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Wilcy Moore: A legendary Pioneer

It's hard to say if Wilcy Moore was the best or the most popular Clovis Pioneer in the professional baseball franchise's 20-year history. But it's fair to say he's in both conversations.

The record books tell us Moore played 256 games over two seasons with the Pioneers, hitting .321 with 29 home runs. In 1949, the lanky 20-year-old outfielder drove home 107 runs and scored 82, impressive numbers for a team that lost 63 percent of its games.

The argument suggesting he was the team's most popular player is based on June 23, 1948. That was the night Moore married his high school sweetheart, Mary Arnold, at Bell Park's home plate.

"More than 1,900 fans, the largest crowd ever to gather at Bell Park, jammed the stands, bleachers and spilled out along the first and third base foul lines to see the ceremony ...," the Clovis News-Journal reported.

In addition, fans passed the hat for the newlywed couple.

"They put in dollar bills, 50-cent pieces and quarters, nickels, dimes ... when we got time, we laid it out on the bed and started counting and we had $550," Moore remembered in a 2010 interview at his home in Muleshoe. "I made money getting married."

For baseball fans who love statistics, that $550 was more than twice Moore's monthly salary at the time. It's about $6,100 in today's value.

So yes, it's fair to say Moore, who died at age 92 late last month, was one of the Pioneers' best and most popular players. And he loved the game back, still talking about his baseball playing days well into the final years of his life.

Learning to play Paul Dean's way

His professional career began in 1948, when he was just 18 and a recent graduate of Muleshoe High School.

"I was helping my dad do everything you can do on a farm," he recalled in that 2010 interview. "So one day I said to him, 'You know I heard they were working players out over at Clovis and would you let me borrow that old car of yours to go over there?'

"So I went over there to Clovis and said 'I'd like to work out with you.' They said, 'Well, we're gonna play a ballgame this afternoon so we'll just put you in the lineup.'

"I hit three home runs in that game. They had that pencil out, wanting to sign me. I said, 'I can't sign, I'm only 18.' They said, 'Well can you get your dad to sign (a contract)?' and I said, 'Well maybe.' So he came over there in the next day or two and that's how I got started."

Moore said he had a lot to learn about the game and it wasn't always easy, especially in 1949 when former Major Leaguers Paul and Dizzy Dean bought the Pioneers.

Paul Dean was the manager, and Moore said they clashed.

"He stayed on my back, you know? Of course I didn't really know how to play baseball then. We just played country ball. We didn't have any signs, we didn't do this, we didn't do that.

"Of course he (Paul Dean) knew a little about baseball. He said to me, 'The main trouble with you is you can't hit the cutoff man.' I didn't even know what he was talking about. He stayed on my back all the time and I just wasn't used to somebody doing that, but he taught me some things."

After the 1949 season, Moore left Clovis to play for the Lubbock Hubbers, where he enjoyed one of his best professional seasons. At Lubbock, he hit a career-high 23 home runs and batted a career-high .368.

From there he moved up the minor league ladder, finishing his career at AAA Houston in 1959, just one step from the Major Leagues. In 1,491 minor league games, he hit .300.

"I might have had a chance (to play in the Majors) if I'd kept playing," he said. "I was only (29) years old."

But 12 years traveling by bus to play in front of small crowds for little money had taken its toll. He returned to Muleshoe, to Mary and their two little girls, and eventually to the family farm, which he worked most of the rest of his life, at least when he wasn't telling stories about his baseball days.

Or his uncle's baseball days.

Uncle Wilcy and the Babe

Wilcy Moore's uncle of the same name played six seasons in the Major Leagues and was close friends with Babe Ruth on the team some say was the best ever assembled - the 1927 New York Yankees.

The senior Wilcy Moore often accompanied the Babe on his off-field adventures in hopes of keeping Ruth out of trouble.

"Babe Ruth drank a little too much and he would give (Uncle Wilcy) his billfold because he was afraid he would lose it," the younger Moore recounted.

"So, yeah, they were good friends and he said Ruth was a very friendly guy with everybody."

Ruth was known for his majestic home runs, but Moore said his uncle was even more impressed with teammate Lou Gehrig.

"He said Lou Gehrig was the strongest man he was ever around. You couldn't even see the ball hardly because he hit it so hard. He said Gehrig was one of the best ballplayers he ever saw."

The senior Moore originally purchased the Muleshoe farm, which Wilcy and his dad leased and worked. Wilcy said he was named for his uncle and he had fond memories of them hunting together.

Taking care of one another

While the game of baseball was a big part of the Moore family legacy, when new visitors went to the Muleshoe home of Mary and Wilcy Moore, the first story they usually heard was about that time he and Mary got married at Bell Park.

"The ball team was in Pampa (Texas) and we were on the bus coming home and I told (teammates), 'When I get home I'm gonna get married to my sweetheart,'" he said in that 2010 interview.

"Them ballplayers said, 'Why don't you get married at the ballpark?' I said, 'Well, Mary's mother would kill me if we did that.'"

But it turned out Mary and her family were on board, or at least accepting.

"So they got it all rigged up and that's where we got married, at home plate," he said.

The story of their marriage was shared again Wednesday at Wilcy Moore's funeral. Stacy Conner, Moore's pastor and friend, also talked about the life the Moores shared together after their storybook beginning.

"One of the privileges of knowing these two is watching them take care of one another," he said, remembering them sitting beside each other in the same seats at First Baptist Church every Sunday for decades.

"I've seen them in the hospital, seen them in rehab centers (together), I've seen them nursing one another back to health. The notoriety of Wilcy's life is baseball, but the substance of his life is his faith in Jesus Christ and his love for Mary.

"In private moments, when we were talking baseball, Wilcy would say 'Mary made so many sacrifices so I could keep playing ball. She would load up (our) two little girls and drive across country, by herself, to be wherever I happened to be playing at the time.'"

Their daughter Sherry Barrett was fond of saying, "Mama was his north star. More important than anything else, even baseball."

For baseball fans who love statistics, their marriage streak was at 73 years when he passed on Sept. 25. He is survived by Mary, their girls, and all those memories.

David Stevens writes about regional history for The Eastern New Mexico News. Contact him:

[email protected]

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