Player Profiles: Wally Moon

Wallace Wade Moon, born 4/3/1930 in Bay Arkansas, was the son of Henry Albert Moon and the former Margie Leona Vernon. He was the second of their three children. Bay is a swampy hamlet by some railroad tracks. Henry was a factory worker who later became mayor of Bay. Henry would read every sports page he could get his hands on. Wally was named after Alabama football coach, Wallace Wade. Alabama had won the Rose Bowl. In his early childhood, Moon was called ” Booger “, because he was afraid of the ” Booger Man”.

Wally and his brother, David, would use an empty Pet milk can as a ball and hit it with a bat made by their father. They helped pick cotton on the family farm and hired themselves out to neighbors for other chores at a quarter a day. They did however charge 50 cents to clean an outhouse.

His high school did not have enough boys to field a baseball team, but Wally played guard in basketball and excelled in American Legion baseball. Pirates scout Ziggy Sears offered him 1000 dollars to sign, but his dad preached the value of an education. Sears helped arrange a scholarship to Texas A&M. Half for baseball and half for basketball. He was not only the first of his family to go to college, he was the first from his high school.

From Bay, Arkansas, population 400, to A&M, with its 8,000 students, was a much longer trip than a 600-mile train ride. Living in a house with no indoor plumbing, Moon had never seen a shower. And despite the pedigree of his given name, he had never seen a football game. A definite disadvantage for the freshman Aggie.

Wally was an all-Southwest Conference outfielder, and as such, he attracted the attention of major league scouts. After his junior year, he was offered 18,000$ by the Tigers. His dad though did not want him to spend his time on the bench as a bonus baby. Bert studied the rosters of the interested teams and determined that the Cardinals had few left-handed batters like his son. He steered Wally to St. Louis for a $6,000 bonus. That was ok with Wally since he had grown up listening to Cardinal games with his grandfather. The team agreed to let him play ball part-time while he finished his degree.

When the 49-50 school year ended, he began his professional career with a brief time at AA Houston, before he was sent to Class-A Omaha. After hitting .315, he went back to school for his senior year. When he graduated in June of 51, the Cardinals refused to raise his 300$ a month salary. He became a holdout. He found a better-paying job as the Aggie’s freshman baseball coach, and he began work on his master’s degree in educational administration. He also met, Bettye Knowles, a fellow student who would become his wife.

He reported to Omaha for the last 16 games of the season and then headed back to classes. Master’s degree in hand, he was back on the same ballfield in June of 52. He was now a full-time ballplayer. Sent to AAA Rochester the following year he slashed .307/382/504. But that was not enough for a promotion. He was slated to return to AAA in 1954.

Moon had had enough of the minors, he showed up uninvited at the Cardinal’s spring camp. Manager, Eddie Stanky did not kick him out. Instead, he gave him ample playing time. Wally had a head start on most of his teammates because he had played winter ball in Venezuela. “I gambled on everything,” he said. “If I hit a single, I’d try for two. If I had two, I would go for three. I tried to catch everything I had the slightest chance for in the outfield. I ran everywhere.”

He played several games in right field, and one writer suggested he was being groomed to replace Enos Slaughter eventually. One day Slaughter stopped at Moon’s locker. “Don’t worry“, the veteran said. “You are not going to take my job.” But eventually turned out to be now, Slaughter was traded to the Yankees just before opening day, and Moon became a starter as a rookie.

The 54 Cardinals, led by Musial, scored the most runs in the National League, but weak pitching found them in sixth place. Playing CF and leading off, Wally had a pair of 5 hit games and a 13-game hitting streak. He had a great July and it boosted his average as high as .343. He was contending for the batting title until he was derailed by a September swoon. He finished in the top 10 in runs, hits, triples, and steals. He got 17 of 24 votes for Rookie of the Year. Banks got four and Aaron received one. Gene Conley got the other two.

Over the next three years, the Cardinals were over .500 only once, when they finished second to the Braves in 57. Wally established himself as a productive hitter and a hustler in the Slaughter tradition. He was the cover photo of Sports Illustrated in April of 57. His manager, Fred Hutchinson, said he wished all of his players were like Moon. A 24-game hitting streak and the publicity led to his first All-Star game selection.

In May of 58, Moon injured his elbow when he collided with Joe Cunningham chasing an Orlando Cepeda flyball. Cunningham, who usually was the first baseman, was playing the outfield so the aging Musial could play first. Moon’s elbow was injured when Cunningham fell on him. He never regained his batting stroke or his regular job, finishing at .238.

The front office blamed Moon and the fading Del Ennis for the team’s fall to fifth place. Moon still admired his manager. He said if you can’t play for Fred, you can’t play for anyone. The Cardinals traded Moon to the Dodgers that December and Wally was not happy. He and his wife had purchased a home in St. Louis so he could be closer to family.

He was also insulted when he found out it was not even a straight-up swap. The Dodgers sent Gino Cimoli, who in their eyes was a disappointment to the Cardinals for Moon and Pitcher Phil Paine. Fresco Thompson explained the trade this way, ” Moon has 80% ability, but gives you 90%. Cimoli has 90% ability but gives you 75%. For the record, the trade was grand larceny by the Dodgers. Cimoli spent one season in St. Louis and did not even come close to the year Wally had in L.A. He was in the majors until 1965. But never reached the potential he showed in Brooklyn in 57. He finished with 44 HRs in his career.

Moon came to a team that had gotten old overnight and a crowded outfield. But there were questions for sure. Snider had a bad knee, Furillo, who was now 37, could not play every day, Don Demeter had not really come into his own, and rookie, Ron Fairly, was barely a year away from having led USC to a win in the college world series. Bavasi had promised to revamp the team, but Moon was his only significant acquisition.

The club was really struggling to stay above .500 in June when Bavasi delivered the overhaul, from his own vast farm system. He called up Roger Craig, whose dead arm had made him a forgotten man, Larry Sherry, who had a very mediocre minor league record. In desperation, he gave a nine-year minor-league veteran a chance to take over at SS for the struggling Don Zimmer, Maury Wills.

All three reinvented themselves. Craig, after losing his fastball became a sinker-slider pitcher. Sherry learned the slider from his brother Norm, who was a catcher in the Dodger system, and Wills, encouraged by AAA manager, Bobby Bragan, had become a switch-hitter. In 59 they held two All-Star games and Moon started both. The only time in his career he did so. Moon, Neal, and Gilliam were the only everyday starters. Alston platooned everywhere else, mixing the infirm with the flawed. The Dodgers hung in a three-way race with the Braves and the young Giants. On August 30, the Giants were in first with the Braves and Dodgers three games back.

The Giants and Dodgers met in L.A. The Giants were leading, 6-5 in the bottom of the ninth. Neal was aboard on an error, and then Moon lined one off of the LF screen that caromed around with Neal scoring and Moon getting to third. The Dodgers then won on a walk-off error by Willie McCovey.

The next night, a glimpse of things to come was seen when wild young lefty, Sandy Koufax, struck out 18 Giants, tying Bob Feller’s MLB mark. ( side note, I was listening to this game on my transistor radio.). The game was tied 2-2 in the bottom of the ninth. L.A. got two men on base, and before he came to the plate, Moon turned to Norm Larker, who was on deck, and said ” You can take a seat Norm, I have got this game won, Man, I am going to hit one out of here.” Moon then lofted one over the left-field screen for the walk-off win. It was as Vinny said, “A Moon shot!”. The Dodgers were now only one game back. Moon later would credit former teammate, Stan Musial for telling him to learn that inside-out swing and take advantage of the short LF wall.

Calling his own shot was completely out of character for the normally humble Moon. As the race tightened in September, Moon seemed to be in the middle of every Dodger rally. He hit three homers in a doubleheader sweep of the Pirates. In the next game, he hit another towards the screen. The Russians had just landed the first unmanned probe on the Moon, and this is where Vinny coined the phrase, It’s another Moon shot! Over a six-game stretch, he hit six homers.

Because of Moon, who had an OPS of 1.081 with 8 homers in the last 25 games of the season, and Maury Wills, who was hitting .215 going into September, but turned it on the last two weeks, slashing .453/.482/.547. Craig posted a 1.01 ERA the final month, and Sherry a 1.78. The Dodgers passed the Giants and finished tied with the Braves. They then won a 2-game playoff, the second game in the 12th inning on a walk-off single by forgotten man, Carl Furillo.

Moon slashed .302//.394/.495, the best season of his career to that time. He also said Alston did the best job of managing he had ever seen. Alston said the win was a team effort, but Wally was by far the most consistent Dodger. He added 19 HRs and 11 triples to his resume. He tied Neal for the league lead in triples. He finished 4th in the MVP vote behind Banks, Mathews, and Aaron.

The Dodgers would win the series in six. But a pivotable moment happened in game two in Chicago. With the Dodgers leading 4-2 in the 8th inning. Chicago had two runners on board when Al Smith hit a shot to LF, Moon faked a catch as the ball hit the outfield wall, and that froze the runners, Moon then retrieved the ball, and fired it into Wills, whose relay to Roseboro, cut down Lollar, who was the tying run.

Moon used his 11,000-dollar World Series share to purchase a home on two acres in the San Fernando Valley where his neighbors were teammate, Duke Snider, and another famous Duke, John Wayne. Singing cowboy, Tex Ritter lived there also. Moon’s son, Wally Joe, became friends with Ritter’s son, John. He would go on to star in “Three’s Company” on T.V. Moons kids were given a cocker spaniel by Sandy Koufax named, Dr. Pepper.

Wally started a baseball camp for boys and invested in a sporting goods store. And like many of the Dodgers, he had his turn in front of a camera playing a sheriff in a Wagon Train episode. He was very active in his church. Baseball was still his main job, and he was very determined to do it well. He would take a long time to unwind after games, and sometimes his wife would serve him dinner at 3 AM. He had two more very good seasons, winning a gold glove in 1960, and having a .434 OBP in 61 while batting .328. The Dodgers moved to Dodger Stadium in 1962. Today, the 11th of April, 2022, is the 60th anniversary of the first game played there. Moon was glad to leave. Even though he had been very successful there, he had changed his batting stance and fielding habits and had never played the way he was trained to.

The Dodgers now had a young outfield in 62 with T. Davis in left, Willie Davis in center, and Howard in right. Moon, moving to first base, tripped over his glove fielding a grounder and he joined Duke Snider on the bench. Bavasi said he could not afford to have two high-priced players on the bench, Moon was making 42,000 and Snider 38,000. So in April, 63, he sold Snider, a 16-year Dodger, to the Mets. Moon said he should have been the one to leave.

In 65, after four years as a part-time player, Wally was an afterthought at age 35. Asked if he was unhappy with his role he replied, ” You have to admit, it beats picking cotton.” Moon ended his career in the sixth game of the 65 series, grounding out as a pinch hitter. Bavasi had offered to let him go to Japan where a lucrative contract was waiting. But he declined.

Moon was a team representative to the players union, which in those days was pretty toothless. Playing two all-star games for a couple of years was a way of boosting the pension fund, which for a 10-year man amounted to around 100 dollars a month. Wally had discovered that when the teams began using air travel exclusively, the team took out insurance policy’s on the players. But the team was the beneficiary, not the family.

After Moon retired, the union hired Marvin Miller, who had worked as a Steelworkers economist, as the first full-time Executive Director. Miller was never one to avoid a confrontation and turned the union into one of the most successful unions in the history of the US. Moon admired Millers’ accomplishments, but not his style. ” I am not a Marvin Miller fan,” he said, ” the thought of a strike never entered my mind.”

Now retired, Wally went to work as head baseball coach and athletic director of John Brown University, a small Christian school in Siloam Springs Arkansas. The school is named for a preacher, not the abolitionist. Bettye was delighted to move closer to home, although the older children were not. She put her teaching degree to use teaching at Siloam Springs High School.

Moon spent 10 seasons as the coach, with one detour, he spent the 69 season as hitting coach for the expansion San Diego Padres, where Buzzie Bavasi was part-owner. He wanted to get back into professional baseball as a manager, but he quit after one year since he disliked being away from his family.

Even though John Brown could not entice high-end recruits because of its location and strict bible doctrine, Moon still managed to put together winning teams. Seven of his players went pro, none made the majors. He was active in Democratic politics in the state and served as statewide chairman to modernize Arkansas county governments.

In the fall of 1976, Bobby Bragan, former Dodger, and now president of the Texas League, called Moon out of the blue with a proposition. He wanted Moon to buy the leagues San Antonio franchise. Wally told him that college coaches do not get rich. But Bragan put on the hard sell. The team was a Dodgers affiliate, had an experienced GM in place, and the city was going to build a new ballpark. All this could be had for 50,000 dollars.

Moon bought the gold mine, and just like Jerry Reed’s song, he got the shaft. The GM quit before the 77 season. Moon had planned on being an absentee owner but now had to take over to protect his investment. He installed his 23-year-old son, Wally Joe as GM, and learned his way around San Antonio hawking tickets. There weren’t many takes as his attendance the first year was only 53,000. The San Antonio Spurs, who had just joined the NBA were soaking up sponsorship dollars and the city did not build the ballpark.

He was forced to share a field with a college team in a sketchy neighborhood. After some fan’s tires were slashed, Moon hired a teenage gang to guard the parking lot and the vandalism mysteriously stopped. Moon figured he lost $100,000 by the time he sold the team three years later.

Moon had moved his family to Bryan Texas. He worked in real estate in the 80s, but he still yearned to get back into professional baseball. Roland Hemond hired him to manage a Yankee farm team in 87. But he was fired midway through his second season. He went to the Orioles organization when Hemond moved there. He managed the Frederick team for a while. He served as a hitting instructor for the O’s until 1995 when he finally retired because his wife had contracted Parkinson’s disease. ” The Lord has blessed us.” He said. Wally passed away on February 9, 2018, in Bryan Texas.