James Moore, American baseball player, Died at 99

  Sports

James Robert Moore commonly called Red Moore was born on November 18, 1916, and died on February 6, 2016.

He was a professional baseball player.

James was a player in the Negro League, appearing with many different teams but most substantially with home team Atlanta Black Crackers.

James Moore also served with three different All-Star teams and, in 1938, he played with the Southern News Services All-American Negro League Baseball Team.

In 2006, James was inducted into the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame.

He started playing after graduating Booker T. Washington High School in 1933 with Atlanta Black Crackers.

Following the next six years, he played with the same team, Macon Peaches, Chattanooga Choo-Choos, Schenectady Black Socks, Newark Eagles and Baltimore Elite Giants, gradually earning a reputation according to Voices from the Negro Leagues as perhaps “the best fielding basement of all time” in his league.

In 1940, following the regular season in Baltimore, James Moore played in a winter season in Los Angeles, California that allowed white and black players to compete against each other, a competition that was first allowed and then halted by Major League Baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.

Mr.James Moore himself believed that the games were halted because the black players were too successful, stating that “The public, they liked to see the competition, but the commissioner, he didn’t have that attitude after he found out that we were drawin’ real good crowds and we were beatin’ ’em a lot.”

He had registered for the military draft in October 1940 and served from 1942 to 1945.

Three years following World War II, James returned to baseball with the Black Crackers.

During his time in the army, at his most highly paid, prior to the war, he earned $250 a month with a $1.50 daily food allowance.

In 2006, James Moore was among six individuals inducted into the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame, in its second year of existence.

James Moore passed away at 99 yrs old.