Who killed Donnie Moore, why and what's the reason for?

As we here in New York prepare for the 20th anniversary of the ’86 Mets World Series triumph and what promises to be an autumnal barrage of drug and champagne-addled reminiscences, today is a day to remember a darker ghost hovering over the ’86 playoffs.

On this day seventeen years ago, July 18th, 1989, former Angels’ reliever Donnie Moore shot his wife Tonya three times in front of their three children at their house in Anaheim. Tonya and daughter Demetria fled to the hospital, at which point Moore turned the gun on himself and committed suicide in front of his two sons.

Would Moore have shot his wife, and then himself, had he not given up this two-strike, two-out, ninth-inning home run to Boston’s Dave Henderson in game five of the 1986 ALCS?

Maybe. We’ll never know. Moore was a troubled soul, plagued by depression and alcoholism even before the Henderson disaster. But clearly, that one pitch haunted him until his final moments. Moore pitched two more ineffectual seasons with the Angels, hounded by the boo-birds. He was out of baseball entirely by the time of his death. As Moore’s agent put it in the New York Times obituary for Moore, “He felt he was the next Ralph Branca.”

It’s odd how over the years Henderson’s home run has taken on the air of a fait accompli when in fact it was anything but, certainly no “shot heard round the world.” It was a blow for sure, a two-run homer that put the Red Sox up 6-5 in the top of the ninth. But the Angels came back to tie in the bottom of the ninth. The Red Sox won it in the eleventh, scoring the deciding run on a Henderson sac fly. Moore was still pitching.

That goddamn Dave Henderson.

Of course, the Angels still had two games left to make it past the Sox into the World Series (in retrospect a result that would have sat just fine with one Bill Buckner). But Boston romped in each effort, 10-4 in game 6, and 8-1 in game 7.

In conclusion, a few things to remember about game 5:

-Henderson did not start the game. He entered in the fifth for Tony Armas, who’d twisted his ankle.

-The Angels were leading the series 3-1 and went into the 9th leading 5-2. Don Baylor hit a two-run bomb off starter Mike Witt, and Angels manager Gene Mauch brought in Gene Lucas, who plunked Rich Gedman, bringing Henderson to the plate. Mauch called for Moore.

-For his decisions in the ninth, Mauch would be as vilified as Moore by Angels fans after the series, Mauch who still carried the stigma of having managed the 1964 “Foldin” Phils.