Golden Spikes Award facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Golden Spikes Award
Logo for the Golden Spikes Award
Given for	Amateur baseball's best regular season player
Country	United States
Presented by	USA Baseball
History
First award	1978
Most recent	Wehiwa Aloy, Arkansas
Website	Golden Spikes Award

The Golden Spikes Award is a special prize given every year to the best amateur baseball player in the United States. Amateur players are those who play for fun or for their school, not as paid professionals. This award was created by USA Baseball and first given out in 1978. It celebrates players who show amazing skill on the field and also have great sportsmanship. Many people think the Golden Spikes Award is one of the most important awards in amateur baseball.

Many players who won the Golden Spikes Award went on to do great things in professional baseball. For example, Bob Horner was the very first winner in 1978. He was also the first player picked in the Major League Baseball (MLB) draft that year. He even won the Rookie of the Year Award in the MLB in the same year! Other winners like Jim Abbott, Jered Weaver, and Tim Lincecum later pitched a "no-hitter" in an MLB game. A no-hitter is when a pitcher doesn't let the other team get any hits during a whole game. Bob Horner is also the only winner to hit four home runs in one MLB game!

The winner of the Golden Spikes Award is announced each year on the TV show SportsCenter. After the announcement, the winner and other top players are honored at a special event. The most recent player to win this award is Wehiwa Aloy from the Arkansas Razorbacks. Even though any amateur player can win, the award has always gone to a college baseball player.

Golden Spikes Award Winners

This section lists all the amazing baseball players who have won the Golden Spikes Award since it started. You can see their names, what position they played, and which college they attended when they won.

Bob Horner won the first Golden Spikes Award in 1978. He was also the top pick in the MLB draft and Rookie of the Year that same year.

Jered Weaver, who won in 2004, is one of three winners to pitch a no-hitter in the MLB.

Tim Lincecum won the award in 2006. He later won the Cy Young Award twice, which is given to the best pitcher.

Key to the Winners Table

Year	This links to information about that baseball year.
Player	The name of the player who won the award.
Position	The player's main position when they won the award.
School	The college the player attended when they won the award.
Italics	Means the player was the very first pick in the MLB draft in the same year they won the Golden Spikes Award.
^	Means the player also won the Rookie of the Year Award in the MLB.
§	Means the player also won the Dick Howser Trophy in the same year. This is another big award in college baseball.
	Means the player is a member of the National College Baseball Hall of Fame.
	Means the player is still actively playing baseball.

Winners of the Golden Spikes Award

Year	Player	Position	School	Ref.
1978	Horner, BobBob Horner^	3B	Arizona State
1979	Wallach, TimTim Wallach	3B	Cal State Fullerton
1980	Francona, TerryTerry Francona	1B	Arizona
1981	Fuentes, MikeMike Fuentes	OF	Florida State
1982	Schmidt, AugieAugie Schmidt	SS	New Orleans
1983	Magadan, DaveDave Magadan	3B	Alabama
1984	McDowell, OddibeOddibe McDowell	OF	Arizona State
1985	Clark, WillWill Clark	1B	Mississippi State
1986	Loynd, MikeMike Loynd	P	Florida State
1987	Abbott, JimJim Abbott	P	Michigan
1988	Ventura, RobinRobin Ventura§	3B	Oklahoma State
1989	McDonald, BenBen McDonald	P	LSU
1990	Fernández, AlexAlex Fernández§	P	Miami-Dade Community College
1991	Kelly, MikeMike Kelly	OF	Arizona State
1992	Nevin, PhilPhil Nevin	3B	Cal State Fullerton
1993	Dreifort, DarrenDarren Dreifort	P	Wichita State
1994	Varitek, JasonJason Varitek§	C	Georgia Tech
1995	Kotsay, MarkMark Kotsay	OF	Cal State Fullerton
1996	Lee, TravisTravis Lee	1B	San Diego State
1997	Drew, J. D.J. D. Drew§	OF	Florida State
1998	Burrell, PatPat Burrell	3B	Miami (FL)
1999	Jennings, JasonJason Jennings§^	P	Baylor
2000	Bouknight, KipKip Bouknight	P	South Carolina
2001	Prior, MarkMark Prior§	P	Southern California
2002	Greene, KhalilKhalil Greene§	SS	Clemson
2003	Weeks, RickieRickie Weeks§	2B	Southern
2004	Weaver, JeredJered Weaver§	P	Long Beach State
2005	Gordon, AlexAlex Gordon§	3B	Nebraska
2006	Lincecum, TimTim Lincecum	P	Washington
2007	Price, DavidDavid Price§	P	Vanderbilt
2008	Posey, BusterBuster Posey§^	C	Florida State
2009	Strasburg, StephenStephen Strasburg§	P	San Diego State
2010	Harper, BryceBryce Harper^	C/OF	College of Southern Nevada
2011	Bauer, TrevorTrevor Bauer	P	UCLA
2012	Zunino, MikeMike Zunino§	C	Florida
2013	Bryant, KrisKris Bryant§^	3B	San Diego
2014	Reed, A. J.A. J. Reed§	1B/P	Kentucky
2015	Benintendi, AndrewAndrew Benintendi§	OF	Arkansas
2016	Lewis, KyleKyle Lewis^	OF	Mercer
2017	McKay, BrendanBrendan McKay§	1B / P	Louisville
2018	Vaughn, AndrewAndrew Vaughn	1B	California
2019	Rutschman, AdleyAdley Rutschman§	C	Oregon State
2020	Not awarded	—	—
2021	Kopps, KevinKevin Kopps§	P	Arkansas
2022	Melendez, IvanIvan Melendez§	1B	Texas
2023	Dylan Crews	OF	LSU
2024	Charlie Condon§	1B/OF	Georgia
2025	Wehiwa Aloy	SS	Arkansas

Winners by College Team

This table shows how many times players from different colleges have won the Golden Spikes Award. It also shows the most recent year a player from that school won.

More Baseball Awards

• List of college baseball awards

See also

In Spanish: Premio Golden Spikes para niños