MY STORY
Joseph Douglas Moeller
The day after I graduated from high school,1960, there were four teams parked outside our house in the morning, Cubs, Pirates, Tigers, and I think one more club. The Dodgers and Red Sox weren’t there because my dad had promised Mr. O’Malley that he would call him after all the offers were in, and of course the Red Sox because they had given us $5,000 when I was in Little League to have the last rights to sign me. I need to slide in here that I was 6’ tall when I was in Little League. All they had to do was top the best offer by $1 and we had to sign with them. My dad called the Red Sox and told themthat we had been offered $100,000 by, I think it was Tigers or maybe Cubs or maybe both, and they said they couldn’t go that high, so we were released from that obligation. The next day we went to O’Malley’s office and agreed to a $95,000 contract, which included my dad getting $15,000 for being a Dodger scout, which he never had to do, and my brother $5,000 and a minor league contract. One of the reasons it worked signing with the Dodgers was because they were the only club that would include my brother. He spent so much time catching me when I was growing up that I wanted to give him at least a chance to play pro ball. He played one year at Kokomo, Indiana, and they released him the next year because of injuries. This was all setup for tax reasons, including me getting $15,000 per year for 5 years…or something like that. I think it totaled $95,000.
Let me digress a little to growing up in Chicago/Ill/Tomahawk, Wisconsin. For some reason my dad was into archery and had my brother and I doing it when I was probably 6 and my brother 9. My mom also shot in tournaments. I know I won a couple of Illinois State Championships for my age group and a couple of California State Championships. (I tried to verify this but couldn’t find anything. At one time I remember having trophies from doing this) When we were in Chicago my dad started us shooting/performing at sports shows and rodeos. My mom would hold balloons in her hand and my dad would break them shooting over the top of the crowd. He would also do all kinds of trick shooting, breaking balloons on the target, as would my mom. My brother and I would shoot at balloons on a target as part of the act. When we moved to California we continued to shoot only in tournaments. When I was 12, I asked my dad if I won the National Championship, being held in Sacramento, could I stop shooting archery and take up baseball. My dad also loved baseball and pitched semi-pro while in Chicago/Wisconsin, so he agreed. I won the National Championship, setting some records that were good for a long time…my brother told me that. I never touched a bow and arrow after that tournament. Archery was so boring to me and we also practiced A LOT. We would have to drive from Manhattan Beach to Griffith park and a couple other distant parks just because there weren’t a lot of places that had targets to practice. It did teach me that there is a price to be paid to be good.
Every day before my dad would go to work – he worked night shift – we would go across the street to a vacant lot and I would pitch to him. He really knew a lot about pitching along with emphasizing the focus and concentration that it took to have good command. He also taught me how to throw an outstanding curve ball. I don’t think that I had any better pitching coach in pro ball that was better than my dad other than maybe Red Adams. When I was in high school, I don’t think I threw that hard, but I had a Plus curve ball. I’ll bet my fast ball barely topped out at 90, if that. I also graduated when I had just turned 17 so my body was still maturing. I think I was 6’6” and probably 170 pounds. My dad didn’t want me to go to the minor leagues thesummer that I signed because he didn’t think I was ready…and he was so right. In the Fall of that year the Dodgers had me go to the Arizona Instructional League. I woke up one morning when I was there and all of a sudden I was bringing it…I thought, who jumped into this body! The coaches couldn’t believe it… I couldn’t believe it. I was all of a sudden throwing easily mid-90s. My dad was so right to hold me back rather than have me go to the minor leagues right out of high school, as my body was still catching up to me.
My first full season, 1961, I played for Reno, Greenville and Spokane. I pitched 240 innings, won 20 games against nine losses with 295 strikeouts, 22 complete games and seven shutouts. Today teams protect young arms, but not back then. When the season ended, I found it difficult to raise my right arm enough to comb my hair.
That GREAT Reno team I played for was one of the best teams in the history of the minor leagues.
The Reno team was outstanding and was a great start for me to gain confidence in what I could do. We had Dick Nen, Donnie Williams, Bruce Gardner (who’d won 20 games), Ken McMullen. I think Donnie Williams hit almost .400. We really dominated the league and there were some good teams/players in the league. I was only there until June and then moved up to Greenville, SC. I was 12-3 and I think I was leading the league in K’s and ERA when I left. I remember one of my losses was in relief. I could not have had a better first year manager than Roy Smalley. Outstanding person with great character!
For the next four seasons I split time between the minors and the majors. It was tough to find my place in baseball.
In 1966 I had a breakout season. The pitching staff was stacked. In the rotation were Hall of Famers Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, and rookie Don Sutton. A fourth starter – Claude Osteen – was athree-time All Star and two-time 20-game winner. Manager Walt Alston and the Dodger front office believed in me enough to make me the fifth starter.
I pitched in a career-high 29 games. There’s a stat called, “ERA+”. It takes a player’s ERA and normalizes it across the entire league. It accounts for external factors like ballparks and opponents. My ERA+ was 131 in 1966. That means I was 31% better than the league average. It was by far my best year in the big leagues.
We finished a game and a half ahead of Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal, and the San Francisco Giants. In the World Series we ran into a great Baltimore team led by MVP Frank Robinson and got swept.
In the off-season Sandy retired. With an opening in the starting staff and my effective season, everything pointed to me being in the rotation full time in ‘67. It was the best opportunity of my professional career. It was my time to shine.
In January I ramped up my work outs and got ready for Spring Training. One of the things I did for cardio was play pickup basketball. Running up and down the court really helped get me in shape. I mostly played on the perimeter to avoid the chance of injury. One possession I went in for the rebound and landed awkwardly. I felt a twinge in my right knee.
Immediately I left the game and went home. Though I got ice on it I could tell there was something wrong. My mind raced. Would the injury cost me the biggest opportunity of my career? I was worried. Maybe even angry. I asked God, “Why?”
A few hours after I went to bed, He answered me. My knee hurt so bad that the pain woke me up in the middle of the night. When I opened my eyes, smoke and flames were surrounding us, engulfing the bedroom. Though my wife was still asleep next to me, she was coughing violently.
I woke her up and told her to get Gary and Lynne out of their rooms and get clear of the house. The smoke was so thick that the only way she could breathe was by crawling on all fours. She picked up the kids and got them to safety.
Back in the house, instinct took over and I grabbed my crutch. Firemen always advise you to get out of a burning building, but I had to stay and fight the fire that was destroying our family’s home.
Soon I found the source of the fire. An old ottoman that sat on top of the vent?of the floor heater for a couple of years was enveloped in flames. The cloth on it had dried out and it combusted into flames.
With my crutch I pushed the flaming fireball of the ottoman toward the front door. Try as I might, I couldn’t nudge it over the threshold. As the flames converged on me, panic set in. Using all my strength, I gave the ottoman one final hard push with my crutch. The swing forced the ottoman out the door.
Soon the fire department came. By the time they hosed down the house and extinguished the fire, there was about $4,000 in damage. You’ve got to realize the entire house was worth $25,000 – a lot of money in those days.
When the fire was finally out, I talked to the fire captain. I told him about waking up and seeing the flames. I wanted to know why we were able to sleep even as the thick smoke had us coughing so hard.
“Most of the time people don’t wake up in a house fire,” he said. “Usually, they just cough until they can’t breathe any longer from all the smoke in their lungs. You’re all lucky to be alive.”
I’ll always remember God’s lesson. Hurting my knee seemed so awful at the time but if not for the pain of the injury waking me up, my family would have perished. God turned a devastating event into a blessing. He reminded me of the importance of faith, family, and love.
My knee didn’t heal up in time for Spring Training. Because of that, I got sent back to the minors. All things considered though, life was good. Some things are more important than pitching in the big leagues.
When I broke into the big leagues it was quite an adjustment. As a teenager, I was the youngest player on our team. In fact, the only player younger than me in the entire National League was the Mets Ed Kranepool.
At that time, the Dodgers had lots of veteran players. Baseball culture in those days included plenty of late nights out and time at the bar. Besides not being old enough to drink, that life never appealed to me. Because of that, I didn’t always fit in.
When the guys had team parties on the road, I didn’t get invited. Looking back now, I totally understand. We didn’t have anything in common. The Dodgers knew it and had me room with Carroll Berringer, our bullpen coach. He was a super guy and a solid Christian. Carroll was really good to me and helped grow my faith.
Sometimes there were challenges. I remember Leo Durocher taking his fungo bat and not-so-gently tapping players on the shins. He loved making us dance in front of the reporters.
One day he took his bat to Frank Howard who wasn’t in the mood. With his giant arm reaching out from his 6’7” frame, Frank picked Leo up. At the time Leo was 59 years old and all of 150 pounds. His eyes got really big. Hondo lifted the 5’9” Durocher to his eye level and told him, “you ever do that again, I’ll shove that fungo up where the sun doesn’t shine.” He might’ve used more colorful language but that’s how I remember it. None of us ever had to dance for Leo again.
Leo was from a different era. He liked being the center of attention. Sometimes when we were at home playing in Dodger Stadium Leo would make comments about me not being old enough to drink. He often played to the press. It happened a few times and made me a little uncomfortable. To avoid the situation, I’d look to see if Leo was on the field or near the dugout. Then I’d wait until he was distracted before I’d head to the outfield to shag during batting practice.
I learned years later that Tommy Davis put an end to Leo using me to get attention from the writers. He told Leo in no uncertain terms to “leave the kid alone”. Tommy was an outstanding person. All the African American players were good to me. In the mid-60s, I remember being invited to a jam session on the road in one of the player’s rooms. The only Caucasian player there, I watched as Maury Wills played his banjo and John Roseboro played his melodica, a flute-like instrument with a small keyboard. Rosey loved music and fancied himself a musician. He was super to me. Always.
I remained in touch with quite a few of the guys. Later in life I saw Tommy at the stadium, playing golf, and on our speaking engagements. He was such a standup guy. Maury and I remained close friends after baseball. When he was battling alcohol and drug issues, he asked me to go to a couple of AA meetings with him in Hermosa Beach. We stood by each other.
In life we’re always learning and growing. I didn’t always get it right. There was a time that I tried to fit in by hooting with the owls and trying to soar with the eagles the next day.
During that time, my relationship with God was not as strong as it could be. I put Him in the closet. I asked Him for help, prayed to Him for whatever I needed, but it was a one-way relationship. I wasn’t doing what I knew was His will.
As you can guess, I paid the price.
The distance from God and His will pushed me off track. Those years were very tough, professionally, financially and relationally.
My close friend and old Dodger road roommate Jeff Torborg was hired as the manager in Cleveland in 1977. He reached out to me in ’78 offering a job as bullpen coach. It was a great opportunity to get back in the game. Because of problems at home, I had to resign in Spring Training. Through this time I had two divorces.
It became apparent that something had to change.
In the early 80’s I began volunteering at Midnight Mission in downtown Los Angeles. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was a turning point. At first I served meals one night a week. The experience was so moving that I was soon there two nights per week, then three and four. I also volunteered and became involvedwith Fellowship of Christian Athletes,and I was on the L.A Board of Directors. I helped with the sports summer camps recruiting former Dodger players Maury Wills, Lou Johnson and others to helpcoach the kids. This was so rewarding for me to see all the kids that accepted Christ because of these camps.
During the off season when I was Advancing for the Marlins a good friend, Roy Dinnel, asked if there was any way I could come up to Rogue Valley, Oregon and talk to the kids at the Rogue Valley Correctional Facility. This was through Youth for Christ Ministry. It was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. It was both heart wrenching and eye opening to hear the stories of what these young kids had gone through, from no fathers to parents on drugs, etc. It was rewarding to share how Christ had changed my life and to let them know that the reason I was there was because I cared about them. They would always ask me why a former Dodger player would take the time to fly all the way up there to talk to them. I ended up going up there twice a year for the next four or five years. This ended up being one of the biggest blessings in my life’s experiences.
God really got my attention. It was humbling to realize how blessed I was, how it was not all about me. I started to get closer to God. As my relationship with Him strengthened, I felt fortified. Good things started to happen.
In just a couple of years’ time, life started to improve. I became the pitching coach for USC then was hired for the same position by the Korean Baseball Association’s Samsung Lions. That opened the door for a position with the South Korean national team as they prepared for the Olympics.
When the economy in South Korea fell on hard times, the team no longer had room for my position in their budget. Though the job was gone, the experience remained.
By the end of the 1990s I could feel things falling into place. I was living in Dana Point and met an incredible woman, Trudy Breneman, that God brought in into my life. This time I let Him find the perfect woman for me and he picked someone better than I would ever have thought I could find. After dating for about five years while I got my life/career together we got married in 2003. Talk about an incredible year…I married the woman of my dreams and we, the Marlins, won the World Series against the Yankees. We have been together/married happily for 25 years.
In 2000 the Montreal Expos were looking for an Advance Scout. An Advance Scout stays one step ahead of the team they work for, scouting whatever team is next on the schedule. Those jobs are very limited; most of the 30 teams had just one advance scout.
As luck would have it, my old friend Jeff Torborg was talking with Montreal General Manager Jim Beattie and recommended me for the job. After a good conversation, Jim hired me for the 2000 season.
Armed with experience from playing and coaching, and with my life in sync, the job was a perfect fit. I spent 16 years advancing for the Expos and later the Miami Marlins when team owner JeffreyLoria essentially traded franchises. It was a dream job.
Everything changed when I turned my life back over to God to do His will. There are always bumps in the road. I just know God is always with me. He is in control.
As I look back on my time in baseball I have a deep sense of gratitude and humility toward the game. It provided me with many different jobs, each of which I enjoyed.
I was fortunate enough to get paid to play for 14 seasons, to coach at the collegiate and pro levels both at home and in Korea, and to scout.
The odds of getting to do any one of those things are pretty slim. Reflecting on each of those stops, I realize the most satisfying by far was advance scouting for the Montreal Expos and Florida Marlins. It was exhilarating to play a part in helping the club win. For me it was also a dream job because Trudy would join me on the road at her favorite cities, and we got to spend time together while I was on the road scouting. I would scout the games at night, and she would scout the cities, which she loved.
Advance scouts stay one step ahead of their team’s opponents. When the Expos had the Dodgers next on their schedule, I’d scout the Dodgers. During the season I saw all the clubs we’d play.
In that era, most teams sent their scouts to the actual games. Being there was important. There were always quite a few scouts in attendance. We’d chat and I’d learn valuable information that I could only get by being there.
There were times I’d hear of an injury that the club was keeping quiet, how an outfielder had trouble throwing when moving to his left or right, or what kind of guy each player was in the clubhouse. You just couldn’t get this kind of information anywhere else.
When I first started advancing, every scout spent a lot of time writing notes to chart what they saw. That system made it so scouts missed some of the action while writing.
I designed some charts where all you had to do was check a box. The charts also had faster ways to write down notations. That really helped me focus on the action on the field.
I shared my charts with a lot of the scouts. They shared their information too. I learned not only about the players and teams I scouted; the other scouts taught me a lot about the different cities – where to stay, how to get to each park, and the best places to eat. With almost 200 nights each year at a Marriott, knowing the ins and outs of each city was very useful.
In those days we’d scout a three or four-game series then move to the next city and team. On the last day of the series the advance scouts worked into the wee hours of the morning putting the finishing touches on their reports.
They’d catch a couple hours of sleep, then take the report to the nearest FedEx office and send it to the team they were working for. We had to keep track of our team’s schedule to know which city to send it to. It was a lot to manage.
After mailing the reports out, the scouts jumped on a plane and flew to the city where the next team was playing. That final day of the series and the next day’s travel were intense.
It seemed to me there had to be a better way. Luckily I was computer-literate.
You’ve got to remember, in the year 2000 it wasn’t like today. Most scouts were old-school baseball guys. They were not exactly on the cutting edge of technology. Heck, I was 57 years old.
Knowing my way around a computer helped a ton. I think I was one of the first guys to cut out FedEx and transition to email. At that time, using computers to provide instant information fascinated me.
A friend of mine was a scout for the Royals. One year in spring training he asked if I could show him how to set up an email account and use it for scouting. Some of the other guys were so intimidated by computers and the changing technology that they quit.
My advance reports went to the managers of the Expos, and later the Marlins. I worked with eight different skippers – Felipe Alou, Jeff, Jack McKeon, Joe Girardi, Freddie Gonzalez, Edwin Rodriguez, Ozzie Guillen, Mike Redmond, and Dan Jennings. Especially enjoyable was the work with the coaches. Each man wanted specific data and used the reports differently.
Felipe was the first manager I worked for. He wanted to know which hitters swung at the first pitch and nothing else, but the coaches would want other information. The club used that information in their hitters/pitchers’ meetings. After my first year, Jeff replaced Felipe.
In large part because of our long relationship, Jeff was my favorite to work with. He trusted what I was doing and it was easy to stay on the same page. He was replaced by Jack McKeon 38 games into the 2003 season. The team caught fire and ended up winning it all.
A month shy of his 73rd birthday, Jack was the oldest manager to guide his team to the title. Nearly 20 years later Dusty Baker broke that mark at 73 years old with the 2022 Astros.
Jack was easy to work for because he never really read my reports. I remember when we were playing San Francisco in the National League Divisional Series in early October 2003. I got an emergency call. They said Jack never received my report on the Giants. I knew I sent it and let them know I’d send another copy.
A few minutes later I got another call. They found my report under Jack’s box of cigars in the manager’s office.
It all worked out in the end. Winning the 2003 World Series was great for the team, the fans, Jack, and for me.
Jack stuck around through the end of the 2005 season. The Marlins dismantled the club completely and focused on a youth movement. The consensus was that the young players needed a different style and voice. They kicked Jack upstairs to become a special advisor to the owner and hired Joe Girardi as manager.
In spring training 2006, I walked into Joe’s office to introduce myself as his advance scout. He barely looked up and said, “Nice to meet you,” out of obligation. That was it. When I got back upstairs I called Trudy and said, “I might need to find another team to work for.”
I decided to head back to Joe’s office. This time I asked him what information he wanted in the advance report. He told me he relies on Inside Edge, a company that provides in-depth analysis and insights. Joe had extreme confidence in his intellect and in everything he did. It was clear he felt no need for an advance report.
To his credit, Joe did set up a meeting with the coaches and me so we could talk. I had a great rapport with them but Joe wanted nothing to do with me. We finished in fourth place. Our record was closer to the last-place Nationals in their second season of existence than to the first-place Mets.
Though the Marlins were in cost-cutting mode, they fired Joe at the end of the season and ate the last two years of his guaranteed three-year contract. In the press conference, general manager Larry Beinfest said, “Joe is not returning because it was not a good fit.”
A few more coaches and managers came and went. John Malee coached for the Marlins in 2010. He felt it was important to know where each hitter stood in the batter’s box. McKeon even returned in late 2011 at 80 years old. Advancing was something I really enjoyed. Each manager or coach valued receiving specific pieces of information.
Today the job is very different. Most clubs don’t have their guys travel anymore. Primarily the work is done remotely.
I can’t help but think that something has been lost. Being at the ballpark always meant so much and helped the accuracy of the reports. Watching the games on TV provides limited angles on each play. The intricacies that might make a difference in game decisions, wins, and losses are more difficult to pick up. Advance scouting as I knew it is from a bygone era.
Like everything in life, the game is always evolving. I began playing in the rookie league at 18 years old and retired from scouting more than a half-century later at 73 years of age.
When you are Advancing or even ML scouting you don’t want to spend so much time writing notes that you miss what’s going so I designed some charts that all you had to do is check a box or make a quick notation. That way I didn’t miss anything. I shared my charts with a lot of the scouts. I appreciated all the help they gave me when I first started from where to stay to inside information on players. Everything from injuries that you didn’t read about to how an outfielder had trouble throwing when going to his right or left in the outfield.
The other day I was thinking about information in advance scouting reports that might’ve helped when I was pitching. A few things came to mind right away.
I’d want to know which hitters went the other way when they had two strikes, which guys were looking to swing on the first pitch, who was more likely to chase breaking balls behind in the count, and the guys who were first-ball fastball hitters. Knowing more about which guys preferred the ball low or up in the zone would’ve been useful too.
When I was advancing I always included information on injuries as well. That’s important because hitters have to adjust and compensate for whatever might be bothering them physically. For instance, when I was scouting I noticed many guys would open up sooner if their wrist was hurting.
We didn’t have all that information when I played. We relied a lot on our catchers, John Roseboro and Jeff Torborg. They were super. Because they saw the hitters every night, it was easy to trust their pitch-calling.
The Dodgers allowed me to sit in the stands behind home plate the day before I pitched. Not a lot of guys on our staff wanted to do that, but I found it valuable. Watching the game from there, I got a better idea of pitch location and batter tendencies. You couldn’t do that on the road.
On games at Dodger Stadium when I’d sit in the dugout box seats, the team gave me a seat right behind Cary Grant and Dyan Cannon. Those two loved talking baseball. Here I was in my early 20s and two established and successful actors just wanted to talk about the game.
Once Cary asked if there was any way he could go inside the clubhouse. We were playing a doubleheader and between games I took him to the clubhouse entrance where he could see all the players getting ready for the next game. He was excited like a little kid. Baseball and the Dodgers will do that to people. Cary couldn’t thank me enough.
The Dodger franchise is the most pitching-rich team in baseball history. When the Cy Young Award was first created, it was my old friend Don Newcombe who received the honor in 1956.
Since then Don Drysdale (1962), Sandy Koufax (1963, 1965, 1966), Mike Marshall (1974), Fernando Valenzuela (1981), Orel Hershiser (1988), Eric Gagne (2003) and Clayton Kershaw (2011, 2013, 2014) have claimed the honor. No other team comes close.
In 1966 I had the good fortune of pitching in one of baseball’s greatest five-man rotations. Sandy led the way with 27 wins in the last of his three Cy Young campaigns.
The #2 man was Big D – Don Drysdale – who had eight All Star appearances and 209 wins of his own. Don Sutton was the third Hall of Famer in that rotation. A rookie at the time, his 324 wins are the most of any teammate I pitched with.
A player many forget was also in the rotation, Claude Osteen. “Gomer” was a teammate for 7 seasons. He represented the Dodgers in two All Star Games and won 147 games in LA. He was tough.
The four of them started 154 of our 162 games in ’66. I was just 23 years old and made the other eight starts. The five of us started every single game that year. You’d never see that today.
We won 95 games and beat the Giants to win the pennant. Though we got swept by a great Baltimore team with Frank Robinson, it’s a year I’ll never forget. Pitching in the World Series was a dream come true.
I still remember the thrill of facing Roberto Clemente the first time. The game was at old Forbes Field in Pittsburgh in early May, 1962. I was just 19 years old.
With the score tied in the bottom of the 9th inning our manager Walt Alston summoned me in from the bullpen. It was my fifth big league appearance.
The first batter was Dick Groat. Two years earlier he was the National League Most Valuable Player for the world champion Pirates. He worked the count full before I walked him.
With the winning run on base I now had to face Clemente for the first time in my career. In ’62 he was in the midst of a run that saw him make the All-Star team in eight consecutive years and in 12 of 13 seasons. He sure earned his nickname, “The Great One”.
I got ahead of him with two quick strikes. On the third pitch I threw one out of the strike zone. Instead of laying off of it, Clemente smacked a line drive single to right that advanced Groat to third. Now the winning run was just 90 feet away.
On orders from the dugout I walked Dick Stuart intentionally while Ron Perranoski warmed up so he could relieve me. My night was over.
The Pirates pushed across a run when Bob Skinner hit Perranoski’s third pitch up the middle for the walk-off win.
Pitching in the 1966 World Series against the Baltimore Orioles was one of the greatest thrills of my career. Don Drysdale started Game 1 for us at Dodger Stadium. The sellout crowd was electric.
Don retired the first two batters of the game before Frank Robinson came up. Frank was in his first season in the American League after some great years with the Reds. I think he wanted to prove the Reds were wrong to trade him. He did just that by winning the Triple Crown and being the unanimous selection as the AL MVP.
In Frank’s first at bat against Drysdale, he hit a two-run homer to left. Brooks Robinson followed him in the lineup and clubbed another shot in about the same place. Just like that we were down 3-0.
Drysdale walked catcher Andy Etchebarren to lead off the second inning. Pitcher Dave McNally bunted Etchebarren to second. The bullpen phone rang. CB answered it and told me to get loose. Etchebarren ended up scoring to put us down 4-0 in the second inning. I was told I’d start the third inning. Here I was just 23 years old about to pitch on baseball’s biggest stage. My heart was really pumping.
Brooks Robinson led off. He’s known as the greatest fielding third baseman in baseball history. In ’66 he earned the seventh of his 16 Gold Glove Awards. People forget he could hit. That season Brooks slugged 23 homers and topped the 100-RBI mark for the second time in his career. He started playing for Baltimore when I was 11 years old.
Brooks grounded out to Jim Gilliam at third, then I got Boog Powell and Curt Belfary to retire the side in order. In the 4th inning, Davey Johnson led off with a double to left. Etchebarren advanced him to second on a groundout. I had great control that season but walked the pitcher Moe Drabowsky. Hall of Fame shortstop Luis Aparicio grounded out to short but Johnson scored. Russ Snyder grounded out to second and the inning was over.
We lost Game 1 4-0 and Baltimore ended up sweeping us. In the four games Frank Robinson hit a triple and two homers and was named the World Series Most Valuable Player. To contribute to a pennant-winning team and pitch on baseball’s biggest stage was something I’ll never forget.
I always remember pitching against Clemente. He was such a bad-ball hitter, you could never really waste one. It’s funny how the memory works. The statistics say Roberto hit just .238 off of me. My heart tells me he was one tough out.
There was a lot to learn once I reached the big leagues. Every game there was a lesson that I never forgot.
The second start of my career came against the Braves in old County Stadium in Milwaukee. Led by future Hall of Famers, Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews, their roster was full of good hitters.
First baseman Joe Adcock could slug. A few years earlier he tied the Major League record by hitting four homers in one game. Catcher Del Crandall started in the All Star game that year – one of 11 he played in. It was a great lineup.
The starting pitcher for Milwaukee that night was Lew Burdette. The two-time All Star already had 163 wins on his way to over 200 career victories. I was still a teenager in search of my first big league win.
In the bottom of the first I allowed a run on a wild pitch. From there I settled down and put up some zeroes. Thanks to homers by Willie Davis and John Roseboro and an RBI single by Duke Snider, we led 5-1 going into the 8th inning.
In the bottom of the 8th with one out, Eddie Mathews came to bat. After the count got to 1-and-1, he leaned over the plate to distract me. I figured I’d brush him back to send him a message. I threw a fastball up and in toward his head.
As soon as catcher Johnny Roseboro threw the ball back to me, our second baseman Jim Gilliam called time out and approached the mound.
“Son, Eddie Mathews is the last person you want to have mad at you,” Jim told me. It was valuable advice.
Later I found out Eddie was known as one of the toughest guys in the game and for getting the last word with his fists. He was the kind of guy you wanted on your side in a back-alley brawl.
Eddie hit me pretty hard when I faced him. In 12 at bats, he managed four hits including a triple. Mix in a couple of walks and his on-base percentage against me was .429. It was really something pitching against a Hall of Famer like him. I’m just glad I didn’t give up any of his 512 homers.
That day I pitched a complete game for my first big league win. Memories of it bring back a lot of positive emotion. They also remind me how grateful I was that Jim Gilliam set me straight. His advice taught me a lesson that would’ve hurt to learn the hard way.
I remember pitching against the Padres on September 12, 1971 at San Diego Stadium – later called Jack Murphy. It was beautiful weather for the 6,950 fans in attendance for the Sunday day game.
Claude Osteen started for us. He pitched 18 big league seasons, was a two-time 20-game winner, and won 196 games in his career. Claude and I pitched on the Dodger staff from 1966-1971 when he averaged 16 wins per year and made two All Star teams.
On that day in ’71 he wasn’t at his best. Claude gave up six hits and two runs in two innings before getting lifted. By the time I got into the game in the top of the 5th inning, we were down 3-1. I pitched through the 6th and got all six men I faced, striking out Johnny Jeter and Nate Colbert.
The top of the 7th changed the game. We pushed across a run and had runners at first and third with one out when my spot in the order came up. It felt like we could break the game open. Our manager Walter Alston sent Jim Lefebvre to pinch hit for me, ending my day.
After Lefebvre walked, fleet-footed Maury Wills hit a ground ball to force Lefebvre at second. Because of his speed, Maury beat the relay to first. Steve Garvey scored the tying run on the play. A wild pitch and an RBI single from Bill Buckner put us up 5-3.
Forty-eight year old Hoyt Wilhelm relieved me. Eight years earlier he passed Elroy Face’s record of 134 saves. Now each time Hoyt pitched he extended his own MLB mark for most career appearances.
Hoyt retired the final six batters in order to preserve the win for the Dodgers and for me. He earned the 226th of his 228 career saves. Hoyt held the saves record until Rollie Fingers broke it in 1980. Both relievers are in the Hall of Fame.
I didn’t know it at the time, but that game was my final Major League win.
Carrol Berringer was as class a guy as anyone I met in baseball. Solid Christian and he really influenced me a lot because of his faith. Helped me to grow in my faith and also kept me from being influenced by what was going on with the off the field activities with the older players. He was also someone that I could talk to because I was pretty much ostracized from the other players because of how young I was. Him and Don Newcombe were definitely wonderful mentors for me.
When I worked as an advance scout for the Marlins, I bumped into Tony Perez in Spring Training. Seeing him brought to mind a prodigious homer he hit off of me. I asked him if he remembered the ball, he hit over the scoreboard at Crosley Field off of me. He asked, “Which one?”.
He was one heck of a player.
Later I relayed the story to a friend who looked up that game and Tony’s stats against me. It ends up his two-run homer on 6/20/1970 broke a 1-1 tie. He hit that ball so hard, I’m not sure it’s landed yet. We never recovered and I took the loss thanks to Tony.
I played with and against many Hall of Famers. The way some of them hit me, I helped them get into Cooperstown.
As for Tony, it ends up his memory wasn’t so good. That homer was the only one he managed off of me. Heck, he had twice as many strikeouts as extra-base hits against me. Lifetime he hit .235 off me. I still didn’t like pitching to him.
I got to thinking about the different managers that I worked for with the Marlins and that was about one a year for 16 years. Of course Jeff was outstanding to work with because we were on the same page plus he trusted what I was doing. Jack McKeon was also easy because he never read my reports. When we were playing the Giants in the playoffs in 2003 I got an emergency call saying they never received my report on the Giants. I said, “I sent it but I would send another copy”. I got a call a few minutes later. They said they found it on Jack’s desk underneath Jack’s box of cigars.
Fredi Gonzalez and Dan Jennings were outstanding to work for and even better people. Fredi was coach and manager with Marlins from 2007-2010 and then Atlanta Braves 2011-2016. Even when he was with the Braves, he would get me autographed balls for the Canine Companions golf tournaments. D.J. was assistant G.M. and then G.M. He let me setup my own advance schedule and was great to work for.
The worst manager I advanced for was Joe Girardi. I went to Spring Training, walked into Joe’s office and said, “ hi Joe, I’m Joe Moeller, I’m your advance scout.” He said, “ nice to meet you”…and that was it. I walked out of the office went upstairs and called Trudy and said, I think I need to look for another team to work for. I decided to go back downstairs and talk to Joe again. I went back down, found him, and told him that I would like to sit down with him to find out what information he wants. He pretty much said that he relies on Inside Edge but he would setup a meeting with the coaches the next day to talk with them, which he did. I had a great repour with the coaches. Girardi thinks he is the smartest man around and wanted nothing to do with me.
In my 14 years in Professional Baseball, I had a few different managers and different personalities, from Roy Smalley-Reno, to Walter Alston-Dodgers. The big difference would be in how they handled the different personalities of the players.
1.My favorite would probably be Sparky Anderson, and no I never played for the Reds. He managed in San Juan Puerto in Winter League in I think 1968. Super guy, fun personality but could also be tough. He was always very honest with you and told you what you needed to work on or if you weren’t doing something right. He would come out in the outfield during batting practice and run the pitchers himself. He really pushed us and I liked that. He was definitely the best communicator.
2.Next would be Roy Smalley in Reno my first year. I was only there three months, and I was 12-3, so tough to be on his bad side. I couldn’t have had a better manager to start my career. He was very intelligent, articulate, a college graduate, and he played in the big leagues. Outstanding communicator. I think that 1961 team was ranked in the top 50 best minor league teams in minor league history.
3.My 3rd favorite would probably be Danny Ozark. I played for him in Spokane and when he was a coach with the Dodgers. Really a good guy but also wouldn’t put up with anyone who didn’t work hard. Another good communicator.
Two other guys I played for and liked were Preston Gomez and Roy Hartsfield. I liked playing for Preston. Hemight be the toughest manager. Definitely no nonsense. I remember in 1961 I finished the season in Spokane and one night we were supposed to be at the ballpark at 5:00 and I got there at 4:40 and he called me into his office and kind of chewed me out for being late. He said, when I say 5:00 you be here by 4:30. I never forgot that. Preston’s problem was that he was a little hard to understand because of his Cuban accent. I really respected him.
Walt Alston was a nice guy but not a good communicator. I felt he didn’t come down on guys that screwed up or didn’t hustle. Usually Maury, or Jim Gilliam, and other players would have to do that. You didn’t want to mess with Walt and have those huge farm boy hands wrapped around your throat. A couple of times he let it go, but not enough times. I didn’t feel comfortable enough to go into his office talk with him like with Sparky or Danny.
One more manager I played for was Rocky Bridges. He was the manager in Hawaii in 1972. One of the funniest people I have ever known. Good guy. One time I was starting a game and as I was getting ready to walk out to the mound to start the game and he said, “ Joe, go as hard as you can for as long as you can and I’ll get someone to pick you up that last 8 2/3s innings.” That was funny!!
Where does God fit into the things I have done in my life?
When I was about 7 or 8 years old I would wake up early on Sunday morningwhen my parents were still sleeping and walk down to a small church about 4 blocks from our house. I would sit in the back row and listen to the sermon but really didn’t understand much of what I was hearing…I just knew that I wanted to be in God’s house and God was drawing me to Him. My parents were not Christians and we never went to church. They never knew that I did this.
One day I was walking down the street and the Youth Pastor at the church rode by on his motorcycle, stopped, and asked “aren’t you the one that sits in the back of the church on Sunday”, I said, “Yes”. He asked if I wanted a ride on his motorcycle. After we went around the block a couple of times we stopped and he asked if I knew who Jesus Christ was and I said, “Not really.” He went on to explain that He is God’s Son and died for my sins so that I can spend eternal life with God. He asked if I wanted to accept Him into my life, and I did.
Gifts.
God gives everyone a gift of talent. For some its athletic ability, for some it’s musical talent, for some it’s the ability to draw/paint, for some the gift of serving, and for some speaking. I knew at a young age that God had gifted me with the ability to throw a baseball better than anyone else my age…and that I had nothing to do with the fact I was six feet tall in Little League. This all was a gift from God. It was my job to work as hard as I could to develop this talent. A lot of people have a lot of talent but do nothing with it. I have known a lot of athletes that have had incredible amounts of talent but didn’t work hard to take it to the next level.
Choices.
You don’t get to choose, gender(male/female), race, parents but you do get to make positive or negative choices about what you do in life AND you do get to choose where you spend eternal life.
Everyone is free to make his own choices in life, but he is not free to choose the consequences of his choices. God has established certain moral principles in the world. These principles dictate the consequences of every choice.
When I was in high school and all my friends were going to parties and drinking, I made the choice to not do those things because I had set a goal that I was going to play for the Dodgers someday. My friends made fun of me but I knew that I had to stay focused if I was going to realize my dream and reach my goal.
Set Goals.
Success is a choice.
First you have to set a goal and even more important is that you include God in your goal planning. Is your goal, to be a doctor, mechanic, software programmer, etc.
So many times I wanted to be the architect of my plans and have God sign off on my plans. That doesn’t work.
Goals are our day by day blueprint that provides achievable targets for incremental improvement. Getting yourself to establish your goals is paramount, one of the key building blocks in achieving success.
Next you have to have a plan of attack. You must have a plan on how you’re going to get from the starting line to the finish line.
A. Discipline translates to hard work. It’s a code of conduct, an organized plan of attack.
B. There’s more to it than simply making the effort. The effort must be one with a purpose, a sense of direction.
What will it take to reach that goal? You have to break it down to what you are going to do each day, week and month….and then stick to your plan.
To reach your goal it’s more about how hard you are willing to work—not how talented you are.
You never want to look back and say, “I wish I would have worked a little harder.”
We control our life. We control how lucky we are. We create our fortune with our effort.
Long term success is the result of the small victories we accumulate every day.
Hard work is the key to success. Small successes breed larger successes.
Working hard is not always fun. That’s why it’s called work.
Notebook.
I use the notebook to organize my life and keep me focused on my goals.
1. Talk to God…#1 priority every day. HE WANTS A RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU.
a. Tell Him the things you are thankful for. There are plenty of things you can be thankful for no matter what your situation…health, friends, etc.
b. Pray for family/friends
c. God is not a vending machine in which you insert a request, and He gives you what you want.
2. #1 God, #2 family, #3 friends
3. Things I am going to do today. Anything you consider unpleasant do first. Get it behind you.
4. You can never be over-prepared.
5. See item #1
Anything that you don’t do today move to the next day and put on the top of your list. Keep moving it to the next day until you get sick of seeing it and get it done.
God’s blessings,
Joe Moeller
God’s blessings,
Joe Moeller
L.A. Dodgers/Miami Marlins
What God knows about us is more
Important than what others think.
Tim Tebow
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