| Wally Moon | |
|---|---|
 Moon in 1961. | |
| Outfielder | |
| Born:(1930-04-03)April 3, 1930 Bay, Arkansas, U.S. | |
| Died: February 9, 2018(2018-02-09) (aged 87) Bryan, Texas, U.S. | |
Batted: Left Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| April 13, 1954, for the St. Louis Cardinals | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| September 12, 1965, for the Los Angeles Dodgers | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Batting average | .289 |
| Home runs | 142 |
| Runs batted in | 661 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Teams | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
Wallace Wade Moon[1] (April 3, 1930 – February 9, 2018) was an American professional baseballoutfielder inMajor League Baseball. Moon played his 12-year career in the major leagues for theSt. Louis Cardinals (1954–1958) andLos Angeles Dodgers (1959–1965). He batted left-handed and threw right-handed.
Moon was the1954 National League Rookie of the Year. He was anAll-Star for two seasons and aGold Glove winner one season. Moonbatted .295 or more for seven seasons. He led theNational League intriples in 1959 and infielding percentage as aleft fielder in 1960 and 1961.
Moon was a three-time World Series champion with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1959, 1963, and 1965.
Moon was named afterWallace Wade, a formercollege football coach at theUniversity of Alabama andDuke University. From a family of educators, he earned a master's degree in administrative education fromTexas A&M University inCollege Station while he was still in the minor leagues.[1] He coached from 1953 to 1954 atLake City, also in Craighead County, Arkansas.
In the spring of 1954, the Cardinals told Moon to report to their minor league spring training camp. He ignored the order and reported instead toSt. Petersburg with the Cardinals. He said that he would make the team or quit baseball. They let him stay, and by the end of the spring training he replacedEnos Slaughter in the outfield. To make room for him on the roster, St. Louis sent Slaughter to theNew York Yankees.
Moon made his major league debut on April 13, 1954. In his firstat-bat, despite chants of "We want Slaughter", he belted ahome run against theChicago Cubs; in the same gameTom Alston became the firstAfrican American to play for the Cardinals. Moon finished his rookie season with a .304batting average, 12 home runs, 76runs batted in, and career-high numbers inruns (106),hits (193),doubles (29), andstolen bases (18) in 151 games. He earned both theMLB Rookie of the Year andThe Sporting News Rookie of the Year honors. Almost a unanimous vote, Moon won easily overErnie Banks,Gene Conley andHank Aaron.[1]
A fine left fielder with a good arm, Moon also playedright field andcenter as well asfirst base. He hit a career-high 24 homers in1957, and made theAll-Star team in1957 and1959 (two games were played). Twice in his career, Moon compiled double figures in doubles, triples, home runs and stolen bases: 22, 11, 16, 12 in 1956, and 26, 11, 19, 15 in1959, his first year with the Dodgers.
After the 1958 season, the Cardinals traded Moon to the Dodgers for outfielderGino Cimoli. Both players were coming off years when they batted below .250; the Cardinals also sent pitcherPhil Paine, who never played for the Dodgers. Moon was initially concerned about batting in the convertedLos Angeles Memorial Coliseum because right field was 440 feet (130 m) away, making it difficult for a left-handed batter. However, the left field seats were only 251 feet (77 m) away, protected by a 42-foot-high (13 m) screen. After consulting with friend and mentorStan Musial, Moon adjusted his batting stance to emphasize hitting to left. The results were very successful.[1] In his first season with the Dodgers, the team won theWorld Championship. Moon provided support in the lineup forDuke Snider,Gil Hodges andDon Demeter. He gained quick public acclaim in 1959 for the "Moon shots" that he hit over the high left field screen.[1][2] Moon hit a home run in the sixth and final game of that World Series, which the Dodgers won over theChicago White Sox. He also caughtLuis Aparicio's fly ball for the final out of the Series.
Moon was aGold Glove Award winner for left field in1960 leadingNational League left fielders inassists,double plays, andfielding percentage. He had another good season in1961, batting .328 with 17 home runs and 88 runs batted in while leading National League left fielders in fielding percentage.
A career .289 hitter, Moon hit 142 home runs with 661 runs batted in during 1457 games, with a .371on-base percentage and a .445slugging average for a combined .816on-base plus slugging percentage. His careerfielding percentage at all three outfield positions and first base was .980. He also scored the last run ever in the Coliseum.[1] He retired as a player after the 1965 season.
In 1969, Moon was a batting coach for the San Diego Padres, joiningmanagerPreston Gómez andpitching coach and former teammateRoger Craig.
In the mid-70s Moon was an instructor at the Sho-Me baseball camp owned by the Kansas City Royals, located in Branson, Missouri.
Moon went on to becomeathletic director and baseball coach atJohn Brown University, and a coach and minor league manager and owner of theSan Antonio Dodgers for four years beginning in the late 1970s.
Moon managed the minor-league Frederick Keys, a Carolina League affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, in 1990 and 1991.
Moon moved toBryan, Texas, where he lived for over 25 years. He retired in 1998. He was married to Bettye and had five children and seven grandchildren.[1]
Moon is featured on many websites featuring baseball cards, as he sported a prominentunibrow.
The January 27, 1960, episode ("The Larry Hanify Story") of the popular TV westernWagon Train featured Moon in a brief role. The end credits included: "And Introducing Wally Moon as Sheriff Bender." There was no baseball tie-in with his character, but the sheriff was hit by a bullet during a shoot-out with Tommy Sands' bad guy.
Moon died on February 9, 2018, at the age of 87.[3]
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