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Top 10 Fantasy Baseball Seasons by College Basketball Stars PDF Print E-mail
FP911's Top Ten
Written by Brian Joura   
Sunday, 15 March 2009 00:03
With conference tournaments for major colleges wrapping up Sunday and the NIT and NCAA Tournaments on deck, this seemed like the perfect time to acknowledge those baseball stars who also excelled on the hardwood during their college days.

 

This list is for the greatest fantasy seasons for baseball players who also starred in college basketball.  Since neither Danny Ainge nor Dave DeBusschere excelled in their MLB days, they did not make the cut.  Randy Johnson and Sandy Koufax were quite the MLB pitchers but their college basketball careers did not make much of an impact, so they did not make the list, either.

So, here are the Top 10 Fantasy Baseball Seasons by College Basketball Stars.

10. 1963 Dick Groat - .319-6-73-85-3

The National League MVP in 1960, Groat finished second in the balloting in 1963.  He was also a two-time All-American at Duke University and was named the UPI (that’s United Press International for you kids out there) National Player of the Year in 1952 after setting an NCAA single-season scoring record with 839 points.  Groat played a year in the NBA with the Fort Wayne Pistons before spending two years in the army.  A member of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, Groat works as a color analyst for the University of Pittsburgh men’s basketball team.

 

9. 1980 Tim Stoddard – 5 wins, 26 saves, 2.51 ERA, 64 SO, 1.279 WHIP

Stoddard makes this list on the strength of being the only player in history to appear both in the World Series and the NCAA college basketball title game.  Stoddard pitched in four games during the 1979 World Series and he was the starting power forward on the 1974 N.C. State team that went 30-1 and defeated UCLA to end the Bruins’ streak of seven straight national titles.  Kenny Lofton appeared in a Final Four and the World Series, too.  But he was a backup on the Arizona squad that lost in the semifinals, so he fails to make the list.  Meanwhile, Stoddard’s other claim to fame is appearing in the movie Big with Tom Hanks.

8. 1954 Gene Conley – 14 wins, 2.96 ERA, 113 SO, 1.286 WHIP

At Washington State, Conley was twice selected honorable mention to the All-America team, and he also led the Pac-8 in scoring.  He is the only player to win a championship in both MLB and the NBA.  He was on the 1957 Milwaukee Braves team that beat the Yankees and he was a backup forward on the Boston Celtics teams that won three straight championships from 1959-1961.  Conley played 11 seasons in the majors and six years in the NBA.  For the last five years of his career, he played both sports simultaneously.

7. 1969 Ron Reed – 18 wins, 3.47 ERA, 160 SO, 1.173 WHIP

Reed was a standout at Notre Dame, where he ranks third all-time in rebounding average (14.3 rpg), seventh in scoring average (18.9 ppg), ninth in rebounds (872), 18th in field goals attempted (1,157) and 24th in field goals made (488) · holds the Notre Dame single-season record for rebounding average with 17.7 rpg in '63-64.  He was selected as one of 25 people to the Irish’s All-Century basketball team.  He was the 20th overall pick of the 1965 draft by the Detroit Pistons and he played two years in the NBA in addition to the 19 years he played in MLB.

6. 1965 Bob Veale – 17 wins, 2.84 ERA, 276 SO, 1.278 WHIP

Well, I would like to give you a rundown of Bob Veale’s basketball career, but I just can’t.  There is very little information about Veale, period, and his basketball career is just a footnote.  He did make Benedictine College’s Hall of Fame as a baseball and basketball player but the school’s Web site has no other information on him than that.  Benedictine College is an NAIA school and I am going out on a limb and saying that the 6-foot-6 Veale did okay there.  Today, Veale is a mostly-forgotten player but as you can tell by the above stat line, he could play.  He was the first Pirates pitcher to top 200 strikeouts in a season and in 1971, he was part of what historians believe to be the first all-black (including Latins) starting lineup in MLB history.  Veale is a member of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.

5. 1997 Tony Clark - .276-32-117-105-1

Clark established a San Diego area high school basketball record with 2,549 career points while averaging 43.7 points per game his senior year en route to a state scoring title.  He started off at Arizona and then transferred to San Diego State, where he was the Aztecs' top scorer with 11.5 points per game in 1991-92.

4. 1969 Frank Howard - .296-48-111-111-1

A two-time All-Big Ten selection, Howard still holds the Ohio State record for most rebounds in a game with 32.  He averaged 20.1 points and 15.3 rebounds in 1957 when he was a second team All-American.  Howard was drafted by the Philadelphia Warriors with the 20th overall pick, but he opted to play baseball instead.  If the prime of his career did not happen during the deadball 1960s, Howard would probably have been a Hall of Famer.  As it is, he finished with 382 lifetime home runs, a top 20 mark when he retired and still the 55th-most in MLB history.

3. 1987 Tony Gwynn - .370-7-54-119-56

A point guard for four years at San Diego State, Gwynn was a two-time All-Western Athletic Conference selection.  He tied the school record for assists in a game with 18 against UNLV in 1980. He also still holds the SDSU records for assists in a season (221) and career (590).  Gwynn was drafted in MLB and by the NBA on the same day in 1981, but he opted for the home town Padres over the home town Clippers.

 

2. 1979 Dave Winfield - .304-38-114-97-15

A two-year starter at Minnesota after he walked on to the squad, Winfield helped the Gophers win the Big 10 title in 1972 for the first time in 35 years.  He averaged over 10 points per game the following season.  In 1973, Winfield was drafted by four professional teams.  He signed with the Padres but he was also picked by the NBA Hawks, the ABA Utah Stars and the NFL Vikings, even though he did not play college football.  Winfield went straight from college to the pros and enjoyed a 22-year career in which he racked up 3,110 hits and 465 HR.

1. 1968 Bob Gibson – 22 Wins, 1.12 ERA, 268 SO, 0.853 WHIP

Gibson went to Creighton University on a basketball scholarship and averaged 22 points per game in the 1955-56 season.  He still ranks 18th in the school’s all-time list with 1,272 career points.  He also played with the Harlem Globetrotters in 1957-58, a time when very few black played in the NBA and the Globetrotters were some of the best basketball players on the planet.  And he turned in one of the finest pitching performances of all time in 1968.

 

*****

Can you name the 11 guys to play in both the NBA and MLB?

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re: Nice List
written by Chase Williams, March 15, 2009
Brian: Once again great job on the article. As I stated last week I love reading things like this. I do have a question, where is Randy Johnson? I can't find any of his basketball stats but I believe he was a starter at USC as a Sophomore before hanging up the gym shorts to focus on baseball.


Sorry, just realized you mentioned Johnson in the preface.
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Nice List
written by Chase Williams, March 15, 2009
Brian: Once again great job on the article. As I stated last week I love reading things like this. I do have a question, where is Randy Johnson? I can't find any of his basketball stats but I believe he was a starter at USC as a Sophomore before hanging up the gym shorts to focus on baseball.
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written by Kevin Orris, March 15, 2009
I second Chris- he just beat me to it!
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written by ChristopherMulligan, March 15, 2009
no Jackie Robinson?
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written by Brian Joura, March 15, 2009
Jordan never made the majors in baseball but your other eight are correct. Just three more!
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written by lennymelnick, March 15, 2009
Jordan
groat
cotton nash
hendrickson
ron reed
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written by lennymelnick, March 15, 2009
Gene Conley
Dave DeBusshere
Danny Ainge
the Rifleman Chuck Conners?
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written by Brian Joura, March 15, 2009
You've got to start to make this team. Lofton backed up a white point guard and played a total of 11 minutes in the most important game (1988 Final Four loss to Oklahoma) of his college career.
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written by patrick dicaprio, March 15, 2009
mo kenny lofton?

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