On This Date: Former College Hoopers Make Mark on August 5 MLB Games

August 5th, 2019 - 20:48

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 hoopers had front-row seats to many of the most notable games, transactions and dates in MLB history.

Former Morehead State hoopers Denny Doyle and Steve Hamilton had significant MLB career games on this date. Unless you habitually pore over the content at baseballlibrary.com, baseballreference.com and nationalpastime.com, following is an August 5 calendar focusing on such versatile MLB athletes:

AUGUST 5

  • San Diego Padres RHP Mike Adams (played basketball for Texas A&M-Kingsville in 1996-97) scored upon for the only time in a span of 19 relief appearances in 2008.

  • Milwaukee Braves 1B Joe Adcock (Louisiana State's leading scorer in 1945-46) collected two homers and five RBI for the third time in a 15-game span in 1962.

  • Chicago White Sox 1B Zeke Bonura (best basketball forward for Loyola LA in late 1920s and early 1930s) contributed three safeties in both ends of a 1936 doubleheader against the St. Louis Browns.

  • Cleveland Indians SS Lou Boudreau (leading scorer for Illinois' 1937 Big Ten Conference co-champion) provided four hits for the second time in a five-game span in 1945.

  • Baltimore Orioles CF Al Bumbry (Virginia State's runner-up in scoring with 16.7 ppg as a freshman in 1964-65) belted his second leadoff homer in two days in 1982.

  • OF Billy Cowan (co-captain of Utah's 1960 NCAA hoops playoff team) traded by the New York Mets to the Milwaukee Braves in 1965.

  • Boston Red Sox 2B Denny Doyle (averaged 2.7 ppg for Morehead State in 1962-63) went hitless, snapping his career-high 22-game hitting streak in 1975. The next day, Doyle started a seven-game hitting skein.

  • RHP Dave Giusti (made 6 of 10 field-goal attempts in two games for Syracuse in 1959-60) purchased from the Oakland Athletics by the Chicago Cubs in 1977.

  • New York Yankees LHP Steve Hamilton (All-OVC selection was Morehead State's leading scorer and rebounder in 1956-57 and 1957-58) secured the lone MLB shutout in his 12-year career (five-hitter against Cleveland Indians in nightcap of 1966 doubleheader).

  • Posting one of his N.L.-leading five shutouts in 1950, New York Giants RHP Jim Hearn (Georgia Tech hoops letterman in 1941-42) yielded a leadoff single before throttling the Pittsburgh Pirates the remainder of the way in a 5-0 whitewash.

  • New York Mets 1B Rick Herrscher (SMU's leading scorer in 1957-58 as All-SWC first-team selection) hammered his lone MLB homer (three-run blast against Cincinnati Reds in opener of 1962 doubleheader).

  • Chicago White Sox 1B Gail Hopkins (averaged 2.5 ppg with Pepperdine in 1963-64) supplied four hits against the Washington Senators in a 1969 game.

  • CF Kenny Lofton (Arizona's leader in steals for 1988 Final Four team compiling a 35-3 record) scored the winning run in the 11th inning in 2001 when the Cleveland Indians erased a 14-2 deficit in the seventh to prevail, 15-14, against the Seattle Mariners. Five years earlier, Lofton finished a four-game series against the Baltimore Orioles in 1996 going 11-for-20 with three homers.

  • Chicago Cubs RF Jerry Martin (1971 Southern Conference Tournament MVP after finishing runner-up in scoring previous season for Furman) whacked two homers against the Pittsburgh Pirates in a 1980 contest.

  • Baltimore Orioles RHP Ben McDonald (started six games as 6-6 freshman forward for LSU in 1986-87 under coach Dale Brown) hurled a one-hit shutout against the Milwaukee Brewers in 1994.

  • Washington Senators 2B Buddy Myer (Mississippi State hoops letterman in 1923-24) went 4-for-4 with four runs scored and seven RBI against the Detroit Tigers in a 1929 game.

  • Chicago Cubs RF Bill Nicholson (hoops guard for Washington College MD two years in mid-1930s) banged out four hits against the Pittsburgh Pirates after homering in three previous games in 1944.

  • Detroit Tigers OF Jim Northrup (second-leading scorer and third-leading rebounder for Alma MI in 1958-59) went 4-for-4 against the New York Yankees in 1973, capping off a six-game spurt raising his batting average from .268 to .310.

  • Seattle Mariners RF Leon Roberts (grabbed one rebound in four basketball games for Michigan in 1970-71 under coach Johnny Orr) contributed multiple hits in his sixth consecutive contest in 1978.

  • OF Richie Scheinblum (averaged 6.1 ppg and 3.6 rpg in 1962-63 and 1963-64 with LIU-C.W. Post) purchased from the Kansas City Royals by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1974.

  • Pittsburgh Pirates RHP Kent Tekulve (freshman hooper for Marietta OH in mid-1960s) won opener and saved nightcap of 1979 twinbill against the Philadelphia Phillies.

  • Cleveland Indians 1B Jim Thome (played junior-college hoops for Illinois Central in 1988-89) smacked two homers in a 2001 game against the Seattle Mariners. Eight years later as Chicago White Sox DH, he whacked a pair of round-trippers in 2009 contest against the Los Angeles Angels.

  • LHP Matt Thornton (averaged 5.8 ppg and 2.4 rpg for Grand Valley State MI from 1995-96 through 1997-98) awarded on waivers from the New York Yankees to the Washington Nationals in 2014.

  • Philadelphia Phillies RF Cy Williams (Notre Dame forward in 1909-10), who went on to lead the N.L. in homers in 1927, hit for the cycle and knocked in six runs in a 9-7 triumph against the Pittsburgh Pirates.