in 1966 after a brief two year stint as a relief pitcher for the Reds and Phillies.  After retiring as a player, Craig managed the Padres (1978-1979) and Giants (1985-1992).  He led the Giants to the 1989 National League Pennant and won the 1990 National League Manager of the Year.  

#1- Dave Robertson 

It's hard to find a lot of biographical information about Robertson's MLB career, but there are a lot of gaps and partial seasons.  He was a World War I era player, but I cannot actually find any information about him being in the Army.  Not sure if he was injured, or what happened during some of the spaces in his career.  Tim Peeler, who works at NC State and does a lot of great writing about the athletic program, wrote a piece a few years back about the legend that is Dave Robertson around Raleigh.  The Peeler article mentions that he retired because of injuries, but more on that later.  

There was a three year stretch for Robertson starting in 1915 where he played more than 140 games in a season.  That only happened four times during his career.  He led the National League twice in home runs during that stretch.  The National League leaderboard is littered during those three years with appearances by Robertson.   He finished in the Top 10 in average, slugging, on base, runs, hits, total bases, doubles, and RBIs at some point during that time span.  

Robertson helped the Giants reach the 1917 World Series against the White Sox.  The Giants lost that World Series, but Robertson had a 11 hits in the Series.  The record is for hits in a World Series is 13, but Robertson played one less game than the record holder, who is former Red Sox second baseman Marty Barrett.  

Robertson's only other full season in the Majors came in 1920 with the Cubs.  He hit .300/.353/.462 with 10 home runs, 11 triples, and 29 doubles.  The next season, during 1921 he would hit for the cycle becoming just the 29th player to accomplish the feat in Major League history.  In 1922, he would pick up a World Series ring with the Giants in his final season, though he did not step foot on the field during the Fall Classic against the Yankees.  

For what it's worth, after leaving the Giants because of injuries, Robertson played another nine seasons in the Minor Leagues while managing various teams.  He never hit below .300 during his final stretch in the Minors and had a season with 35 home runs and another with 24.  Pretty impressive totals for the 1920s.  

Not a long career, but he was great when he stayed on the field.