It doesn’t take much convincing of anyone who follows college baseball to say Kevin Kopps was the best player in the sport last year.
The former Arkansas reliever won the Golden Spikes Award, the Dick Howser Trophy, was named National Player of the Year by Collegiate Baseball and D1Baseball and was the SEC Pitcher of the Year.
Now he’s one of 38 amateur athletes up for the AAU Sullivan award. The honor has been bestowed annually since 1930 to the most outstanding amateur in the United States.
Kopps’ 2021 baseball season was the stuff of legend. He had an 0.90 earned-run average, a 0.76 WHIP and struck out 131 batters in 89 2/3 innings. Opposing batters hit just .162 against him.
His stuff was so good the San Diego Padres selected him in the third round of the draft this summer. It’s rare for a player without leverage to be taken that high.
You can vote for Kopps for the AAU Sullivan award at www.aausullivan.org. Voting closes at 11:59 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 27.
Previous winners of the award include Mark Spitz, Bill Walton, Carl Lewis, Michael Phelps and Tim Tebow.