The Pecan Park Eagle

Excerpt from “Your 1948 Houston Buffs, Dixie Champions: Brief Biographies By Morris Frank and Adie Marks (1948).

Former Houston Buffs pitcher Herb Moore (BL/TL) (6’0″, 200 lbs.) was born on November 27, 1915 in the town of Crew in Prince George County, Virginia. He died on June 18, 2002 in Chester, Virginia at the age of 86. In the early in-between years of his long life, he worked out his passion for baseball as a steady journeyman minor  league pitcher, mostly in the St. Louis Cardinals farm system, for 12 seasons (1933-38, 1941, 1946-50).

Moore first performed for the Buffs in 1936, starting the season at age 20, using his fair assortment of goodies to post a record of 8-13 with a 4.38 ERA. He returned to the Buffs over a decade later and put up a 5-2, 5.60 ERA mark for the 1947 Texas League and Dixie Series champion Buffs. 1948 was Herb’s final season as a Buff and he managed only a 1-2 mark in 35 innings of work.

1948 was also Herb Moore’s last dance as a career Cardinal far hand. After his closing tango with the ’48 Buffs, Moore pitched two final seasons at thee D ball level and then hung ‘em up. He finished with an all minor league career record of 86-62 and a 3.34 ERA. His two best seasons were 1935 when he was 21-5 with a 2.97 ERA for Class B Asheville and 1946 when he went 15-3 with a 1.44 ERA for Class D Albany.

Moore’s .278 career batting average speaks for his better than average hitting ability, but his .529 BA in 1947 speaks volumes for Herb Moore’s ability to come through in critical game situations and as a pinch hitter. In 17 official at bats for the ’47 Buffs during the regular season, Moore banged out 11 hits, including two triples. He became manager Johnny Keane’s “go-to” guy as a pinch hitter in the ’47 Buffs successful playoff run.

Moore tried a little managing before he completely hung it all up in baseball and retired to his life as a Virginia country squire. He had good baseball stuff, especially with his curve, but he looms in memory as just another of those guys whose skills and ability were not enough in that limited opportunity era to earn him a shot in the big leagues.

Herb Moore just played the game at the level that was available to him because he was a baseball man and for him and thousands of others like Herb Moore, playing the game somewhere was seen as a far better choice than not playing at all.

Thank you, Herb Moore! – Thank you for doing your part to keep the baseball chain of passion alive and growing under the far more difficult circumstances of the reserve clause era.

Tags: Herb Moore, Houston Buff Biographies

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