Charley Moran

The forgotten umpire

Charley Moran

The best part of researching baseball history is discovering names that have long been forgotten.

I came across this while reading through old issues of The Sporting News as part of my 1949 Diamond Mind Baseball replay:

From The Sporting News, June 22, 1949, page 15

Moran was really a fascinating character. It seems that his athletic career started off by playing football for the University of Tennessee way back in 1897. While I wasn’t able to find any articles specifically about hiim as a player, you can find his name listed in the old box scores, such as this one:

From The Journal and Tribune (Knoxville, Tennessee), October 16, 1897, page 8

Of course, this was back in the days before substitutions, and back before the length of football games was a well established rule. This particular game featured a 20 minute first half and a second half that was held to only 5 minutes due to darkness. Tennessee won, 28-0 — and remember that this is back before touchdowns were worth 6 points.

Moran later was coach of the University of Nashville squad in 1900 and 1901:

From Nashville Banner, November 27, 1901, page 3

Nashville headed into the final game of the season undefeated, but would have needed to overcome Vanderbilt, their bitter rivals. And this is the way things unfolded:

From Nashville Banner, November 29, 1901, page 1

So much for a friendly rivalry!

Moran had a cup of coffee with the Cardinals in 1903 — one that didn’t end very well:

From St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 21, 1903, page 5

“Reckless” doesn’t even begin to cut it. Moran walked 10 in that game and hit a batter, losing 8-3 and knocking himself out of the major leagues in the process. It turns out that he had developed a sore arm.

Moran was back with the Cardinals in 1908, this time as a catcher. He only appeared in 21 games, mostly as a late season callup:

How many other players have you seen that were associated almost exclusively with losing like this? The Cardinals were 1-20 in games that Moran appeared in.

Moran later coached the Texas A&M football team for a few seasons, starting in late 1909:

From Waco Semi-Weekly Tribune (Texas), October 20, 1909, page 13

After spending some time working with the famous Carlisle Indians team as a trainer, he became a National League umpire in 1918 — and worked in that capacity through 1939.

Now, that Sporting News article has the best stories about Moran that I’ve been able to find:

And then there was this:

And finally there was this quip about a different team Moran coached:

I guess you shouldn’t insult the umpire.