There’s been a lot of great UNC baseball players who’ve gone on to play professionally, but only a handful have made it to the World Series.
Mule Shirley (1921-1923), Burgess Whitehead, Snuffy Stirnweiss, Walt Weiss, Andrew Miller (2004-2006) and Matt Harvey (2008 and 2009) were the first six Diamond Heels to make it.
The most recent one?
Zac Gallen, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ ace who is starting Game 1 of the 2023 World Series, later tonight.
He’s a perennial Cy Young candidate, ranking amongst the National League’s leaders in ERA, win-loss record, strikeouts and WHIP. Gallen’s been not the main reason, but one of many reasons Arizona is playing baseball deep into October.
With the @Dbacks winning the National League pennant, Zac Gallen is set to become the seventh former @DiamondHeels player to play in the World Series.
• Mule Shirley
• Burgess Whitehead
• Snuffy Stirnweiss
• Walt Weiss
• Matt Harvey
• Andrew Miller
• Zac Gallen pic.twitter.com/wX959uiziE— Pat James (@patjames24) October 25, 2023
Gallen and the Diamondbacks start their quest for World Series title number two, this time against the Texas Rangers, tonight at 8:03 p.m in Arlington. The two teams match up again on Saturday night at the same time, then head to Phoenix for three games starting Monday, Oct. 30.
Gallen has a chance to etch his name in Carolina Baseball history this coming week. He was 14-13 with a 3.36 earned run average and 231 strikeouts in Chapel Hill, but has been even better in the pros with a 39-31 record, 729 strikeouts and a 3.21 ERA.
If you want to watch Gallen ball out tomorrow night, tune into FOX at 8:03 p.m. ET.
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