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

August 19th, 2015 - 6:45

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 19 calendar focusing on such versatile MLB athletes:

AUGUST 19

  • Chicago Cubs 1B George Altman (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 (played 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.

  • 2B Marv Breeding (played 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 letterman in 1922) hurled his third complete-game victory of the month in 1927.

  • Detroit Tigers 1B Hank Greenberg (enrolled at NYU on hoop 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.

  • New York Yankees LF David Justice (led Thomas More KY in assists in 1984-85) jacked two homers against the Anaheim Angels in 2000.

  • Philadelphia Phillies RHP Andy Karl (Manhattan 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 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 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 (played for Bucknell 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. player 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.

  • 1B-OF Norm Siebern (member of Southwest Missouri State's back-to-back NAIA Tournament 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.

  • 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 (played for Drury MO in 1949) hired as Houston Astros manager in 1975.