On This Date: Ex-College Hoopsters Make Mark on September 14 MLB Games

September 14th, 2015 - 6:13

Extra! Extra! Read all about memorable major league baseball achievements and moments involving former college basketball players! Baseball is portrayed as a thinking man's game but only 4% of active MLB players earned college diplomas. Nonetheless, numerous ex-college hoopsters had front-row seats to many of the most notable games, transactions and dates in MLB history.

Unless you habitually pore over the content at baseballlibrary.com, baseballreference.com and nationalpastime.com, following is a September 14 calendar focusing on such versatile MLB athletes:

SEPTEMBER 14

  • New York Yankees RHP Rich Beck (listed on Gonzaga's basketball roster in 1961-62) fanned eight batters and walked none while allowing one earned run in his seven-inning debut against the Washington Senators in 1965.

  • St. Louis Browns RF Beau Bell (two-year letterman for Texas A&M in early 1930s) banged out three extra-base hits against the Philadelphia Athletics in 1937.

  • Showing no indication of 20-year-old jitters in a pennant race, Brooklyn Dodgers RHP Ralph Branca (sixth-leading scorer for NYU in 1943-44) hurled a 5-0 shutout against the St. Louis Cardinals in 1946.

  • New York Yankees rookie LF Bob Cerv (ranked fourth on Nebraska's career scoring list in 1949-50 when finishing his career) collected two homers and five RBI against the Detroit Tigers in 1954. Four years later with the Kansas City Athletics, Cerv clubbed a homer in both ends of a 1958 doubleheader against the Yankees.

  • Philadelphia Athletics C Mickey Cochrane (played for Boston University in early 1920s) contributed three extra-base hits and four RBI against the St. Louis Browns in 1932.

  • Detroit Tigers CF Hoot Evers (Illinois starter in 1939-40) provided four hits against the Washington Senators in the opener of a 1947 twinbill.

  • Boston Red Sox LF Dick Gernert (Temple letterman in 1948-49 when averaging 2.7 ppg) contributed seven RBI in a 13-10 win against the Cleveland Indians in 1957.

  • Boston Red Sox RHP Dave Gray (played for Weber State in early 1960s when school was junior college) made his lone MLB start in 1964.

  • Detroit Tigers LF Hank Greenberg (enrolled at NYU on hoop scholarship in 1929 but attended college only one semester) launched a homer for the fifth consecutive contest and extra-base hit for the 10th straight outing in 1940. Six years later, Greenberg contributed two homers and seven RBI in a 7-4 win against the New York Yankees.

  • Pittsburgh Pirates SS Dick Groat (two-time All-American with Duke in 1950-51 and 1951-52 when finishing among nation's top five scorers each season) went 4-for-4 against the San Francisco Giants in 1962.

  • Oakland Athletics 3B Wayne Gross (led Cal Poly Pomona in assists in 1974-75) smacked a pinch-hit grand slam in an 8-3 victory against the Chicago White Sox in 1979.

  • Philadelphia Phillies RHP Andy Karl (Manhattan letterman from 1933 through 1935) collected his sixth save the first half of the month in 1945.

  • Houston Astros CF Kenny Lofton (Arizona's leader in steals for 1988 Final Four team compiling 35-3 record) collected three hits and three runs in his MLB debut against the Cincinnati Reds in 1991.

  • St. Louis Cardinals rookie CF Bake McBride (averaged 12.7 ppg and 8.1 rpg in 21 games with Westminster MO in 1968-69 and 1969-70) provided his third four-hit game in a four-day span in 1974.

  • St. Louis Cardinals RHP Lindy McDaniel (played for Oklahoma's 1954-55 freshman squad) fanned four Cincinnati Reds batters in 2 1/3 innings but yielded his only earned run in 11 relief appearances during the month in 1960.

  • In 1974, 3B Graig Nettles (shot 87.8% from free-throw line for San Diego State in 1963-64) homered for the New York Yankees in the first inning before brother Jim Nettles homered for the Detroit Tigers in the second. Four years later, Graig Nettles clobbered two homers against the Tigers in 1978. . . St. Louis Browns CF Ray Pepper (Alabama letterman in 1926-27) provided at least four hits in a game for the fifth consecutive month in 1934.

  • Brooklyn Dodgers LHP Preacher Roe (played for Harding AR in late 1930s) improved his record to 20-2 in 1951 with a 3-1 triumph against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

  • Cincinnati Reds OF Ted Tappe (leading scorer in 1949 NJCAA Tournament was Washington State's third-leading scorer the next year) smacked a pinch-hit homer in his first MLB at-bat (against Brooklyn Dodgers in 1950).

  • Washington Senators 2B Wayne Terwilliger (two-year letterman for Western Michigan in late 1940s) went 4-for-4 against the Detroit Tigers in 1953.

  • Pittsburgh Pirates LHP Bob Veale (scored 1,160 points from 1955-56 through 1957-58 with Benedictine KS), supported by Roberto Clemente's pair of homers, blanked the New York Mets, 6-0, in 1968. It was Veale's second shutout in a week.