Jerry Moses

Gerald Braheen Moses (August 9, 1946 – March 26, 2018) was an American professional baseball player. A catcher, he signed a bonus contract with the Boston Red Sox in and spent his early Major League Baseball career with the Bosox, and over the course of his nine years in MLB Moses played for seven different teams. He batted and threw right-handed, stood tall and weighed .

Early life Moses was born on August 9, 1946, in Yazoo City, Mississippi to Samuel S. and Mary Frances Moses. He attended Yazoo City High School, graduating in 1964. He played football (quarterback) as well as baseball (catcher), and was a high school All-American and two-year All-State at quarterback. He played baseball under coach Robert "Cob" Jarvis, a former professional baseball player who provided Moses with significant guidance. Moses was offered a scholarship by Paul "Bear" Bryant to attend the University of Alabama as a quarterback, as well as receiving offers from other college football programs. After graduating high school, however, Moses signed a contract for $50,000 with the Boston Red Sox, and was immediately included on its 40-player roster.

Professional baseball career

Minor league In 1964, Moses began his professional career out of high school at age 17 with the Single-A Wellsville Red Sox of the New York-Pennsylvania League. He played in 67 games with a .279 batting average and 13 home runs. He also played in the Florida Instructional League that year. In 1970, Moses served as Boston's first-string catcher and was selected to the American League All-Star team. After getting off to a strong first half of the season, he suffered injuries that limited his playing time and productivity as the year progressed.

Shortly after that All-Star season ended, Moses was included with Red Sox slugger Tony Conigliaro and Ray Jarvis in a blockbuster trade to the California Angels, in exchange for Ken Tatum, Jarvis Tatum and Doug Griffin, on October 11, 1970. He did not win the Angels' starting catcher job, starting only 47 games at catcher (with John Stephenson starting a majority of the games), and batted only .227 in 1971. This began his career as a journeyman, with limited starts as a catcher, and never spending more than one full season with the Angels (47 starts), Cleveland Indians (35 starts), New York Yankees (16 starts), Detroit Tigers (64 starts), San Diego Padres (three starts) and Chicago White Sox (no starts).

Moses played in 386 major league games and collected 269 hits, 25 homes runs, 109 RBIs and 89 runs scored; and had a .984 lifetime fielding percentage as a catcher.

After retiring from baseball, Moses started a career in the food service industry, beginning with Ogden Food Service Corporation, and then eventually starting his own food service and concession company, Fanfare, Inc., which he later sold.