Windsor: Historians try to uncover the life of Negro Leagues great Dobie Moore
From Shawn Windsor at the Detroit Free Press on May 25, 2014, with mention of SABR members Peter Morris and Gary Ashwill:
One of the best shortstops in the history of baseball may or may not have jumped from a second-story balcony and suffered a compound fracture in his leg. Dobie Moore may or may not have been running from his girlfriend, who had a gun, and who likely wasn’t happy that he was married.
The stories from that night aren’t as reliable as Peter Morris would like. Then again, as Morris, a baseball historian, points out, leaping from a balcony to escape an ill-tempered mistress only adds to the aura of the sweet-swinging shortstop.
As it happened, Moore did get shot that night, in the lower leg. And yes, his girlfriend pulled the trigger, ending his career six years after it started.
Moore played for the Kansas City Monarchs in 1920-25 and put up such outsized numbers he nearly got elected to the Hall of Fame in 2007 anyway. After the injury, he moved to Detroit and disappeared.
The Tigers are hosting their 12th annual Negro Leagues Weekend, including wearing the throwback uniforms of the Detroit Stars in Saturday’s tribute game. The team honored several former Negro leagues players before the game.
Morris and his fellow researchers are a group of baseball enthusiasts determined to memorialize the forgotten greats of the Negro leagues. They spend thousands of hours unearthing the details of these players because so many fell into anonymity after they played.
Read the full article here: http://www.freep.com/article/20140525/SPORTS02/305250098/negro-league-dobie-moore
Originally published: May 27, 2014. Last Updated: May 27, 2014.