ASU Baseball: Gary Gentry inducted into Collegiate Baseball Hall of Fame

It was announced yesterday that legendary Arizona State pitcher Gary Gentry has been inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame.

He is the 12th Sun Devil to receive the prestigious honor, tying the University of Texas for the most college baseball Hall of Famers’ out of any school in the country.

During his time at ASU in 1967, Gentry struck out 229 batters, setting a collegiate record at the time. He was named The Sporting News National Player of the Year that season, and helped the Devils’ capture their second national title under coach Bobby Winkles.

Gentry’s numbers in the College World Series were ridiculous. In two starts, he allowed two earned runs in 23 innings for a 0.78 ERA.

Among those performances was a 14-inning marathon in which Gentry pitched in every inning and struck out 15 to defeat Stanford 5-3. Overall, he had 31 K’s in his two appearances, which is second all-time in CWS history.

It would be the second time Gentry won a national title in college, as a year prior to being a Sun Devil, he helped Phoenix Junior College earn a 1966 National Junior College Championship.

Gentry was a first-team All-American both in junior college and at ASU, and he was twice named to College World Series All Tournament Teams.

The Phoenix native and Camelback High School product was drafted by the Houston Astros and Baltimore Orioles in 1965, as well as the San Francisco Giants in 1966, but each time declined the opportunities and opted to pitch collegiately instead.

Finally after winning the title as a Sun Devil in ‘67, he was drafted again and signed with the New York Mets.

Gentry would carve out a very respectable big league career, going 46-49 with a 3.56 ERA and striking out 615 batters over 902.2 innings during seven seasons in the show.

Furthermore, he earned the ultimate crown when he won a World Series title as a member of Manager Gil Hodges’ 1969 “Amazin Mets”.

Gentry started game three of the 1969 series, out dueling Baltimore Orioles Hall of Famer Jim Palmer and carving out seven scoreless innings before handing the ball off to Nolan Ryan.

Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images

He would receive his one and only postseason win, and cap off the trifecta of becoming a Juco, Division I, and MLB Champion. Now, he’ll add to the list of Sun Devils in the College Baseball Hall of Fame.

Here are the other members that he will be joining:

Joe Arnold (1968)

Sal Bando (1964-65)

Eddie Bane (1971-73)

Floyd Bannister (1974-76)

Alan Bannister (1970-72)

Jim Brock (1972-94)

Bob Horner (1976-78)

Mike Kelly (1989-91)

Oddibe McDowell (1983-84)

Rick Monday (1965)

Bobby Winkles (1959-71)