Top 50 Cal Pros: No 20 -- Orval Overall, Early World Series Hero

Originally posted on Cal Bears on SI | By Jeff Faraudo | Last updated Jul 3, 2025 10:39 AM ET

We are counting down Cal’s top 50 athletes based on their careers as post-collegiate professionals. Their performance as Golden Bears is not factored into the rankings.

20. ORVAL OVERALL

Years at Cal: 1900-01 to 1903-04

Sport: Baseball

Pro teams: Cincinnati Reds, Chicago Cubs

Age: Died at the age of 66 following a heart attack in 1947

Hometown: Farmersville, Calif.

Why we ranked him here: Cal’s first major leaguer and its first professional athlete of significance, Overall was a 6-foot-2, 214-pound right-handed pitcher equipped with a big curveball. Over seven MLB seasons, he assembled a career win-loss record of 108-71 with 30 complete-game shutouts and a sparkling 2.26 earned run average. He got the call on Opening Day every season from 1906 through ’10. After posting a 32-25 record while throwing 510 innings for Class-A Tacoma in 1904, Overall played parts of two seasons with the Reds, then was traded mid-year in 1906 to the Cubs. Starting then through the 1910 campaign, Overall compiled a record of 82-38. He was 23-7 with a 1.68 ERA in 1907 and 20-11 with a 1.42 ERA and a league-leading totals 205 strikeouts and nine shutouts in 1909. He might have won the Cy Young Award that season, except that Young was still an active player and the award had not yet ben created. Overall was at his best in the postseason, going 3-0 with an 0.99 earned run average in the Cubs’ 1907 and ’08 World Series triumphs — just the fourth and fifth Fall Classics ever contested. The Cubs didn’t win another Series for 108 years. Chicago won 104 games in 2009 but fell short of reaching the World Series for a third straight season. Overall was particularly tough on Ty Cobb, Detroit’s young star outfielder, who won the first two of his 12 batting titles in 1907 and ’08. In the World Series those two years, the man whose .366 career batting average remains the best of all-time managed to hit just .125 (2 for 16) in four games against Overall. Limited by a sore arm late in his career, Overall retired after the 1913 season.

At Cal: While Overall played two sports for the Bears, he made his mark in college on the football field. He was a three-year starter at guard, and also played fullback and punter. As a senior, he was team captain and an All-American. Overall played major roles in three Big Games: He blocked a kick for a safety in a 2-0 victory over Stanford in 1901, kicked two field goals in a 16-0 win in '02 and kicked the Bears into a 6-6 tie in ’03. He experienced arm soreness at times as a college pitcher and saw playing time in left field, first base and catcher. Overall was inducted into the Cal Athletic Hall of Fame in 1987.

This article first appeared on Cal Bears on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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