On This Date: Former College Hoopers Make Mark on August 10 MLB Games

August 10th, 2019 - 9:40

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.

Former Oklahoma hoopers Lindy McDaniel and Ryan Minor supplied significant MLB performances on this date. Unless you habitually pore over the content at baseballlibrary.com, baseballreference.com and nationalpastime.com, following is an August 10 calendar focusing on such versatile MLB athletes:

AUGUST 10

  • Philadelphia Phillies LF Ethan Allen (Cincinnati basketball letterman in 1924-25 and 1925-26) delivered three doubles en route to a N.L.-high 42 in a 5-3 loss against the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1934.

  • Pittsburgh Pirates LF Carson "Skeeter" Bigbee (Oregon hoops letterman in 1915) posted his second five-hit game in less than two months in 1922.

  • Boston Braves rookie SS Alvin Dark (hoops letterman for LSU and USL in mid-1940s) delivered four safeties for his fifth multiple-hit outing in a row in 1948.

  • St. Louis Cardinals 2B Frankie Frisch (Fordham hoops captain) went 4-for-4 against the Chicago Cubs in a 1934 contest.

  • 1B-OF Dick Gernert (hoops letterman with Temple in 1948-49 when he averaged 2.7 ppg) homered in the 10th inning to help catapult the Boston Red Sox to a 3-1 victory against the New York Yankees in 1952.

  • St. Louis Cardinals RHP Lindy McDaniel (played for Oklahoma's 1954-55 freshman hoops squad) secured his seventh relief win in as many decisions covering a little more than five weeks in 1960.

  • Baltimore Orioles 3B Ryan Minor (two-time All-Big Eight Conference first-team selection for Oklahoma was league player of year as junior in 1994-95 when averaging 23.6 ppg and 8.4 rpg) manufactured a career-high three hits against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in a 1999 outing.

  • In 1936, INF Buddy Myer (Mississippi State hoops letterman in 1923-24), the defending A.L. batting champion, was sent home by the Washington Senators to recover from a season-long stomach ailment.

  • C Cal Neeman (Illinois Wesleyan's leading scorer in 1947-48 and 1948-49) purchased from the Cleveland Indians by the Washington Senators in 1963.

  • In the midst of five complete-game victories in less than a month in 1933, New York Giants RHP Roy Parmelee (Eastern Michigan hoops letterman in 1924-25 and 1925-26) tossed a two-hit shutout against the Philadelphia Phillies.

  • Baltimore Orioles RHP Tim Stoddard (starting forward opposite All-American David Thompson for North Carolina State's 1974 NCAA champion) posted a win against the New York Yankees after notching saves in his previous four outings. Stoddard registered 14 consecutive scoreless relief appearances in September.

  • San Diego Padres RF Clint Venable (two-time All-Ivy League selection averaged 9.3 ppg under Princeton coach John Thompson III from 2001-02 through 2004-05) contributed three extra-base hits in a 9-5 triumph against the New York Mets in 2011.

  • Pittsburgh Pirates CF Bill Virdon (Drury MO hooper in 1949) tied a MLB mark by notching two assists in the seventh inning of the nightcap of a 1958 doubleheader against the Cincinnati Reds. Twenty-four years later in 1982, Virdon was fired as Houston Astros manager.

  • Milwaukee Braves RHP Jim Wilson (hoops letterman for San Diego State's 1942 NAIA Tournament participant) fired a three-hit shutout against the St. Louis Cardinals, giving him his eighth win in a row in 1954.