All-Time UCLA Baseball Mount Rushmore
UCLA Athletics has a storied history of winning titles, producing Hall of Famers and fostering young athletes who go on to become bigger than their respective sports. For the last 102 years, champions have called Westwood home.
On the diamond, UCLA baseball has had its fair share of iconic and important figures. Here are the four who top the list, and have their faces up on All Bruins' metaphorical Mount Rushmore for the team.
Troy Glaus
Glaus was always a top-tier power hitter for the Bruins, but his 1997 season immortalized him in Westwood.
He started his collegiate career by hitting .258 with 12 home runs as a freshman in 1995 – striking out nearly twice as often as he walked – for a UCLA team that missed the postseason entirely. Glaus followed up that campaign by hitting .352 with 16 home runs and more walks that strikeouts as the Bruins fell just one game short of making the 1996 College World Series.
That was quite the leap for both Glaus and his team, but it was nothing compared to 1997.
Glaus hit .409 with a 1.380 OPS, thanks to his program-record 37 home runs, 91 RBIs and 108 hits – only the last of which has been bested in the years since. Behind Glaus' video game numbers, UCLA made its first College World Series appearance since 1969.
His sudden meteoric rise at UCLA led directly to his success at the next level, as Glaus played nearly a third of the 1998 MLB season with the Anaheim Angels before becoming an every day starter the year after.
In his 13 years in the MLB, Glaus tallied 320 home runs and 920 RBIs en route to four All-Star appearances, two Silver Sluggers and a World Series MVP trophy with Anaheim in 2002. Glaus played four playoff series in an Angels uniform and hit eight home runs with 16 RBIs and an unreal .347/.427/.819 slashline in those 19 games.
Garrett Atkins
The owner of the best hit tool in UCLA history could go to a few very well-qualified candidates: Chase Utley, Brandon Crawford, Bill Scott, Eric Karros, Dave Roberts, etc.
The one who stands above the rest, however, is Atkins.
Atkins earned spots on the All-Pac-10 team in each of his three seasons in Westwood, in addition to three third-team All-American spots. He burst onto the scene by hitting a UCLA freshman-record .383 in 1998.
The funny thing is that while Atkins' average dropped every season – hitting .375 in 1999 and .352 in 2000 – that was still plenty good enough for him to finish his career towards the top of a lot of school leaderboards. Atkins' 276 hits rank No. 2 in UCLA history, his 56 doubles rank No. 3, his .368 batting average ranks No. 4, his 40 home runs rank No. 9, his 180 runs rank No. 9 and his 167 RBIs rank No. 10.
He took the torch from Glaus and became one of the offensive leaders for the next era of Bruin baseball alongside Utley and Scott. That core led the Bruins to the 2000 Super Regionals and coach Gary Adams' final Pac-10 title.
Atkins slugged surprisingly well for someone who hit and got on base as much as he did, and his all-around talents at this plate made him one of the most memorable hitters in UCLA history.
David Berg
Berg made more appearances in a UCLA uniform than any other Bruin pitcher ever has.
Actually, he made more appearances in a UCLA uniform than any other pitcher ever has for any school, anywhere.
Berg set the NCAA record for career appearances with 175, but he did a lot more than just take the mound – he pitched pretty well out there too. The list of UCLA, Pac-12 and NCAA records Berg boasts is honestly too long to go through in full.
Racking up 49 saves, 241 strikeouts, 22 wins, a 1.11 ERA and a 0.840 WHIP out of the bullpen for the Bruins from 2012 to 2015, Berg became the third player in Pac-12 history to be named to the all-conference team four times and is the only reliever to win Pac-12 pitcher of the year – and he did it twice. He is UCLA's all-time leader in ERA and owns the single-season NCAA record for saves with 24 in 2013.
That year, Berg also got the Bruins over the hump, leading them to their first-ever College World Series championship by picking up three saves in Omaha alone.
Berg's signature sidearm delivery only made him more of an icon. He is by all accounts the best reliever in NCAA history, and all he did was win.
Jackie Robinson
Arguably the greatest trailblazer in sports history, Robinson was a star in Westwood well before he broke the MLB's color barrier.
Just not on the diamond, ironically.
Robinson started his career with a 4-for-4 day at the plate, stealing home twice. After that, however, Robinson went on to hit .097 in his only season on the team in 1940. Statistically speaking, Robinson was far more valuable to UCLA football and UCLA track & field.
That obviously didn't stop him from going on to be one of the most important figures in baseball history, becoming the first Black man to play in the MLB when he took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Robinson hit .313 with a 63.9 WAR across 11 professional seasons, and he earned spots in the Cooperstown and UCLA Athletics Hall of Fames in addition to a Congressional Gold Medal and a Presidential Medal of Freedom.
When talking about sports icons and influencers, nobody comes close to touching Robinson.
But don't just take our word for it – between the "42" statues, signs and markers placed all around campus and the fact that the Bruins play in Jackie Robinson Stadium, it's clear UCLA claims Robinson as one of their greatest alumni.
Honorable Mentions
Gary Adams: While one more season would have taken him over 1,000 Division I wins for his career, Adams still wound up with the most wins in UCLA history at 984. Including his DII wins at UC Irvine in the early 1970s, Adams ranks 50th all-time in coaching wins across the country. Adams' .567 career winning percentage ranks dead last of the D1 coaches on that list, however, and he ended his 30-year tenure at UCLA with a losing conference record, nine losing seasons and just one College World Series appearance. That certainly doesn't negate the fact that he recruited, coached and developed Glaus, Atkins, Utley, Karros, Torey Lovullo, Eric Byrnes, Eric Valent and dozens of other stars, and made Westwood his home longer than any coach ever has.
Eric Byrnes: As UCLA's all-time leader in at-bats, hits and runs, Byrnes made the most of his four years as a starter in Westwood. Byrnes was an All-Pac-10 honoree in both 1995 and 1997 and was a key bat on the UCLA squad that appeared in the 1997 College World Series. Byrnes hit .331 with the sixth-most home runs and second-most RBIs in program history with 48 and 203, respectively.
John Savage: UCLA has won at a better clip under Savage than any other coach since 1926. His .591 winning percentage in conference play stands in sharp contrast to the sub-.500 marks boasted by seven of his eight immediate predecessors and the program's .456 conference winning percentage prior to his arrival in 2005. At the pace he's been working at for the last eight years, Savage would need to stay with the Bruins for another 12 seasons before passing Adams on the all-time wins list, but the fact that he helped UCLA secure its lone national title in 2013 is enough to solidify his legacy regardless.
Chase Utley: The MLB's all-time leader in hit-by-pitches and 2008 World Series champion got his start at UCLA, where he hit .342 with a 1.021 career OPS. As a middle infielder, Utley smashed 53 home runs – third most in program history – and ranks fifth in hits, seventh in runs and seventh in RBIs. He also joined forces with Atkins and Scott to give the Bruins one of the most dangerous lineups in the country in 2000, guiding UCLA to the Pac-10 title and a Super Regionals appearance.
Gerrit Cole: The only No. 1 overall pick to come out of UCLA also signed the largest contract by any pitcher in MLB history that tied him for the highest average annual salary ever with Mike Trout. Even before he posted four top-five Cy Young finishes and signed a 10-year, $360 million dollar contract with the New York Yankees, Cole was dominating on the mound in Westwood. He very nearly won the 2010 College World Series and he finished his UCLA career No. 2 on the school's career strikeout list with 376 – good for 10.5 K/9 – in addition to being No. 5 in starts and No. 7 in innings pitched.
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