Donnie Moore is remembered for giving up a two run home run to Dave Henderson that kept the Los Angeles Angels from reaching the World Series in 1986. That blast haunted him the rest of his life and led to his committing suicide on this day in 1989.
There was a time when Donnie Moore was one of the top closers in baseball. The Los Angeles Angels hurler made the All Star team in 1985, when he finished seventh in the Cy Young vote and sixth in the MVP chase. While he was not as dominant the following year, he was still a key piece of the Angels bullpen, helping them to a 3-1 series lead in the ALCS against the Boston Red Sox.
With a chance to get to the World Series, Moore was brought in to close out the fifth game. What happened next will live in infamy – he surrendered a two run home run to Dave Henderson, giving the Red Sox the game and an eventual seven game series win. Moore would not be the same after that, losing his confidence and being released in August of 1988.
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He signed with the Royals for the 1989 season, and spent the first two months of the year in Omaha. However, he struggled, posting a 6.39 ERA and a 1.579 WHiP, and was subsequently released in June. His depression, which he had been battling since that fateful day in 1986, got even worse, until everything reached a head on this day in 1989.
After an argument with his wife, Moore, in front of their three children, shot her three times. Their seventeen year old daughter and another child rushed the mother to the hospital, where she survived. Moore, even more distraught than before, then killed himself in front of their son, ending his life at age 35.
It was a tragic end for a career that had once been so promising. Moore, not even three years ago, had been on top of the world, about to go to the World Series with the Angels. Then, because of one fateful pitch, his world was turned upside down, leading directly to the events that cost Moore his life.
Baseball can be a cruel and unforgiving game. And sometimes, even the best of the players cannot let go of the past.