MLB's historian solves one of baseball's great mysteries: What happened to Henry Moore?

MLB historian solves a great baseball mystery

By Michael Clair

July 22, 2015

Imagine a rookie hitter joining the league, hitting .336, and then disappearing forever, never to be seen again. Not only that, but there is no information on him: Not when he was born, nor when he died, or even what hand he threw with.

There is one player that meets all those criteria: The Washington Nationals outfielder Henry Moore. In 1884, Moore hit .336/.363/.414 in 111 games while leading the Union Association, a one-year Major League, in hits and games played. And that's it. So why did someone with so much talent play for only one year?

Fortunately, John Thorn, MLB's official historian, took up the case. Like a regular Sherlock Holmes, Thorn discovered that Moore "batted left, threw right, was born in California before 1865 and probably died there, certainly sometime after 1905 and before 1912."

Turns out, though, Moore was a bit of a malcontent, if not a "sociopath." Turns out the outfielder would find himself "blacklisted" throughout his career, often for petulant behavior. As his teammate, pitcher Billy Wise wrote:

"He walked up the plate, smacked the first ball pitched into the far corner of the lot, good for twice four bases, threw his hat on the ground and deliberately walked to the players' bench and sat down. Baker and I both raced to the plate but the Boston fielder finally overtook the ball and fielded it to first base, and the umpire declared Moore out, neither run counting under the rule, Boston winning the game 3 to 2….

Tim Murnane, who was present, said it was the most measly trick he ever saw perpetrated…."

I guess we've found the longest tater trot of all-time.

Moore's entire story is fascinating and the work that Thorn has done in locating his history is remarkable. Click here to see the full post over at Our Game.