Exactly 100 years ago today, Archibald “Moonlight” Wright Graham made his lone appearance in the majors. You probably remember Moonlight Graham, played by Burt Lancaster and Frank Whaley, from Field of Dreams:
Yet many folks are certain Moonlight Graham was a made-up character from a movie, not a real-life ballplayer for the New York Giants.
” ‘Field of Dreams’ was before my time,” said Willie Mays, the greatest Giant of them all. “That was a real thing? How come nobody told me?”
Yet the tale is true, at least most of it. Because on June 29, 1905 — exactly 100 years ago on Wednesday — Archibald Wright Graham made his lone appearance in the majors.
The entire story at ESPN is a must read.
Unless you’re Barry Bonds, of course. As noted at the AofG:
…[this] tells me all I ever need to know about Barry Bonds:
“I didn’t see ‘Field of Dreams.’ I don’t watch movies about what I do,” San Francisco slugger Barry Bonds said.
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UPDATE: Jeff Harrell from The Shape of Days has written a great piece on Moonlight’s one appearance in the Big Show:
It’s easy to imagine that one of Archie’s teammates gave him a pat on the rear and wished him better luck next time. But for Archie there would be no next time. The sum total of his major-league career would be one game, two half-innings, no at-bats. He never even got to touch the ball.
Great stuff.
Ah, the cottonwood puff seed wafting gently on the breeze–such was the career of Moonlight Graham.
I just wish the screen writers in “Field of Dreams” had done a little more research–they got most of the biographic details of the man’s life wrong.
Left by Jeff H on June 29th, 2005 at 10:09 am