Moxie Manuel
From BR Bullpen
Mark Garfield Manuel
- Bats Right, Throws Right
- Height 5' 11", Weight 170 lb.
- Debut September 25, 1905
- Final Game September 14, 1908
- Born October 16, 1881 in Metropolis, IL USA
- Died April 26, 1924 in Memphis, TN USA
[edit] Biographical Information
Moxie Manuel began his professional baseball career with the 1903 Vicksburg Hill Billies, going 12-14. The next year, he went 21-11 for Vicksburg. In '05, Moxie went 22-18 for the Baton Rouge Cajuns and New Orleans Pelicans and made his major league debut with the 1905 Senators.
Back in New Orleans in '06, Moxie had a 17-15 record but went 20-1 in 1907. In the '07 season, he shut out the Birmingham Barons in both halves of a doubleheader without issuing a walk and scored the winner in one of them. He pitched 58 scoreless innings, a Southern Association record. That year, he told a reporter that he pitched with his left hand against left-handed batters, making him an Ambidextrous Pitcher.
The 1908 White Sox picked up Manuel, who went 3-4 with a save and a 3.28 ERA in 18 games; the ERA was well below average at the heart of the Deadball Era in a pitcher-friendly park. Returning to the SA, he went 30-36 for Birmingham and the Mobile Sea Gulls from 1909-11. He also was 6-8 for two teams in the 1911 Union Association, then finished the season as an outfielder for the Kewanee Boilermakers. In '12, Manuel was only 3-10 for the Bloomington Bloomers. A year later, he hit .237 as an outfielder for the Henderson Hens to conclude his career. Overall, he had gone 131-113 in the minors.
After retiring, he worked as a clerk, got married and raised a family. His hobbies included hunting and fishing. He died of peritonitis at age 42 in 1924.
Source: The Big Book of Jewish Baseball by Peter Horvitz and Joachim Horvitz
