On This Date: Former College Hoopers Make Mark on October 1 MLB Games

October 1st, 2015 - 8:00

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 October 1 calendar focusing on such versatile MLB athletes:

OCTOBER 1

  • California Angels RHP Mike Barlow (basketball player for Syracuse from 1967-68 through 1969-70) won his lone start in 1977, yielding only two hits in seven innings in a 4-1 decision over the Kansas City Royals.

  • RHP Ralph Branca (sixth-leading scorer for NYU in 1943-44) incurred the loss for the Brooklyn Dodgers when they dropped the first-ever N.L. playoff in 1946 at St. Louis, which got three hits from C Joe Garagiola.

  • 1B Herb Conyers (second-leading scorer for Central Missouri State in 1941-42 when earning All-MIAA first-team recognition) clobbered a homer during an eighth-inning, five-run rally to help propel the Cleveland Indians to a 7-5 win against the Detroit Tigers in 1950.

  • Cincinnati Reds RHP Walker Cress (LSU letterman from 1936-37 through 1938-39) hurled a complete game but lost his lone MLB decision (2-1 against Pittsburgh Pirates in 1948).

  • Chicago White Sox RHP Charles "Slim" Embrey (Vanderbilt letterman in 1921-22 and 1922-23) appeared in his lone MLB game in 1923.

  • After having only 66 regular-season at-bats, Chicago White Sox backup 3B Sammy Esposito (averaged 7 ppg in 1951-52 as starting guard under Indiana coach Branch McCracken) batted twice in an 11-0 victory against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1959 World Series opener.

  • Los Angeles Dodgers C Joe Ferguson (member of Pacific's 1967 NCAA playoff team) collected six RBI in an 8-4 win against the San Francisco Giants in 1980.

  • San Francisco Giants RHP Bob Garibaldi (starting forward averaged 10.6 ppg and 5.6 rpg for Santa Clara in 1961-62) lost his lone MLB start (9-4 against San Diego Padres in 1969).

  • Pittsburgh Pirates LHP Joe Gibbon (two-time All-SEC forward for Ole Miss was nation's second-leading scorer as senior in 1956-57) went the distance winning his last three decisions of the 1961 campaign, including two shutouts (three-hitter and one-hitter).

  • In the first game ever broadcast live coast-to-coast, RHP Jim Hearn (Georgia Tech letterman in 1941-42) notched a career-high 17th triumph for the New York Giants in the opener of 1951 N.L. playoff series against Branca and the Brooklyn Dodgers. Supporting Hearn with a homer was LF Monte Irvin (played for Lincoln PA 1 1/2 years in late 1930s).

  • Brooklyn Dodgers 1B Gil Hodges (played for Oakland City IN in 1947 and 1948) contributed three hits and three RBI in an 8-5 triumph against the New York Yankees in Game 4 of the 1955 World Series.

  • Cincinnati Reds RF Earle "Greasy" Neale (West Virginia Wesleyan College hoopster graduated in 1915) contributed three hits in a 9-1 success against the Chicago White Sox in the opener of the 1919 World Series.

  • In his third start in five days, RHP Robin Roberts (Michigan State's second-leading scorer in 1945-46 and 1946-47) defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers, 4-1, in 1950 as the Whiz Kids clinched the Philadelphia Phillies' first pennant in 35 years. Roberts became the first 20-game winner for the Phils since Grover Cleveland Alexander in 1917.

  • In 1970, New York Mets rookie LF Ken Singleton (Hofstra freshman team in mid-1960s) supplied the only two hits (both doubles) off Chicago Cubs standout Ferguson Jenkins.

  • St. Louis Cardinals RHP Lee Smith (averaged 3.4 ppg and 1.9 rpg with Northwestern State in 1976-77) established a N.L. record for most saves in a single season in 1991.

  • In 1954, OF Ted Tappe (leading scorer in 1949 NJCAA Tournament was Washington State's third-leading scorer the next year in 1949-50) traded by the Cincinnati Reds to the Chicago Cubs in a deal involving RHP Jim Willis (Northwestern State letterman in late 1940s).

  • In his MLB debut, Atlanta Braves RHP Cecil Upshaw (Centenary's leading scorer as junior in 1962-63) tossed three hitless innings of relief against the Cincinnati Reds in 1966.

  • St. Louis Cardinals 1B Bill White (played two years with Hiram OH in early 1950s) played the entire schedule in 1963.