Jaffe: Remembering Moose Stubing, beloved baseball coach and basketball ref
From SABR member Jay Jaffe at Sports Illustrated on January 22, 2018:
The 1989 Elias Baseball Analyst nicknamed him “Double Zero,” but fans of baseball and basketball knew the big, amiable lug by a more affectionate sobriquet: “Moose,” with no shortage of o’s when he was introduced to the crowd. His time at the major league level was fleeting; as Elias discovered, he’s the only man ever to go hitless as a player and winless as a manager. But the Bronx-born cowboy earned a spot in the hearts of fans, particularly in cities common to the Texas and Pacific Coast Leagues, where he played and managed, and the Western Athletic, Southwest and Pac-12 Conferences, where he refereed basketball. “Share a cold one with Moose Stubing,” read a banner across the April 1999 issue of Referee, which featured him sharing suds as well as his wisdom and self-deprecating wit. Alas that’s one bucket-list item that this Salt Lake City-raised scribe won’t get to check off. Stubing passed away on Friday at the age of 79.
As a slugging left-handed first baseman, Stubing hit 192 home runs while spending parts of 15 seasons toiling in the minors, from 1956 to ’69, with a brief cameo in ’77. He only got one call to the majors, late in 1967 with the Angels, and went 0-for-5 with four strikeouts, all as a pinch hitter. By that point, at 29 years old, he had begun coaching younger players as well. He found success in that realm, and later served as the third base and hitting coach for the Angels. At the tail end of the 1988 season, after manager Cookie Rojas was fired, he went 0-8 as an interim manager.
Read the full article here: https://www.si.com/mlb/2018/01/22/moose-stubing-los-angeles-angels-obituary
Originally published: January 22, 2018. Last Updated: January 22, 2018.