Purdue Baseball Makes History This Weekend

Purdue has been playing baseball for 130 years, but this year it is setting records with both its current program and with its former players. Tonight the current team won its 26^th game in walk-off fashion over Northwestern. That continues to lead the country in turnarounds from last year as Purdue has already won 16 more games than last season. The news off the diamond also got better.

Both Nick Wittgren and Josh Lindblom have been in the Majors before this year, but both were called up to their respective big clubs within the past week. Lindblom got his call this week from Triple-A Indianapolis to the Pittsburgh Pirates, and with Wittgren going from New Orleans to the Miami Marlins on Wednesday it gives Purdue three players in Major League Baseball at the same time for possibly the first time ever.

The third player is New York Mets catcher Kevin Plawecki, who famously had his pitching debut in a blowout loss last Sunday. He has had only six at bats with the Mets this season, but he is currently on the active roster as Lindblom heads to Pittsburgh.

In 1998 Archi Cianfrocco, Jermaine Allensworth, and Rico Rossi all spent time in the Majors, but after contacting our baseball SID we’re not sure if all three were in the Majors at the same time. They played in 40, 34, and 37 games, respectively

Even though it took 130 years for Purdue to get as many as three players in the Show at the same time it is possible for there to be FOUR guys in the Show this season depending on how long Plawecki, Wittgren, and Lindblom stay up. Cameron Perkins, the third baseman with Plawecki and Wittgren from that great 2012 team, is batting .291 with 3 HR and 9 RBI for Triple-A Lehigh Valley in the Phillies organization. He is not on the 40-man roster, however, making his promotion to the big club difficult. It is his second straight season at Triple-A.

If Perkins makes it to Philadelphia this season he would be the 17^th Major League all-time from Purdue. It should also be noted that Jordan Comadena is currently the bullpen catcher in Pittsburgh for the Pirates. That carries no role where he would actually get into a game, but he is still is in his second year helping out the big club after his minor league career ended in 2012.

ED. NOTE: Alert reader Thomas Rotter submitted the following:

In the article, you mention Archi Cianfrocco, Jermaine Allensworth, and Rico Rossi playing in 1998, but you were uncertain if they were all in the majors at the same time. They were all in fact in the Majors at the same time. From around the end of June to the end of the season, Archi Cianfrocco was on the Padres, Jermaine Allensworth was on the Pirates, Royals, and Mets, and Rico Rossi was on the Mariners. This was an earlier instance of three Boilers in the Majors.

In fact, three Boilers were in the Majors at the same time for the first time in 1951. On May 10th, Ken Silvestri was on the Phillies, Bob Kelly was on the Cubs, and Bob Friend was on the Pirates.

I used Baseball Reference to find this information.