An All-American team is an honorary sports team composed of the best amateur players of a specific season for each team position—who in turn are given the honorific "All-America" and typically referred to as "All-American athletes", or simply "All-Americans". Although the honorees generally do not compete together as a unit, the term is used in U.S. team sports to refer to players who are selected by members of the national media. Walter Camp selected the first All-America team in the early days of American football in 1889.[1]
The NCAA recognizes two different All-America selectors for the 1988 college baseball season: the American Baseball Coaches Association (since 1947) and Baseball America (since 1981).[2]
| ABCA | American Baseball Coaches Association | |
| BA | Baseball America | |
| Awarded the Golden Spikes Award, Dick Howser Trophy or Rotary Smith Award as national Player of the Year | ||
| Player (X) | Denotes the number of times the player had been named an All-American at that point | |
| ♦ | Inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame[3] |
| width=10% | Position | width=15% | Name | width=15% | School | width=5% | ABCA | width=5% | BA | width=35% class="unsortable" | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pitcher | Andy Benes | Evansville | BA Pitcher of the Year 2x MLB All-Star (1993, 1996),[4] First overall pick in 1988 Major League Baseball Draft, Gold Medal at 1988 Summer Olympics[5] | ||||||||
| Pitcher | Gregg Olson (2) | Auburn | |||||||||
| Pitcher | John Salles | Fresno State | |||||||||
| Pitcher | Ben McDonald ♦ | LSU | |||||||||
| Pitcher | Kirk Dressendorfer ♦ | Texas | |||||||||
| Catcher | Bert Hefferman | Clemson | |||||||||
| Catcher | Jim Campanis, Jr. | Clemson | |||||||||
| First baseman | Lance Shebelut | Fresno State | 32 home runs in a single season (1988) (T-13th in Division I) | ||||||||
| Second baseman | Mark Standiford | Wichita State | 313 career runs (4th in Division I), 94 career doubles (2nd in Division I), 652 career total bases (6th in Division I), 301 career RBI (8th in Division I), 258 career BB (3rd in Division I) | ||||||||
| Second baseman | Kevin Higgins | Arizona State | |||||||||
| Third baseman | Robin Ventura (2) | Oklahoma State | |||||||||
| Shortstop | Dave Silvestri (2) | Missouri | |||||||||
| Shortstop | Monty Fariss | Oklahoma State | 92 BB in a single season (1987) (6th in Division I), | ||||||||
| Outfielder | Mike Fiore | Miami | |||||||||
| Outfielder | Tom Goodwin | Fresno State | 164 career SB (9th in Division I), Gold Medal at 1988 Summer Olympics | ||||||||
| Outfielder | Billy Masse | Wake Forest | |||||||||
| Designated hitter | Mike Willes (2) | BYU | |||||||||
| Utility player | John Olerud ♦ | Washington State | Made BA team as DH and P; BA POY,. 434 career batting average (12th in Division I),. 824 career slugging percentage (9th in Division I), 2x MLB All-Star,[10] 3x Gold Glove Award winner |