Even When Down, Moore Had Time for Fans

I didn’t know Donnie Moore any better than any other Angel fan. He gave me exhilaration with his successes, and I suffered with him when things went badly.

As with most sports stars, memories of Donnie Moore come in snap-shot vignettes. Big strokes painted on the canvas of the playing field--lots of big saves and crucial strikeouts and occasional inopportune home runs.

But the measure of the man was found one night in the Anaheim Stadium parking lot. I had brought my three sons to an Angel game in 1987. It was baseball card night and my sons and I lingered outside the players’ exit as each Angel rushed by, avoiding their fans despite polite pleas to share a moment to remember.

These were not the best of times for Donnie Moore. He had not pitched that night (and was being used less often, and booed when he did appear).

Yet he calmly led a group of young fans out by his car in the parking lot, and as the lights were extinguished, he patiently signed all autographs, posed for an occasional picture, and left me with a positive, warm feeling.

Donnie Moore was a professional and a person. He gave that “something” back to the game. Long after the memory of games won or lost, my sons and I will remember our snatch of time with Donnie Moore late one night in an Anaheim parking lot.

LARRY WELLIKSON

Irvine