Seattle’s Moses Another Self-Made Success

For more than a decade now, major league baseball’s preeminent, self-made success story belonged to Brian Downing, the Magnolia High School bench warmer who had three at-bats at Cypress College, was signed as a free agent by the Chicago White Sox and eventually bulked up to become an American League All-Star with the Angels.

But membership in Baseball Long Shots has recently doubled with the coming of Seattle Mariners outfielder John Moses, who started, by his own estimation, one game in four years of high school and now leads the Mariners in stolen bases with 23.

Moses played high school baseball at Western, which is about a 10-minute drive from Magnolia. Both schools are in Anaheim.

Must be something about those cafeteria lunches.

Moses recalled his exasperating high school days Friday before the Mariners played the Angels in Anaheim Stadium. He thought he was good enough to play for the Pioneers, and he considered quitting several times because he rarely made it into the lineup.

“But I decided to stick with it because I had two other buddies (Ian Taylor and Randy Ortega) on the team,” he said. “I enjoyed practicing and playing with them.”

Good practice players don’t get college scholarships, though. And they don’t get drafted.

The harsh realities of being a bench warmer were difficult to accept, especially for a kid from Buena Park who used to watch Angel games from the trees beyond Anaheim Stadium’s center-field fence, who used to hang around the stadium after games in search of autographs, and who had his heart set on playing in the big leagues.

“The dream I always had . . . I thought it was never gonna happen,” said Moses, a 1974 Western graduate.

But then he went to Golden West College and “turned everything around.”

There were no miracle weight programs for Moses, who is 5-feet 10-inches, 170 pounds. There were no hired hypnotists or altered batting stances, either.

He said he developed into a professional prospect by simply getting a chance to play every day.

Moses hit .340 and .330 in two seasons at Golden West and earned a scholarship to the University of Arizona, where he batted .340 in his senior year (1980) to help the Wildcats win the College World Series.

He was selected by the Mariners in the 16th round of the 1980 June draft, and, three seasons later, he broke into the major leagues with Seattle.

Moses, who turns 29 today, began the 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1985 seasons in the minor leagues, but he completed each season with the Mariners.

He opened the 1986 season at Triple-A Calgary but was called up on May 26 and has been the Mariners’ starting center fielder ever since. Going into Friday night’s game, the switch-hitting leadoff man was batting .266.

Moses can’t thank Golden West College Coach Fred Hoover enough.

“He gave me the break I needed to establish myself as a player,” he said.

His father, Bill, who died last year, provided the inspiration. He went to every one of John’s high school games, even though his son wasn’t playing. He coached John during the summers.

“He always said that if you pick out something that you always want to do, don’t give up on it,” Moses said. “I’ll always believe that, and I’ll tell my son the same thing. I really respected my father. He saw me play here (in Anaheim) in 1983 and that gave him a big thrill. I was glad he saw it before he passed away.”

Moses is glad to be home, but his presence in Anaheim poses a few problems--he can never seem to get enough game tickets for his relatives and friends. Each player receives an allotment of six tickets per game, which isn’t nearly enough for Moses.

“I have to practically get on my hands and knees and beg (my teammates) for more tickets,” he said. “Fortunately, (Mark) Langston, Alvin (Davis) and (Mike) Morgan were able to help me out. I got 22 for Thursday night’s game and 25 for tonight’s game.”

His entourage of family and friends watched Moses go 0-for-4 in the Mariners’ 6-4 loss to the Angels Friday night.

But at least they got a chance to see him play.