MLB History: Moonlight Graham Passes Away
A footnote to MLB history without a major movie, the anniversary of Moonlight Graham‘s death today in 1965 reminds us of the frailty of the game.
One week from today, MLB rosters will begin to be flooded with young players getting a chance to make their first major league impression as rosters expand for the month of September. For many young players this will be their only major league time, a once in a lifetime opportunity to play at the highest level of the game they love.
For many, that’s all they could ask for. In 1989’s Field of Dreams, baseball fans were introduced to the story of Moonlight Graham, who in 1905 got that one shot, but not exactly all of that one major league shot that he hoped for.
The game
The movie had some factual errors for sure, but this game they did very well with, outside of the game taking place in the middle of the season rather than the end of the season.
The game in question was on June 29th, 1905 between the New York Giants and Brooklyn Superbas. It was a mismatch of significant proportion, as the Superbas finished the season 48-104 and the Giants finished the year nearly a perfect flip of the record at 105-48. The mismatch was reflected in the final score, as the Giants would win the game 11-1 on the day.
Graham played one inning in right field, got no chances at all defensively, and that is his only recorded game in the major leagues.
The movie then has Graham’s character state that he retired, not wanting to spend another year in the minor leagues. In fact, he returned to the minor leagues for three more seasons after the 1905 season, retiring at age 30 in 1908 after having never made it back to the major leagues.
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Post baseball
Graham did attend school when not playing baseball, and he completed his medical degree from the University of Maryland. He began practicing medicine in Chisholm, Minnesota, where he would live out his days. He worked with the Chisholm school system as their doctor for 40 years of that time, and a scholarship was named in his honor that still goes to one boy and one girl each year.
For an excellent view on more of the information about the real Archibald Graham, I’d suggest Chasing Midnight: The True Story of Field of Dreams’ Doc Graham by Brett Friedlander and Robert W. Reising.
In the movie, Moonlight did get his big moment:
He learned quickly that the wink wasn’t such a great idea. It’s a good thing to consider as we watch dozens of young players come up to the major leagues that this could be the one and only shot for many of them.
Rest in peace, Doc Graham!