Former Alabama baseball head coach Jim Wells has been selected to the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame 2024 class, a list including 10 other former college baseball head coaches. Wells will be inducted on Jan. 5th, 2024, at the hall of fame banquet induction ceremony in Grapevine, Texas.
Spending 15 years as the head coach of the Crimson Tide, Wells made himself the all-time winningest coach in program history with a record of 625-322. From 1995 to 2009, Wells racked up the most SEC wins at the Capstone with a program best of 259.
Wells led the Crimson Tide in three of the program’s five trips to the College World Series in 1996, 1997 and 1999. However, the national championship eluded Wells in all three of his trips to Omaha. His success in the SEC and NCAA brought the Crimson Tide to 12 NCAA regional berths, four 50-win seasons and 12 40-win seasons.
Under Wells, Alabama thrived in SEC play, topping the SEC West as division champions three times in 1996, 2002 and 2006. Alabama finished first in the SEC, winning the regular season title in 1996 and 2006. Capping off his SEC success, Wells led the Crimson Tide to six SEC tournament titles, winning it all in 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2002 and 2003.
Wells is accompanied by former LSU Tigers head coaches Paul Mainieri and Skip Bertman for the most SEC tournament titles in the tournament’s history. Named as the SEC Coach of the Year twice in his Alabama career, in 1996 and 2002, Wells has the most impressive SEC trophy cabinet to his name in Alabama baseball history.
During his 15 years in Tuscaloosa, Wells put together an impressive roster of MLB talent who came through Alabama and made it to the big leagues. Fourteen total former Crimson Tide players under Wells broke through and made an MLB roster and appearance in their careers. MLB All-Stars such as David Robertson (2011, New York Yankees) and Alex Avila (2011, Detroit Tigers), displayed Wells’ development of MLB players to break an All-Star team at the next level.
On Sept. 1, 2009, without calling for a press conference or addressing his players, Wells walked away from the helm of the Crimson Tide and entered retirement. After 15 seasons as the Crimson Tide’s skipper, Wells thought it was time for him to step down. The former Alabama head coach spoke about his exit from the Crimson Tide for the first time in November 2009, in an AL.com article.
“It seemed abrupt, but it really wasn’t,” Wells said. “This isn’t something I’ve thought about for a year or two. It has been weighing on me for several years. I could have stayed there and continued on, but I just felt it was best that I make the move.”
Going down in history as the winningest coach in the Alabama Crimson Tide baseball program history to this date, along with back-to-back College World Series berths, Wells built a winning culture at the University of Alabama baseball program and will be remembered for his winning ways in Tuscaloosa.
