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Two Sport Stars - Basketball



According to Wikipedia, there have only been 13 athletes to have played in both the MLB and NBA. Here, you'll see cards of nine of them. I've included a few other athletes that played in MLB and with the Harlem Globetrotters. I've also included one other noteworthy athlete. Enjoy!

1971 Topps. The 6'-6" lefty had a 3.05 ERA in 421 games in his 12-yr MLB career. He played in 82 games in the NBA as a small forward from 1958 - 1960.

1971 Topps. Cotton Nash played in 13 games in parts of 3 MLB seasons. At 6'-5", Nash was a small forward in 3 NBA seasons and 1 ABA season.

1971 Topps. Reed racked up 146 wins in his 19-yr MLB career. The 6'-5" Reed was a power forward in the NBA from 1965 - 1967.

1990 Pacific. Conley was a 3-time All-Star in an 11-yr MLB career. At 6'-8" tall, Conley was a power forward for 6 NBA seasons.

1990 Pacific. Groat was a 5 time All-Star in 14 MLB seasons. Led by a .325 batting average and a Pirates pennant, Groat won the 1960 MVP over several notable players that arguably had much better statistics, including Willie Mays, Ernie Banks, Eddie Matthews, and Hank Aaron. The 5'-11" point guard played in one NBA season.

1988 Pacific. Best known as Lucas McCain from the hit TV show "The Rifleman," Connors played in parts of 2 MLB seasons.

Art card. The 6'-5" Connors was a center/forward with the Celtics from 1946 - 1948. 

1965 Topps. DeBusschere pitched in 36 games with a 2.90 ERA in 102 innings in 2 MLB seasons. 

1972 - 1973 Topps. Dave DeBusschere's name and position (forward) were cut off by the stupid scanner - Grrr! Big D averaged 16.1 points per game in 13 NBA seasons. The 8 time All-Star had two 41-point games in his illustrious NBA career!

1988 Fleer. The 6'-4" guard played in 14 NBA seasons. Ainge had two 45 point games in one season - one for the Celtics and one after being traded to the Kings!

1982 Fleer. Ainge played in 211 games with the Blue Jays from 1979 - 1981.

1980 TCMA. Ainge played for the Syracuse Chiefs in 3 seasons.

1972 Topps. Reportedly, after winning a World Series title in 1967 with the Cardinals, MLB Hall of Famer Lou Brock also played a handful games for the Harlem Globetrotter basketball team! In his 19-yr MLB career, Brock AVERAGED 100 runs, 58 stolen bases per season with a .293 batting average.

1972 Topps. Two Cy Young awards, one MVP award, eight All-Star game selections, and his 1.12 ERA with a 0.853 WHIP in 1968 forced MLB to lower the pitching mound height - enough said about this Hall of Famer.

2013 Lone Star. Gibson spent late 1957 with the Globetrotters. According to Meadowlark Lemon “I thought Bob was a better basketball player than a baseball player. I think Bob could have played with any NBA team. He was that good.”
1972 Topps. Hall of Famer Jenkins won 20-games seven times, with 4,500 innings pitched and 3,192 career strikeouts.

2018 Cato art card (2/5). Jenkins played in baseball's off-season with the Harlem Globetrotters in 1967 - 1969.

1997 Fleer/Skybox. At 6'-9", Hendrickson was a power forward in four NBA seasons.

2001 Choice. Hendrickson pitched for the Syracuse SkyChiefs in parts of 3 seasons.

2006 Topps 55-years of collecting (0355/2006). Hendrickson pitched in 328 games during his 10-year MLB career.

1999 Upper Deck Minor Memories SP Top Prospects #MJ4 (of 5). What two sport star collection would be complete without MJ? Although he only played in one minor league season (AA), you have to admire his desire to try to become a major league ball player after one of THE most distinguished basketball careers in NBA history. He had over 40 points in at least one game in 12 of his 13 NBA seasons!

There you have it. Cards of three MLB Hall of Famers (and Harlem Globetrotters), two former MLB and Syracuse Chiefs/SkyChiefs players, and two NBA Hall of Famers! 

The four former MLB and NBA athletes I am missing cards of are Frank Baumholtz, Johnny Gee, Dick Ricketts, and Howie Schultz. Gee is a hot item for me as he is also in the Syracuse Baseball Wall of Fame. I would appreciate it if anyone has a lead on the whereabouts of any of these four athletes.

Thanks for visiting, and stay well!

CinciCuse Bill
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Comments

  1. night owlApril 4, 2020 at 9:58 PM

    The first one I ever learned about was Ron Reed because there was a cartoon about it on the back of a baseball card. I also remember being mad at Danny Ainge because he ditched baseball for the clearly inferior sport of basketball.

    ReplyDelete
  2. FujiApril 4, 2020 at 11:58 PM

    Great stuff. I knew a few of these like Jordan, Ainge, and DeBusschere... but the rest was news to me. I was blown away that Dick Groat was the #3 overall pick in the 1952 NBA Draft. That's some pretty cool trivia.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brett AlanApril 5, 2020 at 10:28 AM

      Yeah, I too had no idea that Dick Groat played basketball! Fascinating.

      Dave Winfield was a college basketball star and was drafted by both the Hawks (NBA draft) and the Utah Stars (ABA draft), but never played professional basketball. He was also selected by the Vikings in the NFL draft, even though he hadn't played college football, simply because he was such an incredible athlete.

      Delete
  3. JonApril 5, 2020 at 8:28 AM

    Fun post today! And I even learned something new, namely that Hamilton and Nash played pro basketball, although I don't know how I never knew that before?

    ReplyDelete

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