Ford Parker "Moon" Mullen (February 9, 1917 – February 28, 2013) was a second baseman in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

who played one year for the

Philadelphia Blue Jays The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has been Citizen ...

during the season. Listed at 5' 9", 165 lb., Mullen batted left-handed and threw right-handed. He attended the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

, where he played baseball and basketball, and was a member of the basketball team that won the first NCAA men's basketball championship.

Early life

Mullen was born in

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. European ...

. He received the nickname "Moon" after the popular comic strip character "

Moon Mullins ''Moon Mullins'' is an American comic strip which had a run as both a daily and Sunday feature from June 19, 1923 to June 2, 1991. Syndicated by the Tribune Media Services, Chicago Tribune/New York News Syndicate, the strip depicts the lives of d ...

". Mullen attended the

, where he played baseball and basketball. He was a reserve guard on the 1938–39 Oregon Ducks men's basketball team coached by

Howard Hobson Howard Andrew "Hobby" Hobson (July 4, 1903 – June 9, 1991) was an American basketball player and coach of football, basketball, and baseball. He served as the head basketball coach at Southern Oregon Normal School—now Southern Oregon Universi ...

, and winners of the first ever

NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...

. On the baseball team (also coached by Hobson), he played third base, catcher, and second base.

Professional career

In 1944, Mullen played 118 games for the

(as the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

were briefly known), posting a .267 batting average (124-for-464) with 51 runs and 31 RBI, including nine doubles, four

triples TripleS (stylized as tripleS; Help:IPA/English, /ˈtɹɪpəl:ɛs/; ) is a South Korean girl group formed by MODHAUS. They aim to be the world's first decentralized K-pop idol group. The members will rotate between the group, sub-unit, and solo ac ...

, four

stolen base In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base to which they are not entitled and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner. The umpires determine whether the runner is safe or ...

s, and a .315

on-base percentage In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) measures how frequently a batter reaches base. An official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic since 1984, it is sometimes referred to as on-base average (OBA), as it is rarely presented as a ...

with no

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s. Following the 1944 season, Mullen was one of many major leaguers who saw his baseball career interrupted by a stint in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He missed the 1945 and 1946 seasons, then attended

spring training Spring training is the preseason in Major League Baseball (MLB), a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for Schedule (workplace), roster and position spo ...

with the Phillies but did not make the team. He played most of the rest of his career in the Pacific Coast League with the Portland Beavers. His last professional season was spent as

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

for the 1950

Boise Pilots The Boise Pilots were a minor league baseball team in the western United States, based in Boise, Idaho. They played in the Pioneer League for a total of 11 seasons between 1939 and 1954. They were unaffiliated with any major league team, and pla ...

of the Pioneer League.

After baseball

He was married to his wife Jessie, whom he met at a high school football game, for 72 years. After his baseball career, he returned to Olympia where he coached the Olympia High School baseball team and taught high school biology and zoology for 27 years before his retirement. He died in Stanwood, Washington on February 28, 2013. He had suffered a stroke two weeks prior to his death. At the age of 96 he was the last surviving member of the Ducks' 1939 NCAA team and was one of the oldest living major league ballplayers.

References

External links

, o
Retrosheet
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mullen, Moon Philadelphia Phillies players Major League Baseball second basemen Boise Pilots players Oregon Ducks baseball players Oregon Ducks men's basketball players Baseball players from Washington (state) Basketball players from Washington (state) Sportspeople from Olympia, Washington Military personnel from Washington (state) United States Army personnel of World War II 1917 births 2013 deaths American men's basketball players

Early life

Professional career

After baseball

See also

References

Further reading

External links