Andrew Vaughn, Cal’s newest World Series champion, shares a curious distinction with legendary Jackie Jensen, the first Golden Bear to win the Fall Classic.

On Wednesday night in Tampa, Fla., Vaughn and the Milwaukee Brewers polished off the Rays 4-1, completing a five-game run to the franchise’s first-ever World Series crown.

For Vaughn, who was college baseball’s Golden Spikes Award winner as a sophomore in 2018 and became the No. 3 overall draft pick by the White Sox a year later, the road to a world championship must have seemed impossible less than two years ago.

From a record 121 losses with the White in 2024, Vaughn was traded to Milwaukee in June of 2025 and was part of a Brewers team that posted 103 victories this season — the most in baseball.

A platoon player at first base most of this season, he batted .306 in 106 games, but fell out of the rotation in the postseason when the Brewers won 11 of 13 games in three series. He was 2 for 8 with two walks in six games for a .400 on-base percentage.

He played in two World Series games, batting 0-for-1.

It was in Game 4 on Tuesday when Vaughn had a moment that paralleled Jensen's experience from 76 years ago in the 1950 Series.

Vaughn came to the plate in the ninth inning and saw two pitches before Cooper Pratt was thrown out trying to steal second. That was it for Vaughn, his night complete. As a result, Vaughn played without an official plate appearance or the chance to play in the field.

The Athletic dubbed him “The Phantom of October,” and reported Vaughn as the 40th player in World Series history to record an “invisible at-bat, meaning he played in a game but did not get a plate appearance.

Jensen’s experience in the World Series with the Yankees was just as unusual. The 23-year-old rookie, who was a two-sport icon at Cal, appeared in only one game as the Yankees beat the New York Giants 4 games to 2.

Jensen went on to become an All-Star center fielder and American League MVP with the Boston Red Sox in 1958. But he saw limited action in 1950 behind two Yankees immortals — 36-year-old Joe DiMaggio and 19-year-old Mickey Mantle.

He was used as a pinch-runner in his only World Series appearance, and like Vaughn, had no appearance at the plate or in the field.

But three years after leading Cal to the championship in the first-ever College World Series, Jensen earned a ring in the majors.

Vaughn became the fourth former Cal player to win a World Series. 

Lance Blankenship and the A’s captured the 1989 “earthquake” Series against the Giants and Geoff Blum, in his only at-bat in the 2005 Series, hit a go-ahead home run in the 14th inning, sparking the White Sox to a 7-5 victory on the way to a four-game sweep of the Astros. 

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