Donnie Moore auto pickuup

[Droubaysports]

Picked this up in a huge lot of Cubs autos from the late 70's today

for those who don't know:
Donnie Ray Moore (February 13, 1954 – July 18, 1989) was an American relief pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Chicago Cubs (1975, 1977-79), St. Louis Cardinals (1980), Milwaukee Brewers (1981), Atlanta Braves (1982-84) and California Angels (1985-88).
A native of Lubbock, Texas, Moore is most remembered for the home run he gave up as an Angel to Dave Henderson in Game 5 of the 1986 American League Championship Series with only one more strike needed to clinch the team's first-ever pennant, allowing the Boston Red Sox to come back and win.
On July 18, 1989, during an argument with his wife Tonya, Moore shot her three times, the incident occurring in view of their three children at their Anaheim Hills home.[1][2] Tonya Moore and daughter Demetria, then 17 years of age, fled from the house and Demetria drove her mother to the hospital. Both survived the shooting.

Back inside the house, still in the presence of one of his sons, Moore then fatally shot himself.[1]

 

[gotsparks]

Interesting story and interesting piece. Congrats on the pick up!

 

[Tim Carroll]

They said Moore was always kind of "out there", but he never was able to get it together after the Hendu homerun. Tragic how a moment in a sporting event can possibly aid in something as terrible as suicide.


Tim

 

[bfd13]

Cool piece. Who else did you get in the lot?

 

[houbb]

That is a tremendous pick up! Moore was a a journeyman reliever, who bounced around the majors with Cubs, Cardinals, and Braves, before he arrived on the scene in Anaheim, in the mid '80's, and won the Angels closers job. In his 10 major league seasons before then he was always a set up man. He was, however, flat out amazing in 1985, with 31 saves and a 1.97 ERA. He also finished 7th in the Cy Young voting that year. He was roughed up a little bit in '86, with 10 fewer saves and an ERA a full run higher. The point is, he blew some saves in '86, and the blown save against the Red Sox when they were one strike away from the World Series was no exception. The Sox had to win two more games to win that series, and they did. It wasn't Moore's fault they lost the series. No one will ever know if it were that home run to Henderson drove Moore to do what he did in '89, or something much deeper underneath the surface. Personally, I'm guessing it was something MUCH deeper, and I wish someone close to him was able to see it and get him some help before he made that fateful decision to do what he did.

 

[Droubaysports]

there were 45 different players total in the lot I picked up including sutter, both rueschels, kingman, murcer, kelleher, ontiveros etc. i am going to build a 1977 and 1978 display out of most of them using programs form the 2 years. i have a nice 77 program signed by banks (induction year) that I will use for the 77.