This baseball season I’m going to closely follow the development of Amir Garrett of the Cincinnati Reds, a 6-foot-5 lefthander who has been slowly working his way up the minor-league chain. One reason is that the Reds have been my favorite team since the side-arming Ewell “The Whip” Blackwell was baffling National League hitters in the late 1940s and early ‘50s.
But what really caught my attention was that Garrett’s a former college basketball player who played in the 2013 for St. John’s before transferring to Cal State-Northridge to finish his career.
I just have a special place in my heart for guys who can play both my favorite team sports at a high level.
There aren’t many around anymore, mainly because kids are forced to pick a single sport early and make it a year-round endeavor. It’s the age of specialization, and you rarely see youngsters who have the support necessary to buck the system and play more than one sport.
Amir Garrett
But it wasn’t that way back in the days before money infected sports on both the collegiate and pro levels. In fact, it was fairly common for pro basketball players to supplement their incomes by playing baseball in the off-season – or vice-versa, as the case may be.
To show you what I’m talking about, I’m compiled an all-time team of outstanding basketball players who also had excellent careers in the summer game:
Catcher – A veteran of 17 major-league seasons, mostly with the St. Louis Cardinals, Del Rice also played four years for the Rochester Royals in the National Basketball League, precursor of the NBA.
First base – An all-Big Ten player at Ohio State in the early 1960s, the 6-foot-8 Frank Howard picked baseball and became a formidable slugger with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals.
Second base – Before integrating major-league baseball in 1947, Jackie Robinson starred in several sports, including basketball, for UCLA. He helped recruit Lew Alcindor to his alma mater in 1965.
Shortstop – A 1952 All-American guard at Duke, Dick Groat selected baseball and became the captain and shortstop of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 1960 World Series champions.
Third base – I’m going with Chuck Harmon, who became the first black player in Reds’ history in 1953. A basketball star at Toledo, he played against St. John’s in the 1943 NIT title game (won by St. John’s, 48-27). He picked baseball and mainly was a utility player who played both infield and outfield.
Left field – A decent point guard for San Diego State, Tony Gwynn became Mr. San Diego Padre and was a first-ballot selection to the baseball Hall of Fame.
Right field — Dave Winfield was a reserve on Minnesota’s 1972 Big Ten championship team, but was better in baseball, where he became a feared slugger with the New York Yankees and other teams.
Center field — Kenny Lofton played on Arizona’s 1988 NCAA Final Four team but went into baseball and became known as the game’s best leadoff hitter due to his ability to get on base and steal.
Pitchers – Steve Hamilton and Gene Conley are the only two players in history to play on teams that won both the World Series and the NBA championship. Hamilton did it with the New York Yankees and Minneapolis Lakers, Conley with the Milwaukee Braves and Boston Celtics.
The rest of the staff includes Bob Gibson and Ferguson Jenkins, a pair of baseball Hall of Fame pitchers who each played a couple of seasons with the Harlem Globetrotters. Sandy Koufax played basketball and baseball at Cincinnati before becoming a legend with the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers, and Robin Roberts was a star basketball player at Michigan State before becoming the Philadelphia Phillies’ right-handed ace for many years.
The staff is rounded out by Tim Stoddard, the only man besides Lofton to play in both an NCAA Final Four (N.C. State, 1974) and the major leagues (a 14-year pitching career with multiple teams); Dave DeBusschere, a hoops star with Detroit and the New York Knicks who also pitched briefly for the Chicago White Sox; and Ron Reed, who played hoops at Notre Dame before becoming a big-league pitcher with several teams.
Bench – Chuck Connors, who made his name on TV as star of “The Rifleman” series, played basketball for the Rochester Royals and Boston Celtics, and baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers and Chicago Cubs. Charles “Cotton” Nash, a three-time All-American for Kentucky’s Adolph Rupp in the early 1960s, made it to baseball’s big leagues with the California Angels and Chicago White Sox. After a stellar career at Brigham Young, Danny Ainge played basketball for the Celtics and shortstop, briefly, for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Trivia – Connors is credited with being the first player to shatter a glass backboard. It happened during a Celtics warmup in 1951.
Trivia — Bill Sharman, who played guard opposite Bob Cousy on many Celtics’ title teams of the 1950s and ‘60s, was called up to the Brooklyn Dodgers during the 1951 pennant race. He never got in a game, but was ejected after a bench-clearing brawl. That is thought to be the only time that’s happened in baseball history.
Trivia – Winfield was a principal participate in the infamous brawl with Ohio State during the 1971-’72 season.
So this is the legacy Amir Garrett inherits. If he spends time this season with the Reds’ Triple-A farm team in Louisville, he’ll be managed by a kindred spirit, Delino DeShields Sr. A star point guard for Seaford High, DeShields was headed for the same job at Villanova until he was picked 12th overall in the 1987 draft.
For financial reasons, he opted for baseball and enjoyed a long big-league career with the Expos, Dodgers, Cardinals, Cubs, and Orioles. His son, Delino Jr., now is a standout with the Texas Rangers.
“I love basketball,” DeShields said recently. “I really wanted to go to Villanova. Picking baseball was strictly a financial thing. I had a nice career, but I think I was better in basketball.”
