SteakNchop

Back in 1892, Cal Berkeley started a baseball team. The Cal Bears, they were an excellent college team on and off the field. They won National Championships in 1947 and 1957. Year in and year out, they field a quality team.
Of any college baseball program in the country, Cal provides the most first round picks of any school. Many would consider it the best baseball program there has ever been, with a very good chance of making it to the big leagues from there. Many prospects and stars have come from the Cal Baseball program, some of which I will list below.
Jeff Kent (Probably going to be a Hall of Famer)[IMG]http://deadspin.com/assets/images/deadspin/2008/07/kent.jpg[/IMG]
Jackie Jensen (Good player from a long time ago)
Brandon Morrow (Fireballing pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays)
Xavier Nady (High quality Major Leaguer for several years, before an injury)
Conor Jackson (Average Major League first baseman)
Brennan Bosch (Top prospect for the Detroit Tigers)
Brett Jackson (Chicago Cubs top prospect)
In total, 53 former Cal Baseball players have made the Major Leagues.
However, the possibility is great that Cal will never provide another Major League Baseball player. As of the end of the 2011 baseball season, Cal Baseball will be [I]cut. [/I]This is because of budget issues, while the Cal Football coach is [IMG]http://thegoldensombrero.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/chicago-cubs-brett-jackson-top-prospect.jpg[/IMG]paid three million dollars a year, the baseball program maybe costs a couple hundred thousand dollars a year.
Cal was suggesting to cut five sports programs, but ended up cutting two of them, baseball and gymnastics. The baseball team doesn’t provide much revenue, mostly because of the lack of stadium lights. They easily have the money to do it, but the Cal administration will not allow it.
Cal Baseball as well as every team in the Pac-10 Conference has raised seven million dollars to keep the baseball program alive. The reason the entire conference is raising money for Cal is clearly because without Cal Baseball, the Pac-10 Conference is nothing. Cal Baseball could possibly be reinstated in 2012, but by then they will have to start all over. New coaches, new players and an entire new system. This program is being cut because the Cal administration wants to show who’s boss, not because the money isn’t there.
One person who would be extremely angry about this is future Hall of Fame second baseman Jeff Kent. Just recently, he paid several million dollars to build a new hitting facility. There are also summer and winter baseball camps Cal holds, which will be gone as well.
Cal even currently has some top talent, especially their catcher Chad Krist who should be a top tier Major Leaguer. Many of their future first round draft pick players are freshmen and sophomores, so they will have to relocate to new colleges to continue their baseball careers.
Cutting Cal Baseball is so insane that you almost think you can just wake up and realize it was all a dream, but it’s not. However, there is a way you can help. [URL="http://savecalbaseball.com/"][COLOR=#0071bb]SaveCalBaseball.com [/COLOR][/URL]is raising even more money to try and keep this program alive. The entire baseball community would appreciate it if you took a look even if you don’t plan on pledging any money, though that would of course be a lot of help.
Hopefully, with this unbelievable amount of money raised Cal will never cut the program. But first, that money must be raised.