John Moses

John Moses is one of a long line of honorable men whose dream was to be a major-league baseball player. It became a reality in 1982 with the Seattle Mariners, when he began a big-league career that spanned 11 seasons. He is among the multitude of former players who, after their playing career ended, could not say goodbye to the game that has been their life. Instead, these former players become coaches and managers, continuing to contribute to the game as they join the distinguished fraternity of baseball lifers.

John William Moses was born on August 9, 1956, in Los Angeles to Bill and Helen Moses.1 Bill held a variety of jobs, including work as a truck driver, a vocation that often took him out of state. While Helen sometimes worked outside the home, most of her energies were devoted to raising four boys, of whom John was the oldest.2

From his earliest days, baseball was Moses’ passion. He played baseball at Western High School in Anaheim but spent most of his prep years on the bench. As Moses later recalled, his coaches believed that the 5-foot-6, 130-pound youngster “was too small to be an effective hitter,” and so he was “primarily used as a pinch runner.”3 He was determined to continue playing, however. Moses said he would “not allow anything to stand in [his] way” as he pursued his dream. After graduating in 1974 he enrolled at Golden West College in Huntington, California, where he “got his break.”4

Teaching himself to switch-hit during his first year at Golden West, the left-handed-throwing Moses blossomed.5 Playing the outfield, he hit .334 during his two seasons with the Rustlers, a performance that attracted the interest of Division I schools.6 Indeed, he was just about to sign a letter of intent with perennial power Cal State Fullerton when the University of Arizona called. After a visit that left him impressed with the people, the place, and the program, Moses, who had dreamed of playing in the PAC-10, committed to Arizona. He quickly built upon his Golden West College foundation, becoming, according to the Los Angeles Times, “the best thing to hit town since the air conditioner.”7 Playing center field, he hit .372 as the Wildcats finished fifth in the College World Series. Looking back, Moses said the decision to go to Arizona was “one of the best things that’s happened in [his] life.”8 He met Sandra Shover – whom he married after the 1980 season – and said that being away from home provided an opportunity “to do a lot of growing up.”9

Baseballwise, it all came together in 1980. Moses continued to shine as co-captain of a close-knit Arizona squad, many of whom kept in touch decades later. Moses recalled the championship season for the lessons he and his teammates learned. After a slow start, the talented group of young players who “thought they knew it all did a lot of growing up,” and came to recognize the wisdom of coach Jerry Kindall. Consequently, about three-quarters of the way through the season, the team “started to jell,” mounting a late-season run that ultimately earned the school its second national championship. For his part, prior to the NCAA tournament, Moses tied the school record for stolen bases while hitting .322. Kindall called him the “most consistent player on the team.”10 In a final validation of how far he had come in his baseball journey, Moses – the self-proclaimed “former Western High School bench ornament,” the late bloomer who described himself as a “switch-hitter with good speed and an above-average arm,” the young man who would not be denied – was one of seven Arizona Wildcats taken in the June 1980 amateur draft.11

Moses, who by then had grown to 5-feet-9 and 168 pounds, was selected in the 16th round by the Seattle Mariners and signed by scout Bob Harrison.12 He began his professional career with the Bellingham Mariners of the short-season Class-A Northwest League, hitting .264 in 60 games. The outfielder showed good speed, stealing 16 bases. In 1981 Moses was promoted to the Wausau (Wisconsin) Timbers in the Class-A Midwest League, where he hit .280, scored 102 runs, had a .421 OBP, and stole 50 bases in 123 games.

Promoted once again in 1982, to the Lynn (Massachusetts) Sailors of the Double-A Eastern League, Moses hit .285, scoring 87 runs. It was noted that his base on balls total dropped from 103 to 67, so his OBP fell to .372. However, toward the end of the 1982 campaign, Moses was called up to the majors, making his major-league debut against the Boston Red Sox on August 23. As a ninth-inning defensive replacement, he fielded Dwight Evans’ double in left field but did not make a plate appearance. After pinch-running the next day, Moses finally got to bat on August 27. With the Mariners trailing the Detroit Tigers, 2-1, in the bottom of the eighth, he pinch-hit for shortstop Paul Serna. Leading off against Dave Tobik, who had replaced starting pitcher Milt Wilcox, Moses singled to left field and then stole second base. He advanced to third on a groundout but was stranded there. He played the ninth inning in left field as the Tigers added four more runs to seal a 6-1 win. Moses appeared in a total of 22 games that season, batting .318 with one home run, seven runs scored, and five stolen bases.

Moses started the 1983 season back in the minors with the Salt Lake City Gulls of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League. After just 16 games, he was called up by the Mariners and remained with the team for the rest of the season, appearing in 93 games and hitting .208 while scoring 19 runs and stealing 11 bases. Such would be the roller-coaster that marked Moses’ playing career. In 1984 he spent most of the season with Salt Lake City, aside from a short stint with Double-A Chattanooga and a late-season cup of coffee with the Mariners. Most of the 1985 season was spent in the PCL with the Mariners’ new Triple-A affiliate, the Calgary Cannons. Moses hit .321 before he was again called up by the Mariners at season’s end, making appearances in 33 games.

Recalling that he had been “labeled early on as a defensive player,” Moses was grateful that in 1986 he was recalled to the Mariners after starting in Calgary and playing in 39 games. New Mariners manager Dick Williams “allowed [him] to play every day.” He responded with a solid performance, hitting .256 in 103 games with career highs in hits (102) and stolen bases (25).

In 1987 Moses spent the entire season with the Mariners as a semiregular, hitting .246 in 116 games, but he was ultimately released by the Mariners on December 21, 1987. This signaled the beginning of his life as a baseball journeyman; his quest to hang on to a spot on a major-league roster became an annual challenge and this was the first of eight releases that were paired with a corresponding seven times when he was signed as a free agent. In the midst of it all were another five seasons of mixed fortunes, although in 1989 and 1990 he spent the full major-league seasons with the Minnesota Twins. The other three years saw Moses doing time in both the minors and the majors.

This experience was the embodiment of life as a baseball journeyman. His release by Seattle in December 1987 was followed by his signing, on January 19, 1988, by the Cleveland Indians, who released him near the end of spring training. The Twins signed him on April 5, 1988, and although he started the season in the minor leagues with the Triple-A Portland Beavers, after only 17 games he was promoted to the Twins. Staying with the Twins the rest of the season, he played in 105 games while hitting. .316. In 1989 he played in a career-high 129 games for the Twins, hitting .281, then tailed off in the 1990 season, batting only .221 in 115 games. Moses called his time in Minnesota his “best three years.” After the 1990 season, Moses was granted free agency.

Seeking to keep his baseball playing career alive, on February 1, 1991, Moses signed as a free agent with the Boston Red Sox, but they released him at the end of spring training. He was then signed by the Cleveland Indians on May 1, only to be released on July 19. An August 1 signing by the Pittsburgh Pirates was followed by his release four days later. The Detroit Tigers signed Moses later that same day, and released him on August 25, but not before he had appeared in 13 games and stolen four bases.

The next spring Moses rejoined the Mariners organization and split the 1992 season between Seattle and Calgary. He made his final major-league appearance on October 4, 1992. He replaced Ken Griffey, Jr. in center field in the top of the seventh and in the bottom of the inning lined a single into short right-center field in what was his final major-league at-bat.

Moses was released by the Mariners the next day, bringing his professional playing career to a close. When all the numbers were tallied up, Moses could look back on a major-league career in which over parts of 11 seasons, he had hit .254 with 11 home runs, 145 RBIs, and 101 stolen bases in 769 games. Looking back on his career, Moses said that to do what he did, “you figure out ways to survive.”13

“It’s a matter of survival for some people, and some people just have the gift,” recalled Moses. “You know they’re going to play for a long period of time unless they fall to injuries or something like that. I got the most out of my ability, and I see a lot of players like myself.”14

Indeed, that insight would ultimately inform his efforts as a coach. “You just try to relay the same kind of message that was taught to you,” said Moses.15

After his retirement, he and his wife ran a restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona, but that entrepreneurial venture was short-lived when he was given an opportunity to return to baseball, joining the Mariners at the start of the 1994 season as a roving scout. Serving as “an eye in the sky,” the position got him back into the game and led to a variety of coaching and scouting assignments, including a stint as the team’s advance major-league scout in 1999 before he ultimately became the first-base coach for the 2000 season. He held that job through the 2003 season, serving first under manager Lou Piniella and then, in 2003, under Bob Melvin. He was the outfield and baserunning coordinator in 2004.

As the first-base coach for the 2001 Mariners, Moses had a ringside seat for one of the greatest seasons in major-league history, and he was no less a witness to the prodigious offense that marked the Mariners’ efforts. Having joined an established crew in 2000, Moses recalled that he was the “low man on the [coaching] totem pole,” and under the direction of manager Piniella, he “had to learn to coach really fast.” Although Piniella “put on a lot of pressure,” his fellow coaches were “a supportive group,” and that “made it really easy.”

Looking back, Moses said the 2001 season was “magic,” a “fun season.” As spring training unfolded, the Mariners knew they were a good team and were reasonably optimistic that they could achieve the 90 or so wins necessary to make the postseason. But after a fast start that saw the Mariners winning the 20 of their first 25 games, they began to ask themselves, “Are we that good?” and the answer proved to be “Yes!” Moses recalled how the players and the coaches “were all jelling together” and the team “got to the point that we didn’t think we would lose.”

In a year when many Mariners had career years, they may have been overshadowed by the arrival of Ichiro Suzuki, who overcame Piniella’s early concerns about whether he could pull the ball and had a season for the ages. As the first-base coach, Moses was witness to how Ichiro, when heading to the plate, left opposing infielders “in a panic.” When he came to bat, they “did not know where he would go or what he would do.” Moses described Ichiro as the “best tennis player on a baseball field.” His bat control enabled him to hit a “drop shot over the head of a shortstop or use his speed to beat out a bunt for an infield hit.” Moses also maintained that Ichiro could hit with power that was never fully recognized.

Adding to the mix, Moses also recalled that not only did the Mariners pitchers have great years, but they had healthy years. Three starters had over 30 starts while a fourth had 27. Four relievers made 60 appearances or more. That kind of consistency was no small part of the team’s winning formula.

The end result was a historic and “magical season,” but one that ended on a tremendously disappointing note. While not making excuses, Moses said that as they did with much of America, the events of September 11 impacted the team and its efforts. Quite simply, he said, “9/11 really hurt.” The post-attack “down time interrupted the flow,” and while the team had already won 104 games while losing only 40, Moses said it “could not get back to where they were” before the attack. Meanwhile, in playing the New York Yankees, they were faced with a team that not only benefited from the fact that their “pitching got hot” in the playoffs, but also from the fact that in the shadow of 9/11 the Yankees seemed to be “playing for something” that transcended baseball.

Moses recalled that no one had any illusions as the team arrived for spring training in 2002. They recognized the unlikelihood of repeating the wonders of 2001, but they still believed they were a good team, one able to again qualify for postseason play. However, things did not turn out that way. In the end, the team compiled a record of 93-69, finishing in third place in the highly competitive American League West. In the aftermath of the 2002 season, the team began to break up. Piniella accepted the job as manager of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and took some of the staff with him. Moses remained with the Mariners organization through the 2004 season, but said that when Piniella left, he “thought it would be a long road ahead.” In fact, after the Mariners were able to duplicate their 2002 showing under Bob Melvin, again going 93-69, in 2004, they had dropped to 63-99. With the Mariners now making major coaching and player changes, Moses moved to the Cincinnati Reds organization in 2005 and served in multiple coaching capacities as the team switched managers in midseason. In 2007 he returned to the Mariners as the home-field batting practice pitcher. He transitioned to interim first-base coach after manager Mike Hargrove resigned in midseason and John McLaren was elevated to interim manager.

In 2008 Moses joined the Los Angeles Dodgers organization as hitting coach for the Triple-A Las Vegas 51s. But when the Dodgers cut ties with the 51s after the season, he was sent to Albuquerque, the team’s new Triple-A affiliate. For two years Moses was the hitting coach for the Isotopes before being fired at the end of the 2010 season. The following year he coached with the Houston Astros’ Corpus Christi Hooks of the Double-A Texas League. A combination of the hottest summer on record in Texas as well as a team that finished 50-90 left Moses recalling that “the Texas League was brutal,” but despite the challenges, he won the league’s Coach of the Year Award.16 After a year away, he joined the Atlanta Braves organization, coaching with the Advanced-A Lynchburg Hillcats in 2013-14. Two weeks into the 2014 season he was moved up to the Double-A Mississippi Braves, replacing Jamie Dismuke.

In 2015 Moses began a three-year run with the Gwinnett Braves of the Triple-A International League. The 2016 season was a bit of a roller-coaster for Moses. He began the season as a coach for Gwinnett and was the interim manager for two games after Brian Snitker was promoted to manage Atlanta and before Rick Albert could arrive to take over for Snitker. In what represented his first managerial opportunity at any level, Moses compiled a 1-1 record. Less than a month later, on June 14, Moses got the chance for an extended encore when he was named to replace Albert, serving for the remainder of the season and finishing with a record of 36-45. He was not rehired as manager after the 2016 season but remained as a coach at Gwinnett under Damon Berryhill through 2017 and spent a final year as a coach with the renamed Gwinnett Stripers for the 2018 season.

After the 2018 season, Moses decided to retire. Combining a passion-fueled drive with support from Sandra, he had crafted a solid baseball career as both a player and a coach, contributing substantively and positively to numerous teams in about every on-field way possible. At the same time, after over 40 years in the professional game, Moses saw that the game was changing. With the increased reliance on analytics, it seemed like a different game – an increasingly young man’s game – from which he was happy to step back. As of 2024, he and Sandra (who have two adult sons, Brett and Brock) made their home in Scottsdale when they were not happily traveling.17

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted baseball-almanac.com and Baseball-Reference.com.

NOTES

1 John Moses, text message to Bill Pruden, February 6, 2024. Moses notes that his baseball cards and most bios list his birth year as 1957, but that he was, in fact, born in 1956.

2 John Moses, telephone interview with the author, November 30, 2023. Unless otherwise indicated, all direct quotations attributed to Moses come from this interview.

3 Text, John Moses to Bill Pruden, February 6, 2024; Tom Hamilton, “Moses Hits It Big in Tucson,” Los Angeles Times, May 24, 1980: 47.

4 Hamilton.

5 Text, John Moses to Bill Pruden, February 6, 2024.

6 Hamilton.

7 Hamilton.

8 Hamilton.

9 Hamilton.

10 Hamilton.

11 Jim McCurdle, “Seattle’s Moses Comes Through in Squeeze: Former Golden West Star Gets Chance, Bunts in Winning Run Against Angels,” Los Angeles Times, August 3, 1987; Hamilton.

12 John Moses, William J. Weiss publicity questionnaire, July 23, 1980.

13 David Friedlander, “Getting to Know … John Moses,” Gwinnett (Georgia) Daily Post, July 8, 2015.

14 Friedlander.

15 Friedlander.

16 Moses interview; “John Moses,” Awards, The Baseball Cube, https://www.thebaseballcube.com/content/player/15701/awards/.

17 Moses interview; Text, John Moses to Bill Pruden, February 6, 2024.