On This Date: Former College Hoopers Make News on August 19 MLB Games

August 15th, 2020 - 7:49

Extra! Extra! Unless you're a cardboard cut-out, you can read news 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 Southwest Missouri State hoopers Norm Siebern and Preston Ward supplied significant MLB performances on this date. Unless you habitually pore over the content at baseballlibrary.com, baseballreference.com and nationalpastime.com, following is an August 19 calendar focusing on such versatile MLB athletes:

AUGUST 19

  • Chicago Cubs 1B George Altman (hooper appeared in 1953 and 1954 NAIA Basketball Tournament with Tennessee State) amassed four hits in a 4-3 win against the Houston Colt .45s in 1962.

  • Pittsburgh Pirates LF Clyde Barnhart (hooper for Shippensburg PA predecessor Cumberland Valley State Normal School prior to World War I) went 4-for-4 and chipped in with five RBI against the Brooklyn Robins in 1925.

  • Philadelphia Phillies 1B Ed Bouchee (freshman hooper for Washington State in 1951-52) went 3-for-3 with double and triple in a 1958 game against the St. Louis Cardinals.

  • 2B Marv Breeding (hooper for Samford in mid-1950s) purchased from the Los Angeles Dodgers by the Baltimore Orioles in 1964.

  • Detroit Tigers rookie RHP Ownie Carroll (Holy Cross hoops letterman in 1922) hurled his third complete-game victory of the month in 1927.

  • Detroit Tigers 1B Hank Greenberg (enrolled at NYU on hoops scholarship in 1929 but attended college only one semester) collected three homers and eight RBI in a 1938 doubleheader sweep of the St. Louis Browns.

  • California Angels RHP Paul Hartzell (averaged 5.9 ppg and 3.4 rpg for Lehigh in 1972-73) hurled his fourth complete game in 22-day span in 1978.

  • Toronto Blue Jays 3B Garth Iorg (juco hooper with College of the Redwoods CA in mid-1970s) supplied three extra-b ase hits (two doubles and homer) plus three RBI in an 8-7 win against the Boston Red Sox in 1983.

  • New York Yankees LF David Justice (Thomas More KY assists leader in 1984-85 while averaging 9.3 ppg and 3.5 rpg) jacked two homers against the Anaheim Angels in 2000.

  • Philadelphia Phillies RHP Andy Karl (Manhattan hoops letterman from 1933 through 1935) saved Hall of Fame slugger Jimmie Foxx's only MLB pitching decision in 1945 (6-2 win against Cincinnati Reds).

  • New York Yankees LF Charlie Keller (Maryland hoops letterman from 1934-35 through 1936-37) homered in both ends of a 1942 twinbill split against the Boston Red Sox.

  • Detroit Tigers SS Harvey Kuenn (played hoops briefly for Wisconsin in 1951-52 after competing on JV squad previous season) contributed four hits against the Cleveland Indians in the nightcap of a 1954 doubleheader.

  • New York Giants RHP Christy Mathewson (Bucknell hooper at turn of 20th Century) had his 22-game winning streak against the Cincinnati Reds snapped in 1911.

  • Detroit Tigers LF Curtis Pride (led William & Mary in steals three times and assists twice while averaging 5.6 ppg and 3.1 apg from 1986-87 through 1989-90) smacked a pinch-hit, three-run homer against the Chicago White Sox in 1996.

  • OF Gary Redus (J.C. hooper for Athens AL and father of Centenary/South Alabama guard with same name) traded by the Chicago White Sox to the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1988.

  • Pittsburgh Pirates RF Dave Robertson (one of two reserves on North Carolina State's first basketball team in 1911) registered three extra-base hits (including pair of homers) and eight RBI in opener of 1921 doubleheader against the Philadelphia Phillies.

  • 1B-OF Norm Siebern (member of Southwest Missouri State's back-to-back NAIA Tournament hoop titlists in 1952 and 1953) supplied a pinch-hit, bases-loaded triple to help the Boston Red Sox outlasted the California Angels, 12-11, in 1967.

  • Philadelphia Phillies rookie SS Gary Sutherland (averaged 7.4 ppg with USC in 1963-64) went 3-for-3, including his first MLB homer, against the Chicago Cubs in 1967.

  • Boston Red Sox 3B Jim Tabor (Alabama hoops letterman in 1936-37) smacked two homers against the New York Yankees in opener of a 1942 twinbill.

  • Philadelphia Phillies 1B Jim Thome (played junior-college hoops for Illinois Central in 1988-89) swatted a homer in his fourth consecutive contest in 2003.

  • Detroit Tigers rookie SS Coot Veal (averaged team-high 10.9 ppg as Auburn sophomore in 1951-52 before transferring to Mercer) posted his second three-hit outing in the midst of a career-high 13-game hitting streak.

  • San Diego Padres CF Clint Venable (two-time All-Ivy League selection averaged 9.3 ppg under Princeton coach John Thompson III from 2001-02 through 2004-05) went hitless for the only time in his first 25 games of the month in 2013.

  • Bill Virdon (Drury MO hooper in 1949) hired as Houston Astros manager in 1975.

  • Pittsburgh Pirates RF Preston Ward (second-leading scorer for Southwest Missouri State in 1946-47 and 1948-49) provided fourth three-hit outing in a six-game span in 1954.

  • New York Yankees RF Dave Winfield (starting forward for Minnesota's first NCAA playoff team in 1972) went 4-for-4 in a 1984 game against the Oakland Athletics.