Home Run Derby: Nine Ex-College Hoopers Swatted > 300 MLB Career Clouts
July 15th, 2024 - 12:02
In deference to the Home Run Derby during All-Star Game break festivities, following is a rundown of nine former college hoopers (four-year schools and jucos) swatting more than 300 MLB career homers:
| Former College Hooper | MLB HRs | Summary of MLB Round-Tripper Achievements | Summary of College Hoops Career |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jim Thome | 612 | Led N.L. with 47 homers for Philadelphia Phillies in 2003 - the third of four straight seasons with them and Cleveland Indians when finishing with more than 40 (career-high 52 in 2002 with Tribe). 1B-3B finished eight seasons among top five in circuit clouts - six in A.L. and two in N.L. Thome is MLB's all-time leader in walk-off homers with 13 (eight of them in extra innings). He went yard for his 300th, 400th, 500th and 600th homer with four different franchises. Thome amassed a total of 48 multi-homer outings. | "About a mile from our (Peoria, IL) house was the ghetto," Thome said. "It was where the best basketball games were played. I'd go over there all the time. I usually was the only white kid in the games, and they respected me because I kept coming back." He played for local junior college Illinois Central in 1988-89. "My father was tough on me, pushing me," Thome said. "I remember when I scored 36 points in a state tournament basketball game. It was one point off a school record. I thought my dad would be happy, but that night he talked about the mistakes I made on defense and in rebounding." According to ICC's athletic department, "People weren't sure which sport, basketball or baseball, was Jim's best." ICC hoops coach Carroll Herman said: "He (Thome) was a plugger, strong on the boards and gave us toughness inside. He could have gone on and played at a four-year school. He was good enough." |
| Dave Winfield | 465 | Eleven seasons with at least 24 big flys. OF finished among top five in homers in a league three times - 1979 with San Diego Padres and 1982 (career-high 37) and 1983 with New York Yankees. | Played two seasons of varsity basketball as a 6-6, 220-pound forward with Minnesota, averaging 6.9 ppg and 5.4 rpg as a junior in 1971-72 and 10.5 ppg and 6.1 rpg as a senior in 1972-73. He played the entire game, collecting eight points and eight rebounds against eventual Final Four participant Florida State, in the Gophers' first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1972 under coach Bill Musselman. Selected by the Atlanta Hawks in fifth round of 1973 NBA draft and the Utah Stars in sixth round of 1973 ABA draft. Didn't play college football, but was chosen in the 17th round of the 1973 NFL draft by the Minnesota Vikings. Excerpt from school guide: "Recruited out of intramural ranks to lend depth, became a starter and was a giant in the stretch drive. Amazing athlete leaps like a man catapulted. Soft touch from medium range." |
| Darrell Evans | 414 | Led A.L. with 40 homers for Detroit Tigers in 1985. Swatted career-high 41 with the Atlanta Braves in 1973 when he outhomered teammate Henry Aaron (40). He also went deep more often than Aaron the next season, 25-20. 3B-1B finished five seasons among top six in going yard - three in N.L. and two in A.L. His first MLB dinger came off St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famer Bob Gibson, a former hoops standout with Creighton. Evans walloped his first and last round-tripper with the Braves 18 years apart. | As a sophomore for Pasadena (Calif.) City College in 1966-67, the 6-2 Evans was a member of a Jerry Tarkanian-coached club winning the state junior college crown. |
| Graig Nettles | 390 | Led the A.L. with 32 homers for the New York Yankees in 1976 - the fourth of seven straight seasons blasting at 20 (career-high 37 in 1977). 3B also finished among the top six in circuit clouts three other times in the 1970s. | Averaged 5.3 ppg while earning basketball letters in his hometown for San Diego State in 1963-64 and 1964-65. The 6-0 Nettles shot 87.8% from the free-throw line (36-of-41) as a sophomore in 1963-64. |
| Frank Howard | 382 | Led the A.L. with 44 homers in 1968 and 1970 for the Washington Senators sandwiched around a career-high 48 in 1969. OF-1B finished five seasons among the top five in circuit clouts - once in N.L. and four times in A.L. Hammered four of his first five MLB dingers off former hoopers from power conferences (Michigan State's Robin Roberts, Oklahoma's Lindy McDaniel, Georgia's Jim Umbricht and Louisiana State's Mark Freeman). | Two-time All-Big Ten Conference first-team selection averaged 17.4 ppg and 13.9 rpg for Ohio State from 1955-56 through 1957-58, leading the Buckeyes in both scoring and rebounding as a junior (20.1 ppg and 15.3 rpg) and senior (16.9 ppg and 13.6 rpg). The 6-5, 220-pounder grabbed a still existing school single-game record of 32 rebounds against Brigham Young his junior season. It was one of 10 times he retrieved 20 or more missed shots. Howard finished his college career as OSU's third-leading career scorer and leading rebounder. He was a first-team All-American selection by the USBWA, Look Magazine, Converse and NEA as a junior when ranking eighth in the nation in rebounding. Third-round choice of the Philadelphia Warriors in the 1958 NBA draft. Excerpt from school guide: "One of the strongest players in college basketball and one of the top rebounders. Shoots very well from the outside." |
| Gil Hodges | 370 | Supplied 11 consecutive campaigns with at least 22 homers for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers from 1949 through 1959 (including career-high 42 in 1954 when 1B finished among the top three in N.L. in circuit clouts for fourth time in five-year span). Walloped his 100th dinger off the Boston Braves' Jim Wilson, a former hooper with San Diego State. | Gil and his brother (Bob), natives of Petersburg, Ind., enrolled at St. Joseph's (Ind.) in the fall of 1941 and played for the Pumas in 1942-43. Gil, a Marine who spent 18 months in the Pacific with 80 of those days in combat on Okinawa, later attended Oakland City, where he played basketball in 1947 and 1948. Morris Klipsch, a Petersburg auto dealer, says Gil may have liked basketball as much as baseball. "I recall him saying one fall after the Dodgers season was over that he would like to join a pro basketball team," Klipsch said. |
| Joe Adcock | 336 | Jolted career-high 38 homers (runner-up in N.L.) with the Milwaukee Braves in 1956 when outhomering teammate Hank Aaron (26). 1B-LF also finished fourth in the N.L. with 35 big flys in 1961. He smashed homers against four different Brooklyn Dodgers pitchers in a single game on July 31, 1954. Belted a couple of milestone dingers off former freshman hoopers for power-conference members - North Carolina State's Roger Craig (100th) and Oklahoma's Lindy McDaniel (200th). | Played for Louisiana State from 1944-45 through 1946-47 as a 6-4, 190-pound center. Leading scorer with 18.6 ppg for the 1945-46 Tigers team compiling an 18-3 record and losing against Kentucky in the Southeastern Conference Tournament final. All-SEC second-team selection set SEC Tournament record with 15 field goals in a game against Tulane in 1946 (subsequently broken by UK's Melvin Turpin with 18 vs. Georgia in 1984). |
| Hank Greenberg | 331 | Hammered 40 or more homers in four seasons with the Detroit Tigers. 1B-LF led the A.L. in circuit clouts in four campaigns (1935-38-40-46) despite missing three years serving in U.S. Army Air Forces during WWII. | The 6-3 Greenberg enrolled at NYU on a basketball scholarship in 1929 but attended college only one semester. |
| David Justice | 305 | Jacked career-high 41 homers in 2000 (fourth in A.L.) when splitting season between the Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees. OF led the Atlanta Braves by depositing 40 beyond the outfielder barrier in 1993 (runner-up in N.L.). | Averaged 6.4 ppg and 2.3 rpg for Thomas More College (Ky.) in 1983-84 and 1984-85. In his second and final year, the 6-3 Justice led the team with 92 assists while averaging 9.3 ppg and 3.5 rpg. |