James Moore (baseball)

James Moore
First baseman
Born: (1916-11-18)November 18, 1916
Atlanta, Georgia
Died: February 6, 2016(2016-02-06) (aged 99)
Atlanta, Georgia
Batted: Left Threw: Right
debut
1937, for the Newark Eagles
Last appearance
1940, for the Newark Eagles
Negro league statistics
At bats 368
Hits 103
Batting average .280
Teams

James Robert "Red" Moore (November 18, 1916 – February 6, 2016) was a professional baseball player. Moore was a player in the Negro League, appearing with many different teams but most substantially with home team Atlanta Black Crackers. He also served with three different All-Star teams and, in 1938, played with the Southern News Services All-American Negro League Baseball Team. In 2006, he was inducted into the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame.

Biography

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Moore began playing after graduating Booker T. Washington High School in 1933 with Atlanta Black Crackers.[1] Over the next six years, Moore moved among that team, Macon Peaches, Chattanooga Choo-Choos, Schenectady Black Socks, Newark Eagles and Baltimore Elite Giants, gradually earning a reputation according to Voices from the Negro Leagues as perhaps "the best fielding basemen of all time" in his league.[2] In 1940, after finishing the regular season in Baltimore, Moore played in a winter season in Los Angeles, California that allowed white and black players to compete against each other, a competition that was first allowed and then halted by Major League Baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.[3] Moore himself believed that the games were halted because the black players were too successful, stating that "The public, they liked to see the competition, but the commissioner, he didn't have that attitude after he found out that we were drawin' real good crowds and we were beatin' 'em a lot."[3] Moore registered for military draft in October 1940 and served from 1942 to 1945. For the three years after World War II, he returned to baseball with the Black Crackers.[3] At his most highly paid, prior to the war, he earned $250 a month with a $1.50 daily food allowance.[4]

In 2006 Moore was among six individuals inducted into the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame, in its second year of existence.[5] He died at the age of 99 on February 6, 2016.[6]

Notes

  1. ↑ Kelley, 49.
  2. ↑ Kelley, 49-50.
  3. 1 2 3 Kelley, 52.
  4. ↑ Kelley, 54.
  5. ↑ Invasco, Joey (2006-06-10). "Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame class of 2006". Atlanta Journal-Constitution. p. d6. Retrieved 2008-10-19. There were six inductees this year, including (not pictured) former Negro leagues player James "Red" Moore and Journal-Constitution columnist Furman Bisher, inducted at a banquet Friday at the Westin Buckhead Hotel.
  6. ↑ http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/atlanta/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=177628808

References

  • Negro league baseball statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference (Negro leagues)
  • James "Red" Moore homepage
  • Kelley, Brent P. (1998). Voices from the Negro Leagues: Conversations with 52 Baseball Standouts of the Period 1924-1960. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-2279-3.
  • Negro League Player of the Month
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