San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Cal wins title in 1st College World Series
Cal head coach Clint Evans was instrumental in the creation of the College World Series. Evans and his Bears then proceeded to win the inaugural CWS, beating Yale 87 in the championship game in Kalamazoo, Mich., on June 28, 1947.
Cal had won a fourteam Western Regional in Denver to get to the bestofthree title series. Yale hosted and won the fourteam Eastern Regional.
In the CWS opener at Western Michigan’s Hyames Field on June 27, the Bears trailed 42 before scoring two in the seventh, two in the eighth and 11 in the ninth to roll 174. The next day, Cal led 72 before the Elis tied it 77. The Bears got an unearned run in the seventh for the winning margin.
Jackie Jensen, who would earn renown as a Cal running back and who became the 1958 American League MVP as a Boston outfielder, was a pitcher for the 1947 Bears. Among Cal’s other top players were outfielders John Fiscalini and Lyle Palmer.
“This was Clint’s baby,”
Palmer said about that first CWS, in a 1996 Chronicle story. “It had finally reached fruition. That we were playing in it was just frosting on the cake for him. He was like a kid, he was so happy.”
Other notes: Cal’s home field, Evans Diamond, is named after Clint Evans . ... The Bears won the CWS title again in 1957 . ... Yale’s first baseman was George H.W. Bush, who became the 41st president of the United States. Bush went 0for7 in the two games against the Bears.