On This Date: Former College Hoopsters Make Mark on July 19 MLB Games

July 19th, 2015 - 8:22

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 19 calendar focusing on such versatile MLB athletes:

JULY 19

  • Milwaukee Braves 1B Joe Adcock (Louisiana State's leading basketball scorer in 1945-46) went 4-for-4 with two homers and eight RBI against the New York Giants in 1956. Eight years later with the Los Angeles Angels in 1964, Adcock homered twice in a 4-0 victory against the Minnesota Twins in the nightcap of a twinbill.

  • New York Mets SS Bill Almon (averaged 2.5 ppg in half a season for Brown's 1972-73 team ending school's streak of 12 straight losing records) amassed four hits and scored four runs in a 13-3 win against the Cincinnati Reds in 1980.

  • Cleveland Indians SS Lou Boudreau (leading scorer for Illinois' 1937 Big Ten Conference co-champion) contributed three hits in both ends of a 1942 doubleheader sweep against the Boston Red Sox.

  • Washington Senators SS Tim Cullen (starting guard for Santa Clara in 1962-63 when averaging 10 ppg and 3.4 rpg) collected four hits in a 4-2 victory against the Detroit Tigers in 1967.

  • Boston Braves rookie 2B Jack Dittmer (played for Iowa in 1949-50), entering the game hitting .150, erupted for three safeties and five RBI in a 6-2 triumph against the St. Louis Cardinals in 1952.

  • Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame C Rick Ferrell (played for Guilford NC in mid-1920s) launched a homer off his brother (Wes Ferrell of Cleveland Indians) in 1933. Wes, who whacked a round-tripper in the same inning (fourth), finished his career with 38 HRs in 548 games while Rick had 28 in 1,884 contests.

  • Houston Astros reliever Buddy Harris (Philadelphia Textile letterman in 1965-66 and 1966-67) posted his lone MLB victory (against Philadelphia Phillies in 1971).

  • 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) whacked two homers against the Milwaukee Braves in 1963.

  • Chicago White Sox C Duane Josephson (led Northern Iowa in scoring in 1962-63 and 1963-64 under coach Norm Stewart) went 4-for-4 in a 6-3 success against the Baltimore Orioles in the nightcap of a 1970 doubleheader.

  • LHP Sandy Koufax (Cincinnati's freshman squad in 1953-54) started a second straight game for the last-place Los Angeles Dodgers in 1958. Koufax was lifted after walking four batters in the first inning the previous day.

  • New York Giants CF Hank Leiber (played for Arizona in 1931) knocked in five runs against the St. Louis Cardinals in 1938.

  • Washington Senators CF Don Lock (led Wichita State in field-goal percentage in 1956-57 and 1957-58 under coach Ralph Miller) went 4-for-4 with two homers and five RBI against the Boston Red Sox in the opener of a 1964 doubleheader.

  • Chicago White Sox CF Kenny Lofton (Arizona's leader in steals for 1988 Final Four team compiling a 35-3 record) lashed a leadoff homer for the second straight game against the Kansas City Royals in 2002.

  • Boston Red Sox 1B Tony Lupien (Harvard captain in 1938-39) tripled in both ends of a 1942 twinbill against the Cleveland Indians.

  • Washington Senators RF Danny Moeller (Millikin IL captain in 1905-06) stole second, third and home in the opening inning before doubling and tripling later in the game against the Cleveland Indians in 1915.

  • LHP Gary Peters (played for Grove City PA in mid-1950s) whacked a 13th-inning pinch-hit homer to give the Chicago White Sox a 3-2 win against the Kansas City Athletics in 1964.

  • Atlanta Braves RF 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) scored four runs against the Milwaukee Brewers in 1998.

  • New York Yankees 3B Red Rolfe (played briefly with Dartmouth in 1927-28 and 1929-30) homered in his fourth consecutive contest in 1942.

  • OF Ted Savage (led Lincoln MO in scoring average in 1955-56) knocked in the game-winning run in the 11th inning as the Cincinnati Reds overcame a 9-0 deficit to edge the Houston Astros, 10-9, in 1969.

  • New York Giants RHP Hal Schumacher (played for St. Lawrence NY in early 1930s) hurled a 12-hit shutout against the Cincinnati Reds in 1934. The whitewash was Schumacher's ninth straight winning decision.

  • New York Yankees 1B-OF Norm Siebern (member of Southwest Missouri State's back-to-back NAIA Tournament titlists in 1952 and 1953) notched his second five-hit game of the month in 1958 (against Kansas City Athletics).

  • New York Yankees 1B Bill "Moose" Skowron (scored 18 points in eight games for Purdue in 1949-50) stroked a decisive ninth-inning, bases-loaded double in the ninth inning after previously providing two homers in a 13-11 triumph against the Cleveland Indians in 1960.

  • Chicago Cubs LF Riggs Stephenson (Alabama letterman in 1920) went 4-for-4 against the New York Giants in 1926.

  • In 1977, San Diego Padres LF Dave Winfield (starting forward with Minnesota's first NCAA playoff team in 1972) went 2-for-2, including a two-run single off Sparky Lyle, in Winfield's first of 12 consecutive All-Star Game appearances.

  • San Diego Padres RHP Chris Young (All-Ivy League first-team selection for Princeton in 1999-00) earned his fifth straight victory, surrendering only two hits in seven innings of a 1-0 verdict over the Philadelphia Phillies in 2007.