On This Date: Former College Hoopers Make Mark on June 23 MLB Games

June 23rd, 2019 - 8:13

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 hoopers had front-row seats to many of the most notable games, transactions and dates in MLB history.

Current SEC members Alabama (Jim Tabor), LSU (Al Dark), Texas A&M (Beau Bell) and Vanderbilt (Harvey Hendrick) had former hoopers provide significant MLB performances on this date. Ditto ex-juco hoopers Darrell Evans, Rusty Kuntz and Jim Thome. Unless you habitually pore over the content at baseballlibrary.com, baseballreference.com and nationalpastime.com, following is a June 23 calendar focusing on such versatile MLB athletes:

JUNE 23

  • Pittsburgh Pirates RF Clyde Barnhart (played basketball for Shippensburg PA predecessor Cumberland Valley State Normal School prior to World War I) went 4-for-4 against the Cincinnati Reds in a 1923 game.

  • St. Louis Browns RF Beau Bell (two-year hoops letterman for Texas A&M in early 1930s) banged out four hits in a 6-3 win against the New York Yankees in 1937.

  • In 1975, Chicago Cubs RHP Ray Burris (two-sport standout in Southwestern Oklahoma State Hall of Fame) tossed his first MLB shutout (against Montreal Expos).

  • Cincinnati Reds 1B George Crowe (four-year letterman from 1939-40 through 1942-43 for Indiana Central after becoming first high school player named state's Mr. Basketball) went 4-for-4 with four RBI in a 5-3 victory against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the opener of a 1957 doubleheader.

  • SS Alvin Dark (hoops letterman for LSU and USL during World War II) traded by the Philadelphia Phillies to the Milwaukee Braves in 1960.

  • OF Larry Doby (reserve guard for Virginia Union's 1943 CIAA hoops titlist), retired from the Cleveland Indians, joined P Don Newcombe in 1962 as the first former MLB players to compete for a Japanese team. Doby's season batting average overseas will be a modest .225.

  • 1B Walt Dropo (Connecticut's first player ever to average 20 points in season with 21.7 ppg in 1942-43) and C Sammy White (All-PCC Northern Division first-five selection for Washington in 1947-48 and 1948-49) each homered when 12 consecutive Boston Red Sox players reached base in an 11-run, fourth-inning outburst at Detroit in 1952. Seven years later, Dropo was traded by the Cincinnati Reds to the Baltimore Orioles in 1959.

  • San Francisco Giants 1B Darrell Evans (member of Jerry Tarkanian-coached Pasadena City CA club winning 1967 state community college crown) homered in both ends of a 1976 doubleheader sweep against the San Diego Padres.

  • INF Howard Freigau (Ohio Wesleyan hooper) purchased from the Brooklyn Robins by the Boston Braves in 1928.

  • St. Louis Cardinals SS Charlie Gelbert (scored at least 125 points each of last three seasons in late 1920s for Lebanon Valley PA) went 5-for-5 against the Boston Braves in a 1930 game.

  • New York Mets OF Jimmy Piersall celebrated by running around the bases backwards in 1963 after the free spirit pounded the 100th homer of his MLB career and only one in the N.L. The round-tripper was yielded by Philadelphia Phillies RHP Dallas Green (Delaware's second-leading scorer and rebounder in 1954-55).

  • Cleveland Indians rookie 2B Jack Hammond (four-year hoops letterman for Colgate from 1909-10 through 1912-13) supplied a career-high three hits against the Chicago White Sox in the nightcap of a 1915 doubleheader.

  • Boston Red Sox rookie RHP Herb Hash (three-year letterman averaged 6.4 ppg as junior center for Richmond's undefeated team in 1934-35) hurled his lone MLB shutout (2-0 against Cleveland Indians in 1940).

  • Chicago Cubs INF-OF Harvey Hendrick (Vanderbilt hoops letterman in 1918) hammered a game-winning, pinch-hit grand slam in the 10th inning against the Philadelphia Phillies in the opener of a 1933 doubleheader.

  • Brooklyn Dodgers 1B Gil Hodges (hooper for St. Joseph's IN in 1943 and Oakland City IN in 1947 and 1948) homered twice against the Cincinnati Reds in a 1956 contest.

  • LHP Bill Krueger (led WCAC in free-throw percentage as Portland freshman in 1975-76) traded by the Oakland Athletics to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1987.

  • In the midst of hitting safely in six of first eight contests with the Minnesota Twins in 1983, CF Rusty Kuntz (played J.C. hoops for Cuesta CA) led off the game against his original team (Chicago White Sox) with first MLB homer.

  • OF Sam Mele (NYU's leading scorer in 1943 NCAA playoffs) purchased from the Boston Red Sox by the Cincinnati Reds in 1955. Six years later, Mele became manager of the Minnesota Twins.

  • Boston Red Sox 1B Ed Morgan (Tulane hoops letterman from 1923-24 through 1925-26) collected three hits and scored four runs in a 10-2 win against the Chicago White Sox in 1934.

  • Jim Riggleman (two-year hoops letterman for Frostburg State MD averaged 7.2 ppg in early 1970s) resigned as Washington Nationals manager in 2011 on the heels of them winning 11 of 12 games when the franchise failed to give him a contract extension.

  • LHP Garry Roggenburk (Dayton scoring leader from 1959-60 through 1961-62 grabbed school-record 32 rebounds in third varsity game en route to pacing Flyers in rebounding his first two years) purchased from the Boston Red Sox by the Seattle Pilots in 1969.

  • Boston Red Sox 3B Jim Tabor (Alabama hoops letterman in 1936-37) blasted two homers against the Cleveland Indians in the nightcap of a 1940 twinbill.

  • Cleveland Indians 3B Jim Thome (played junior college hoops for Illinois Central in 1988-89) jacked two taters in a 1997 game contest against the Minnesota Twins.