Moore was content with the quieter life of chasing cattle in the town where he was born and raised and where he resided as soon as the Major League Baseball season ended. He brought national acclaim to his otherwise sleepy community by being nicknamed the “Gause Ghost.”
Though he wasn’t a Hall of Famer on the great New York Giants teams of the 1930s, “Jo-Jo” started the Giants’ engine on teams that featured legends Bill Terry, Mel Ott, Travis Jackson and Carl Hubbell.
Moore, a left-handed-hitting leadoff man, was one of the best contact hitters of his era. He had 5,427 official at-bats in his 12-year career and struck out only 247 times.
His slight physique (5-11, 155 pounds) and good speed earned him a pair of monikers - the “Gause Ghost” and the “Thin Man.”
He loved to swing at the first pitch and was particularly adept at swinging late and taking the ball to the opposite field. He seldom walked. Moore, who died in 2001 at age 92, once recalled the great New York Yankees catcher Bill Dickey telling him, “I’ve never had anybody hit the ball right out of my mitt the way you do.”
Moore played in a handful of games in 1930 and ’31, but it wasn’t until the sudden retirement of longtime manager John McGraw in 1932 and the elevation of player-coach Terry that put Moore in the everyday lineup and Gause on the national map.
Even with the big-name talents on the roster, none was more valuable than Moore on the Giants’ 1933 World Series championship team. In fact, he finished third in the National League MVP voting behind Dizzy Dean and Paul Waner. The Giants beat the Washington Senators in five games, and Moore tied a World Series record by getting two hits in the sixth inning of Game 2.
That championship season solidified Moore as one of the best leadoff hitters in baseball, and he hit better than .300 in four of the next five seasons. His best statistical year came in ’34, when he hit .331 with 15 home runs and 37 doubles. He was selected to six All-Star teams.
The Giants won back-to-back NL pennants in ’36 and ’37 but lost the World Series to the Yankees both years. Moore set a record for hits in a five-game set when he went 9-of-23 in the ’37 Series.
Moore played the oddly configured left field of the Polo Grounds as well as anyone in Giants history and had a cannon of an arm. He gunned down 25 runners attempting to take an extra base in ’36. He reportedly claimed, “I never once lost a fly ball in the sun.”
The “Gause Ghost” was still a viable player when he retired following the 1941 season at the age of 32. But he was ready to settle down with his wife, Jewell, and raise cattle and son Joe Jr. in the house he bought with his World Series checks.
Before he died at a Bryan retirement home seven years ago, he was the oldest living Giant.
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When Baylor’s baseball and softball teams begin play next spring at Baylor Ballpark and Getterman Stadium, respectively, they will have a pair of high-caliber, high-character backstops from Belton - Brooks Kimmey and Kalee Young.
Kimmey, a 2005 Belton graduate who played for Temple College in ’07, enters his senior year after shining for the Bears in limited catching duty last season.
Playing 20 games and making nine starts, Kimmey batted .382 with two homers, 11 runs batted in and a .543 on-base percentage for a 32-26 team.
He was a District 13-5A co-MVP as a Belton senior in 2005 after hitting .455 with 42 RBI, then played at Angelina as a freshman before transferring to TC.
Kimmey is the eldest of the four catchers on the Bears’ roster, joined by a pair of redshirt freshmen and a lightly played sophomore.
Young has made Glenn Moore’s Lady Bears squad as one of two catchers along with junior College Station A&M Consolidated product Courtney Oberg.
Young, a rangy redhead, brings a strong bat to the lineup to go with superb defense. She terrorized 13-5A pitching last spring and was vital in keeping the Lady Tigers in an exhaustive three-game bi-district series against Round Rock Westwood.
There was never much question as to whether Young would attend Baylor, and Moore very much wanted her on his team. As graduation approached, Young weighed the possibility of simply moving on to other interests.
Fortunately for Moore and the Lady Bears, she decided to extend her softball career and could give Baylor a solid four years behind the plate.
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We’ve reached the portion of the PGA Tour season in which only the hardcore are really paying any attention. The only suspense - other than the B-list players scrambling to make the top 125 money list to maintain their full status on the Tour next year - is who will be named Player of the Year.
This hasn’t been much of a conundrum in the Tiger Woods era. However, this season at least provides a multiple-choice exercise.
Of course, there is still Woods, who won four of the six tournaments he entered, including a dramatic U.S. Open victory on a bum knee.
You have Vijay Singh, who won three tournaments, the FedEx Cup and the money title. Padraig Harrington’s winning of two majors - the British Open and the PGA Championship - is usually a good recipe for this honor.
The nod still has to go to Woods, although he spent the last half of the year rehabbing from knee surgery. Singh had to play three times the tournaments Woods did to pass him on the money list. Harrington won the Woods-less majors but little else.
After a decade the question remains, will anyone challenge Woods’ supremacy anytime soon?
twaits@temple-telegram.com
