Craig P. Connolly
Prior to the current Ivy League baseball format -- two four-team divisions, with the divisional winners meeting in a best-of-three series to determine the Ancient Eight’s NCAA participant -- there was the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League (EIBL), which featured the eight Ivy institutions plus Army and Navy. There were no divisions; one team emerged each year to top the 10-team standings. Just four times in the history of the EIBL (1930-92), that program was Penn. Three of them came in succession, from 1988-90, as the Quakers went 42-12 in conference play during those three years. A big reason for the Red and Bue’s success was its ace on the mound, Craig Connolly. The EIBL Pitcher of the Year in both 1989 and 1990 -- only one other person had won the award twice at the time of Connolly’s induction, some guy named Ron Darling -- he pitched nearly 260 innings and won 20 games during his career for the Quakers, numbers topped in the modern era only by Andy Muhlstock. Connolly also remains the program’s all-time leader in career strikeouts (227). Connolly tied for the EIBL lead in conference wins in both 1989 and 1990 (4 both years), and was the EIBL’s leader in conference ERA as a junior -- when he allowed just one run in 34.0 innings, a ridiculous 0.26 -- and again as a senior (two runs in 34.1 innings, 0.52) when he also topped the EIBL with 38 K’s. Not surprisingly, he was named first-team All-EIBL each of those season, and was a unanimous choice as a junior. After 85 years of EIBL/Ivy League baseball, Connolly’s junior-year ERA was still third in conference history at the time of his induction, while his senior-year ERA was 12th. Following his graduation, Connolly was drafted by the Oakland A’s in the 1990 Major League Baseball Draft.
