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was a staggering 440 feet to the right-field fence. Christian college where he worked and taught
By contrast, the left-field bleachers were a friend- for 15 years, aside from one year when he took
ly 251 feet from home plate — a chip shot for a a leave of absence to take over as the batting
decent player. To take advantage of the odd di- coach for the San Diego Padres. He later became
mensions, the Dodgers stacked their lineup with manager and an owner of the San Antonio Dodg-
righties. ers, before retiring.
After consulting with former teammate Stan JERRY MOSES, a former big- in memoriam
Musial, generally regarded as one of the finest league catcher who joined the
hitters in the game, Moon decided to adjust his Angels along with Tony Conigliaro
swing and his stance at the plate so that he could in a big trade with the Boston Red
drive the ball to left field. And to get it over the Sox, passed away March 27th of
42-foot screen that hung in front of the left-field last year. He was 71.
bleachers, he learned to uppercut the ball. The
results were impressive. Hitting in a lineup with Moses signed a bonus contract
fearsome players such as Duke Snider, Gil Hodges with the Boston Red Sox in 1964
and John Roseboro, Moon batted .302 (164/543) and spent his early Major League
and swatted 19 home runs, nine of them to left career with the Red Sox, but over the course of
field. The most dramatic was a towering ninth-in- his nine years in the Majors, he would play for
ning “Moon shot” to left field in a 2-2 game seven different teams. He appeared in 386 games
against the San Francisco Giants in 1959. The during his career primarily as a back-up catcher.
walk-off home run helped carry the team to the Moses first appeared briefly with Boston in
World Series, where they knocked off the Chica- 1965 at age 18 due to his bonus status, hitting
go White Sox to win it all. a home run for his first hit, and also becoming
Moon was born April 3, 1930, in Bay, AR, a town the youngest player to hit a home run with the
surrounded by cotton fields. Moon said his fa- Red Sox, but soon returned to the minor leagues
ther dropped out of school in eighth grade, and for more seasoning. He made the Majors for
regretted the decision the rest of his life. Moon good in 1969, and in 1970 Moses served as Bos-
was raised with the expectation that he would go ton’s catcher and was selected to the American
to college. When he graduated from high school League All-Star team. But after that season, he
and was offered a baseball contract, his father was included with slugger Tony Conigliaro in a
persuaded him to turn it down. blockbuster trade to the Angels. He did not win
After earning a degree in education from Texas the Angels’ starting catcher job and batted only
.227 (41/181) in 1971, and then began his career
A&M, Moon finally signed with the Cardinals as a journeyman, never spending more than one
but with the stipulation that he would play only full season with the Angels, Indians, Yankees, Ti-
during the summer months until he finished his gers, Padres and White Sox.
master’s degree. The money he made playing
part time was set aside so that his younger sister After his playing career, Moses was extremely
could also go to college. involved with the Major League Baseball Players
In 1954, Moon was rushed to the Major Leagues. Alumni Association, championing increased ben-
efits for inactive, non-vested former players who
He later calculated that he had played all of 17 did not originally qualify for pension benefits,
games in the year before his Major League debut and acting as a catalyst for countless charitable
and felt overwhelmed when the Cardinals traded events, including the Legends for Youth Clinic Se-
away fan favorite Enos Slaughter to clear a spot ries. Beloved by many due to his kind-hearted na-
in the lineup for him. But hitting a home run in ture, Moses served as the chairman emeritus for
his first at-bat helped ease the jitters, and he Major League Alumni Marketing until his passing.
went on to hit .304 (193/635) on the year with 76
RBI, enough to earn him National League Rookie JULIO NAVARRO, one of Puerto
of the Year honors. He spent five seasons in St. Rico’s most celebrated pitchers,
Louis before he was shipped to the Dodgers in passed away Jan. 24th of last
exchange for Gino Cimoli, who — like Moon — year. He was 82.
was coming off a disappointing season. Navarro was born in Vieques, but
It was a golden era for the Dodgers. After winning he spent the majority of his child-
the World Series in 1955, the team repeated as hood in St. Croix. After devel-
champs in 1959, 1963 and 1965, riding the arms oping his talents in high school,
of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, the bat of another standout from the Virgin
Tommy Davis and the base-running prowess of Islands helped to position Navarro for a tryout in
Maury Wills. The team moved into the newly front of Santurce’s team owner Pedrin Zorilla.
built Dodger Stadium in 1962. But as the years
went by, Moon was slowly pushed out of the Fortunately for Navarro, Zorilla doubled as a
starting lineup. scout for the New York Giants and helped him
along with Orlando Cepeda and Jose Pagan, to
In 1965, he called it quits, ending a 12-year ca- sign professional contracts in 1955. Almost im-
reer during which he hit 142 home runs and mediately he became the de-facto spokesperson
was named to the All-Star team three times. His for his fellow Spanish speaking teammates be-
last game in uniform was against the Minnesota cause of his upbringing in the Virgin Islands.
Twins in Game 7 of the 1965 World Series. While Navarro was buoyed by his ability to speak
Moon moved the family to Siloam Springs, AR, English, it didn’t help him on the mound. He
where the plains meet the Ozark Mountains. He flopped around multiple Class D teams in 1955
took a job as the athletic director and baseball due to arm troubles, going 1-10 in the process.
coach at John Brown University, a small private
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