On This Date: Former College Hoopsters Make Mark on August 15 MLB Games

August 15th, 2015 - 6:07

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 an August 15 calendar focusing on such versatile MLB athletes:

AUGUST 15

  • California Angels 1B Joe Adcock (Louisiana State's leading basketball scorer in 1945-46) socked two homers against the Minnesota Twins in 1966.

  • Philadelphia Phillies CF Ethan Allen (Cincinnati letterman in 1924-25 and 1925-26) provided four hits against the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1935.

  • California Angels 1B Bruce Bochte (starting forward for Santa Clara's NCAA playoff team in 1970 averaged 7.4 ppg and 4 rpg) contributed three extra-base hits in an 8-0 win against the Detroit Tigers in 1975.

  • 2B Frank Bolling (averaged 7.3 ppg in 1950-51 for Spring Hill AL) knocked in all of the Detroit Tigers' runs in a 12-5 setback against the Kansas City Athletics in 1958.

  • Cleveland Indians SS Lou Boudreau (leading scorer for Illinois' 1937 Big Ten Conference co-champion) secured seven safeties in a 1948 doubleheader sweep of the Chicago White Sox.

  • Milwaukee Braves RHP Gene Conley (All-PCC first-team selection led North Division in scoring in 1949-50 as a Washington State sophomore) won his ninth consecutive contest in 1954 (2-1 against Chicago Cubs). Seven years later, Conley was with the Boston Red Sox in 1961 when he tossed a shutout and cracked a homer in an 8-0 shelling of the Cleveland Indians.

  • 1B Walt Dropo (Connecticut's first player ever to average 20 points for season with 21.7 ppg in 1942-43) was hospitalized after beaning in 1950 but the Boston Red Sox began a streak of winning 27 of their next 30 games.

  • In the midst of 11 consecutive scoreless appearances, New York Yankees LHP Steve Hamilton (All-OVC selection was Morehead State's leading scorer and rebounder in 1956-57 and 1957-58) notched a win against the Kansas City Athletics with four innings of one-hit relief in the nightcap of a 1965 doubleheader.

  • Cleveland Indians CF Kenny Lofton (Arizona's leader in steals for 1988 Final Four team compiling 35-3 record) logged four hits and four RBI against the Minnesota Twins in 2001.

  • Boston Red Sox 1B Tony Lupien (Harvard captain in 1938-39 accumulated four hits against the St. Louis Browns for the third time in 1943.

  • New York Giants RHP Christy Mathewson (played for Bucknell at turn of 20th Century) blanked opponents going into extra innings but wound up losing each contest - against the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1910 and Boston Braves in 1914.

  • RF Greasy Neale (West Virginia Wesleyan College hoopster graduated in 1915) pilfered second, third and home in the ninth inning to help the Cincinnati Reds upend the New York Giants, 4-0, in the nightcap of a 1919 twinbill.

  • Homering in his third and fourth consecutive contests, RF Bill Nicholson (guard for Washington College MD two years in mid-1930s) socked three homers, two doubles and a single but the Chicago Cubs dropped both ends of a 1942 doubleheader against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

  • Houston Astros 2B Rob Sperring (averaged 8.7 ppg and 2.9 rpg for Pacific from 1968-69 through 1970-71) supplied a career-high four hits in a 15-3 rout of the Atlanta Braves in 1977.

  • New York Giants C Wes Westrum (played for Bemidji State MN one season before serving in military during WWII) provided the difference with an eighth-inning, two-run homer in a 3-1 decision over the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1951.

  • San Francisco Giants CF Randy Winn (Santa Clara backcourtmate of eventual two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Steve Nash in 1993-94) hit for the cycle against the Cincinnati Reds in 2005.