On This Date: Former College Hoopsters Make Mark on July 18 MLB Games

July 18th, 2015 - 7:18

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 July 18 calendar focusing on such versatile MLB athletes:

JULY 18

  • RHP Mike Adams (played basketball for Texas A&M-Kingsville in 1996-97) traded by the Cleveland Indians to the San Diego Padres in 2006.

  • Philadelphia Phillies LF Ethan Allen (Cincinnati letterman in 1924-25 and 1925-26) delivered four hits and four RBI in a 9-8 loss against the Cincinnati Reds in 1934. The next year, Allen stroked three doubles in an 11-3 defeat against the Chicago Cubs.

  • Cincinnati Reds CF Frankie Baumholtz (MVP in 1941 NIT and first player in Ohio University history to score 1,000 career points) went 4-for-4 against the New York Giants in the opener of a 1948 doubleheader. It was Baumholtz's third consecutive contest with at least three safeties.

  • Brooklyn Dodgers RHP Ralph Branca (sixth-leading scorer for NYU in 1943-44) hurled a one-hitter in a 7-0 win against the St. Louis Cardinals in 1947.

  • Los Angeles Dodgers C-OF Joe Ferguson (member of Pacific's 1967 NCAA playoff team) broke up a no-hit bid by Luke Walker of the Pittsburgh Pirates with a ninth-inning homer in the nightcap of a 1971 twinbill.

  • St. Louis Cardinals 2B Frankie Frisch (Fordham captain) smacked two homers but they were in vain in an 8-7 setback against the New York Giants in 1930.

  • All-time hits leader Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds hit the only grand slam of his career with the homer yielded in 1964 by Philadelphia Phillies RHP Dallas Green (Delaware's second-leading scorer and rebounder in 1954-55).

  • Cincinnati Reds rookie 3B Chuck Harmon (second-leading scorer for Toledo in 1946-47 and 1947-48) stroked four hits against the New York Giants in the opener of a 1954 doubleheader.

  • Los Angeles Dodgers RF Frank Howard (two-time All-Big Ten Conference first-team selection when leading Ohio State in scoring and rebounding in 1956-57 and 1957-58) hammered two homers against the Cincinnati Reds in 1962 (including decisive blast in top of ninth inning).

  • 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) collected four hits and five RBI against the Atlanta Braves in 1967.

  • OF Jim Lyttle (led Florida State in free-throw shooting in 1965-66 when he averaged 12.4 ppg) purchased from the Chicago White Sox by the Montreal Expos in 1975.

  • New York Giants RHP Christy Mathewson (played for Bucknell at turn of 20th Century) blanked the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-0, in the nightcap of a 1913 doubleheader but his record string of 68 walkless innings came to a halt.

  • Baltimore Orioles RHP Ben McDonald (started six times as freshman forward for LSU in 1986-87 under coach Dale Brown) tossed a two-hit shutout against the Texas Rangers in 1992.

  • LF Sam Mele (NYU's leading scorer in 1943 NCAA playoffs) managed the only hit for the Baltimore Orioles against Boston Red Sox P Russ Kemmerer in the opener of a 1954 doubleheader.

  • Boston Red Sox SS Buddy Myer (Mississippi State letterman in 1923-24) went 4-for-4 against the Cleveland Indians in the nightcap of a 1927 doubleheader. Thirteen years later as a Washington Senators 2B, Myer went 4-for-4 against the Chicago White Sox in 1940.

  • Boston Red Sox 2B Pinky Pittenger (set Toledo's single-game scoring record with 49 points in 1918-19) went 4-for-4 against the Chicago White Sox in the nightcap of a 1923 twinbill.

  • Cincinnati Reds LHP Eppa Rixey (Virginia letterman in 1912 and 1914) fired his second shutout in less than a week en route to a N.L. leading four whitewashes in 1924.

  • After speaking out against racial discrimination testifying in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee, Brooklyn Dodgers INF Jackie Robinson (highest scoring average in Pacific Coast Conference both of his seasons with UCLA in 1939-40 and 1940-41) scored twice, once on a steal of home in the sixth inning, in a 3-0 triumph against the Chicago Cubs in 1949.

  • New York Giants RHP Hal Schumacher (multiple-sport athlete for St. Lawrence NY in early 1930s) allowed fewer than two earned runs in his seventh straight start in 1933.

  • In the midst of a career-high 10-game hitting streak in a one-week span in 1955 (including three twinbills), Philadelphia Phillies SS Roy Smalley Jr. (one of top scorers in 1942-43 and 1943-44 for Drury MO) whacked a homer for the third time in a four-game stretch.

  • St. Louis Cardinals 1B Bill White (played two years with Hiram OH in early 1950s) went 3-for-4 in each end of a twinbill sweep of the Chicago Cubs in 1961. White tied Ty Cobb's 49-year-old record of 14 hits in back-to-back doubleheaders.