Couple Argued About Selling It : House Called Factor in the Moore Tragedy

It was a few months after the 1985 baseball season when California Angels star pitcher Donnie Ray Moore, as rich and successful as he had ever been, moved out of his condominium and onto a 1.5-acre estate in Anaheim Hills.

Moore’s three young children were enchanted by the place, and couldn’t wait to start boating around its private lake and bouncing on a trampoline built into the back yard of the four-bedroom house, recalled Robert Andri, who said he sold Moore the property for $850,000.

“It was paradise,” Andri said. “They were very excited about it.”

But the house that heralded Moore’s arrival as a big-time pitcher was also a factor in his demise. At a press conference Wednesday, family spokesman Randall Johnson said that a dispute about selling the home ended Tuesday with Moore shooting his wife in front of the children and then killing himself.

Tonya Moore, 35, was in serious but stable condition at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Anaheim, recovering from two bullet wounds in the neck and chest, Johnson said, adding that she was alert and talking to family members on Wednesday from her bed in the intensive-care unit.

Cynthia Powell, a psychologist and friend of the family, said that the couple’s 17-year-old daughter, Demetria, seemed to be coping with the tragedy, but her younger brothers are having a difficult time understanding what happened.

“They still (are) asking about Dad,” Powell said of 7-year-old Ronnie and 10-year-old Donnie Jr. “Just imagine your worst nightmare.”

About 30 friends and family members gathered at the hospital Wednesday.

Demetria, Ronnie and Donnie Jr. went back and forth from the lobby to the intensive-care unit waiting area. Ronnie went to the hospital gift shop and bought a necklace for his mother. At times, both boys were running around, playing with friends and family members. Once, Ronnie stopped by a newspaper rack and pointed to his father’s photograph on the front page.

“See--he’s on the cover of the newspaper,” Ronnie said.

In 1985, it appeared that Moore had nothing but a bright future ahead of him. After 13 years as a professional baseball player, he signed with the Angels and proceeded to set a team record by racking up 31 saves as a relief pitcher. The Angels rewarded his success with a three-year, $3-million contract after the season, making him the highest-paid pitcher on the team.

That Home Run

After that, Moore bought his Anaheim Hills house and started another successful season in 1986, saving 21 games and helping the Angels reach the playoffs. But in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series, with two out in the ninth inning and two strikes on batter Dave Henderson, Moore gave up a home run that allowed the Boston Red Sox to beat the Angels and subsequently advance to the World Series.

Moore became despondent about giving up the home run, and at one point, Dave Pinter, his agent for 12 years, advised him to seek professional help.

Retired Angels second baseman Bobby Grich, attending a dinner Wednesday night where he was inducted into the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame, recalled how Moore had been booed by fans the year after he gave up the home run.

“The best thing for Donnie Moore would have been to be traded after the ’86 season,” said Grich, who played alongside Moore that year. “He wouldn’t have had to hear the boos that way. I feel sorry for Donnie because he wasn’t able to handle it.”

‘Just a Baseball Game’

Grich disagreed with those who blame the news media for periodically writing about Moore’s ill-fated pitch: “The media as well as the fans won’t forget that home run, but this is just a baseball game. You have to get over something like that.”

Johnson said Wednesday that “Donnie felt bad about what happened” during the playoff game. “But he didn’t feel it was entirely his mistake. He was told to make that pitch. He felt it was a good pitch.”

In any event, after that game, Moore’s baseball career deteriorated. Unable to recover from persistent injuries, he was released by the Angels in September of last year, and trouble was not far behind.

Although Moore was signed by the Omaha Royals, Kansas City’s AAA team, Andri said, Moore began to be late making a $2,000-a-month second mortgage payment to him. (Andri said Moore paid $4,000 a month to a savings and loan that held a first mortgage on the house.)

“The first couple of years when he received a million dollars a year, it (Moore’s payment pattern) was like clockwork,” Andri said. “The last year, it hasn’t been so good.”

However, Johnson denied Wednesday that the Moores were behind in making mortgage payments. “They traveled extensively,” Johnson said. “Like anyone, they might have been one or two days late (in making the payments) when they came home.”

Couple Quarreled

Moore’s flagging career also apparently took its toll on his marriage. Neighbors said they could hear the couple quarrel frequently.

Then last month, the Royals minor league team released him. About the same time, Moore’s wife filed a change-of-address form with the state Department of Motor Vehicles, indicating that she had moved to Ontario. Johnson denied Wednesday that the couple had separated.

Last week, Moore called Anaheim real estate agent Jimmy Weatherspoon through a newspaper advertisement and told him he wanted to unload the house, according to a secretary in Weatherspoon’s office. “He was real anxious to sell,” the secretary said.

Johnson said the whole family sat down Tuesday afternoon to discuss selling the house and moving back to Moore’s home state of Texas when an argument erupted between Moore and his wife. Moore went for a .45-caliber pistol that he kept in the house, and fired four or five rounds, police investigators said. Two bullets struck Moore’s wife, and their daughter helped her into a car and drove to the hospital, Johnson said.

Moore then shot himself once in the head in front of the two boys, according to Anaheim Police Lt. Marc Hedgpeth. Either Ronnie or Donnie Jr. summoned police at 4:41 p.m. Autopsy results released Wednesday showed that Moore had died from a single gunshot wound to the head, Hedgpeth said.

In an exclusive interview with KABC-TV Wednesday night, Demetria Moore said that only one of her brothers had actually seen their father shoot himself.

“When he got cut from Kansas he’d been really depressed about that,” she said in the interview. “And I mean, here he is, the high-life career was off and then all of a sudden--boom--it’s gone. . . .

“And then he comes back to home . . . and the marriage, the family, is all destroyed. And I mean, what else does he have left?

“No one has a perfect marriage,” the teen-ager said. “I mean, of course they quarreled throughout the whole time they’ve been married, but it just didn’t seem that anything would lead up to this.

“I mean, my dad has always been the type of guy that would keep his problems unto himself. He wouldn’t like to talk to other people about it.”

The parents of both Tonya and Donnie Moore were expected to arrive Wednesday in Orange County. Funeral arrangements are pending, Johnson said.

Hopeful 2 Weeks Ago

When Johnson last spoke to Moore, about two weeks ago, the player expressed hope about being signed by the Houston Astros organization.

“I had no idea he was having such serious problems,” Johnson said. “He talked about going fishing. He wanted to get his mind off playing baseball.”

At today’s game in Detroit against the Tigers, the Angels plan to observe a moment of silence in memory of Moore.

Times staff writers David Reyes, Elliott Almond and Mike Reilley contributed to this report.