CGB Hall of Fame: (5) Bob Melvin vs. (4) Cameron Jordan

(5) Bob Melvin

Before being known as the manager of the Oakland A’s or a 10 year vet in the Big Leagues, Bob Melvin started in Berkeley in 1980. Overcoming being born in the city of Palo Alto, Melvin was a young catcher on a Cal squad that went to the College World Series and finished 3rd in the country (the best season since the Bears were the College World Series champ in 1957).

Like the rest of the Cal Baseball alumni, Melvin was a part of the effort to raise money to save the program recently. He also recently spoke out to the donors about the recent upgrades to Evans Diamond which includes the lights that has transformed Evans Diamond into a field that is like a minor league ball park.

Here is a video of Bob Melvin talking about that remarkable 2011 Cal Baseball season that started from the team on the chopping block but ended in Omaha: While there were probably stronger influences than former head coach Bob Milano in turning Bob Melvin into a Manager of the Year winning big league manager, us at CGB will no doubt continues to attribute the bulk of the credit to his one year in Berkeley.

(4) Cameron Jordan

You really can't describe Jordan's game better than Avinash does in this in-depth analysis:

"Jordan is an athletic marvel, with incredible arms he can whip around offensive linemen. He's prototypically perfect, the type of defensive linemen you could put on any front and he'd probably succeed. Perhaps Jordan's greatest assets are his arms, those million dollar arms. If he manages to make contact with you on your side when pass-rushing, he will utilize that deadly swim move, cycle that arm around, and get into the backfield and make a play. You have to defeat him and lock him up early. And when he finds you and tries to make a tackle? Might as well get your mind set for the next play, because you're not escaping."

From Remembering the Seniors:

NorCalNick: I loved many things about Cameron Jordan. For one thing, he went to more Cal games than I did. Cal vs. Stanford rugby at Witter field? Cam was there. Cal women's basketball versus, well, a bunch of teams? Cam was there. And he always showed up pretty noticeably at football games too. College fans have this ideal that the players they root for love their university as much as they do, and it's not a realistic or fair ideal most of the time. I'm pretty sure that it describes Cameron Jordan.

Solarise: I think Cam was an ideal teammate. You can tell from his easy smile that he just enjoys playing football. Coaches asked Cam to bring more intensity his senior year and he delivered. Cam was dynamic crashing through the line pursuing QBs, even earning a LIFE photo for his heroic harassment of Nick Foles in a bitter loss.