On This Date: Ex-College Hoopsters Make Mark on September 21 MLB Games

September 21st, 2015 - 7:03

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 21 calendar focusing on such versatile MLB athletes:

SEPTEMBER 21

  • Milwaukee Braves 1B Joe Adcock (LSU's top basketball scorer in 1945-46) clobbered two homers against the Chicago Cubs in 1957.

  • Chicago Cubs rookie RF George Altman (appeared in 1953 and 1954 NAIA Tournament with Tennessee State) smacked two homers against the St. Louis Cardinals in 1959.

  • Montreal Expos RHP Ray Burris (two-sport standout in Southwestern Oklahoma State Hall of Fame) yielded only three hits in 10 innings against the Philadelphia Phillies in 1981.

  • St. Louis Cardinals 2B Frankie Frisch (Fordham captain) contributed four hits against the Cincinnati Reds in 1935.

  • Detroit Tigers 1B Hank Greenberg (enrolled at NYU on hoop scholarship in 1929 but attended college only semester) contributed six RBI in an 8-6 win against the Philadelphia Athletics in the opener of a 1938 twinbill.

  • Oakland Athletics 3B Wayne Gross (led Cal Poly Pomona in assists in 1974-75) collected two homers and five RBI in a 9-3 triumph against the Kansas City Royals in 1980.

  • Chicago Cubs SS Don Kessinger (three-time All-SEC selection for Mississippi from 1961-62 through 1963-64 while finishing among nation's top 45 scorers each year) smacked two triples against the Montreal Expos in a 1975 game.

  • Chicago Cubs CF Hank Leiber (played for Arizona in 1931) knocked in five runs against the New York Giants in 1939. The next year, Leiber supplied his fifth consecutive contest with multiple hits.

  • New York Giants RHP Christy Mathewson (played for Bucknell at turn of 20th Century), appearing for the third time in four games, notched his 30th victory in 1903.

  • St. Louis Cardinals rookie RF Don Padgett (freshman in 1934 with Lenoir-Rhyne NC excelled in multiple sports) went 4-for-4 against the Brooklyn Robins in the nightcap of a 1937 doubleheader.

  • Philadelphia Athletics rookie RHP Jim Peterson (Penn letterman from 1928-29 through 1930-31) lost his lone MLB complete game (6-5 against Detroit Tigers in nightcap of 1931 twinbill).

  • Chicago Cubs SS Paul Popovich (averaged 3.3 ppg for West Virginia's 1960 NCAA playoff team) went 3-for-3 against the St. Louis Cardinals, igniting a six-game hitting streak closing out the 1969 campaign.

  • Chicago Cubs RHP Don Prince (played for Campbell in 1956-57 and 1957-58 when school was junior college) made his lone MLB appearance (one inning against New York Mets in 1962).

  • Brooklyn Dodgers LHP Preacher Roe (played for Harding AR in late 1930s) hurled a shutout against the St. Louis Cardinals in the nightcap of a 1949 doubleheader.

  • New York Yankees 1B Bill "Moose" Skowron (scored 18 points in eight games for Purdue in 1949-50) supplied five hits but they stranded a MLB-mark 20 baserunners in a 13-7 setback against the Boston Red Sox in 1956.