Moore, Ex-Angels Ace, Wounds Wife, Kills Self : Former Star Reliever Faced Marital Strife, End of Baseball Career

Former Angels star relief pitcher Donnie Moore died Tuesday after he repeatedly shot and critically wounded his wife, then turned the handgun on himself in their Anaheim Hills home, police said.

The suicide and murder attempt came about a month after the 35-year-old pitcher was released by the Omaha Royals, a minor league farm club for which he played briefly after being dropped by the California Angels last September. Neighbors and relatives said the couple had quarreled frequently in recent months.

Moore’s 35-year-old wife, Tonya, suffered at least three gunshot wounds in the upper chest and abdomen. She was driven by her 17-year-old daughter, Demetria, to Kaiser Permanente Anaheim Medical Center

She collapsed and lost consciousness after arriving at the hospital and was rushed into surgery Tuesday evening, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Demetria and her two brothers--Donnie Jr., 10, and Ronnie, 7--were at the house when the gunshots were fired, but none was hit, police said. The children were taken in by relatives and friends after the shooting.

Friends, neighbors and relatives reacted Tuesday with shock and horror to the episode.

“There was a lot more hurt down there than any of us probably realized,” said Angels broadcaster and former baseball star Joe Torre, who managed Moore when he was with the Atlanta Braves from 1982 to 1984. “He tried to come back, he tried to come back and he finally got cut loose.”

Despite achieving some success during his 13-year major league career, Moore may be best remembered for a singularly disastrous pitch in Game 5 of the 1986 American League Championship Series, when he gave up a home run that allowed the Boston Red Sox to beat the Angels and go on to the World Series.

Anaheim police, responding to calls reporting gunshots at the couple’s house at about 4:40 p.m. Tuesday, discovered Moore sprawled on the kitchen floor with a single bullet wound in his head. A .45-caliber semiautomatic gun was found near the body, but not in Moore’s hand, Anaheim Police Lt. Marc Hedgpeth said. Bullet holes riddled the kitchen.

Hedgpeth said that at least one of Moore’s children witnessed the shootings and the father’s suicide.

“Based on the evidence found at the scene and statements from witnesses, all indications are that Donnie Moore and his wife, Tonya, became involved in an argument and during the argument, Mr. Moore produced a handgun, shot his estranged wife and then turned the gun on himself,” Hedgpeth said.

Hedgpeth said the department was unaware of any past domestic disputes at the Moore residence.

Hedgpeth said Tonya Moore had come to the house to visit her children sometime in the afternoon Tuesday. The children were playing in and out of the house when the couple began arguing.

At one point, Tonya Moore rushed outside to tell her children that their father had hit her, Hedgpeth said. The fight continued off and on. The children told police that after one heated discussion, Moore came into the kitchen with the gun. After the two exchanged words, Moore then started shooting.

At the hospital, a woman who identified herself only as Tonya Moore’s sister, said she talked to her sibling earlier in the day.

“We spoke earlier today and they were having a spat,” the woman said. Asked why the bloodshed may have occurred, she said, “If I knew why. . . .” She couldn’t finish the words, and simply shook her head.

Randall Johnson, attorney for the Moore family, said that after speaking with the couple’s daughter, Demetria, who he said witnessed the shootings, he believes that Donnie Moore committed suicide, but Johnson would not elaborate.

He said that the family has experienced minor problems and said that Moore was “somewhat upset . . . despondent” about his release from the Kansas City Royals farm team.

Although Johnson said he spoke with Moore two weeks ago and Moore “seemed fine to me,” the attorney said the baseball player was “upset--he wanted to get his career back together.”

Johnson said the family had been discussing moving from the Anaheim home and going to Texas, where both he and his wife have family.

Neighbors described Moore as a quiet man of few words who often played basketball with his sons near the garage of the couple’s comfortable brown-and-gray ranch-style home, which sprawled over two acres.

Although the house had all the amenities, including a small lake stocked with catfish, the Moores were experiencing marital problems in recent months, neighbors said. The couple separated in mid-June, they said, about the same time that Moore was released after just seven games with the Kansas City Royals’ Triple-A farm club in Omaha.

Virginia Christensen, 47, said Moore was “very emotional over what was happening to his life.”

“You just feel so emotional for him, especially for what he went through,” Christensen said. “I guess maybe he thought he lost it all.”

Her 16-year-old son, Keith, said he visited the ballplayer often to talk about the sport and play with his sons but noticed tension between the couple was building. They had separated, and Tonya Moore had moved from the residence to Ontario by late June.

“He seemed real quiet,” Keith Christensen said. “Almost every day, I would come over and talk to him. He would talk, but you would have to start the conversation.”

Betty Bailey, a neighbor just down the street, said the Moores had a “full history of marital problems,” and she thought the husband had a drinking problem. Bailey said she worried about her son playing at the couple’s house with their boys because Donnie and Tonya Moore often argued.

Tonya Moore told her she wanted to leave her husband last November, Bailey said. “I didn’t get involved because I thought they were taking care of it,” she said.

Both Moore’s pitching performance and his marriage seemed to unravel after the fateful playoff game in 1986. After earning 31 saves in 1985 and 21 in 1986, he fell victim to a variety of injuries and his pitching suffered in the years that followed.

In 1988, he was released by the Angels, but was signed in May by the Kansas City Royals’ Triple-A farm club in Omaha. He lasted only seven appearances, all of them in relief, before he was released June 12.

“He never seemed entirely happy about anything,” said Frank Adkisson, radio announcer for the Omaha Royals. “The guy was set for life financially. Whether he could still play or not, he had everything going for himself financially.”

Adkisson said Moore kept largely to himself during his short stint in Omaha, going so far as to pay extra so he could room alone on the road, an unusual practice in the minor leagues.

“One of the guys told me after he heard the news (of Moore’s death) that Donnie seemed like he was feeling bitter about something,” Adkisson said. “Some of the other guys were speculating that he just seemed unhappy. Maybe it was sinking in on him that he wasn’t able to pitch any more.”

Staff writers Jean Davidson and Ted Johnson also contributed to this report.

HAUNTING MEMORY--The home run Donnie Moore allowed in the 1986 playoffs would haunt him for the rest of his life. Sports, Page 1.