1936 COLLEGE ALL-AMERICAN TEAMS REVEALED
Narragansett outfielder Sal Pestilli highlights the 1936 AIAA All-American team as selected by The Figment Sporting Journal. Pestilli, who is expected to be a top ten selection in the December draft and may receive consideration as the first overall pick, capped a terrific three year career at the tiny Rhode Island school that saw him be named a first team All-American each season. Pestilli is also the overwhelming favourite to become just the second college player to win a pair of Frank Christian Trophy's as the AIAA's best player. That winner of that award will be announced in a few days. At the moment, only former Lubbock State and current Detroit Dynamos infielder Bill Moore is the only player to be named the College Player of the Year twice.
Pestilli won the triple crown as a freshman and capped that season with the Christian Award. Last year he finished second in batting behind fellow outfielder Alex Lacombe, who joins him on this year's first team All-American squad. This season Pestilli hit .378 with 13 homers, good for tops in the AIAA in both of those categories while also contributing 54 rbi's, which was tied for 6th most. Pestilli's 3 year rbi total of 171 is the highest ever for a non-feeder player and ranks fifth all-time behind Moore, Vic Crawford, Pablo Reyes and Dave Henry so he is in some pretty exclusive company. Pestilli also ranks 7th all-time in career college hits with 260 and his .380 career batting average at Narragansett is the highest ever record, topping the previous mark of .354 established by Don Felice, who played for Northern Mississippi from 1930-1933.
Lacombe, who hit .347 as a sophomore outfielder at Cuyahoga University and pitcher Bunny Edwards, who was 7-1 with an AIAA best 2.10 era at Red River State, are the only other players making a repeat appearance on the All-American team. Each was a second team selection a year ago. This season's second team did have three players who were first teamers a year ago in Topeka State catcher Charlie Gagnon, Redwood University first baseman Jim Hammond and outfielder Joe Zielinski from Cesar Rodney University. Zieinski is a junior and will be draft eligible as will Edwards but the other three were all sophomores this season.
Bluegrass State was the only team to have two players recognized as freshman outfielder Don Hersey was named to the first time while junior shortstop Johnny Fleming earned the nod as a member of the second team. Fleming is listed as a potential second round pick by OSA and is drawing some comparison's to former Bluegrass State shortstop Tip Harrison. Harrison was a second round pick of Brooklyn in 1934 and is currently playing AAA for Newark in the Detroit organization. Harrison slashed .301/.382/.459 in his draft year when he was named a first team All-American. Fleming, who is praised by OSA for his defensive work at shortstop, slashed .305/.365/.474 this season for the Mustangs
Here are the 1936 AIAA All-Americans
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1936 FIRST TEAM
C Paul Wilkerson SO Oklahoma City State
1B Hans Wright JR Charleston (IL)
2B Jim Hackbart JR Chesapeake State
SS Sipe Ellison FR Eastern State
3B Denny Andrews JR Maryland State
OF Sal Pestilli JR Narragansett
OF Don Hersey FR Bluegrass State
OF Alex Lacombe SO Cuyahoga University
P Bunny Edwards JR Red River State
1936 SECOND TEAM
C Charlie Gagnon SO Topeka State
1B Jim Hammond SO Redwood University
2B Gypsy Jones JR North Carolina Tech
SS Johnny Fleming JR Bluegrass State
3B Spud Bent SO Maryland State
OF Joe Murdock JR Lawrence State
OF Joe Zielinski JR Cesar Rodney
OF Al Jennings JR Gates University
P Bill Willman SO Strub College
PESTILLI FAMILY MAKING IT'S MARK
Three sons of Italian immigrants, all enjoying a tremendous scholastic careers as outfielders while growing up in a city near the ocean. Yes, it is Rhode Island and the east coast instead of San Francisco and two are plying their trade in college outfields instead of the Pacific Coast League but when you think of FABL's Pestilli boys you can't help but draw comparison's to the real life DiMaggio clan.
The oldest is Alf, who was born in Sicily in 1912 shortly before his family embark across the Atlantic and settled in Westerly, Rhode Island. Sal had a solid junior season at Narragansett, a mid-level college based in Rhode Island, before being selected by the Toronto Wolves in the fourth round of the 1934 FABL draft. He enjoyed a very strong rookie pro season in the Wolves organization, hitting .373 with 43 homers in 118 games for Class C Tuscaloosa, leading the Gulf States League in both homers and rbi's while finishing third in batting average. Over the winter he was dealt to the Brooklyn Kings and after hitting .319 with 3 homers in 17 games at the Class A level, Pestilli was promoted to AA Knoxville where the 24 year old is batting .302 with 4 homers and 27 rbi's in 31 games.
Youngest brother Tony just completed his junior season at Westerly High School, by hitting .431 with 30 rbi's in 23 games. He is a .451 career hitter in 72 high school contests and FABL scouting service OSA feels the 17 year old has the raw defensive skills to develop into an elite center fielder. He will not be eligible to be drafted until after the 1937 season.
So if Alf and Tony represent Vince and Dom DiMaggio, that leaves Sal with the potential to be one of the greatest players of all-time. In three years at Narragansett University the 20 year old has done just that. Sal won the AIAA triple crown as a freshman (.409,16,66) and was named the winner of college baseball's Frank Christian Trophy as National Player of the Year. He dipped to .353,3,51 as a sophomore but still finished with the second best batting average in the AIAA and made his second straight appearance on the FSJ first team All-American squad. His draft year saw him lead the league in average and homers once again (.378,13,54) and OSA has him listed #1 in the early mock drafts. Pestilli is also a finalist along with pitchers Bunny Edwards of Red River State and Carl Roe of Valley State for the 1936 Christian Trophy and he will leave the college game with the highest career batting average in the 27 year history of the AIAA. It remains to be seen if he will be drafted first overall as there is a glut of talented outfielders but it seems like a safe bet that whoever drafts Pestilli will get a player with a very bright future in the game.