“Donnie Moore”

“Donnie Moore”

Donnie Moore was a relief pitcher in the ‘70s and ‘80s who, like a few of the other players on “Nine Innings,” is best known for his lowest moment.

After bouncing around the league for 10 seasons, Moore learned to throw a splitter in 1985, and suddenly he was one of the better relievers in baseball. He became the closer for the California Angels, and with his team one strike away from its first ever trip to the World Series in 1986, it all got away from him. He gave up a now-famous home run to Dave Henderson, and they lost again the next day and just like that the Angels were headed home.

Moore had been pitching with a sore arm and had struggled throughout his life with mental health and a tendency toward extreme highs and lows. After a couple years, he found himself out of baseball.

At home and exhausted in the summer of 1989, he had slid so far that in the heat of an argument, he shot his wife three times before turning the gun on himself. His wife survived, but Donnie’s is a dark, sad story with a tragic ending.

This song was a hard one to pin down. My first version tried a little too hard to capture Donnie’s up-and-down, fast-and-slow life, and when it came time to record it, nothing quite came out how I’d hoped. The incomparable Jeff Woollen of Raven Cries Recording Studio has been an invaluable partner in getting this whole project across the finish line, and his production and expertise and belief in my music have been the reason I was able to truly end up with my best work on these recordings. He stood by as I took this back to the drawing board, cutting an early verse, adding to the second half of the song, and trying to figure out the right arrangement. Eventually, Jeff came back with a version that immediately gave me that feeling of, “Yes! This is what I was going for.”

It was also a tough song from a lyrical standpoint. I was trying to empathize with someone we see as a monster, trying to find his point of view without losing my own. What would it feel like to reach utter desperation? What would it take to push me over the edge? I imagined misery like I’ve never known surrounding and overwhelming me until it felt like even the air I was breathing was saturated with pain and fear. I imagined being almost separated from myself by the end, not knowing why I was doing what I was doing. I imagined howling in agony, and I tried to pour all of that into this song about a ballplayer.