Is This Heaven? No, it's My Kellogg's Baseball Card Blog

Archibald "Moonlight" Graham made his one appearance in the majors  on this day in 1905.  He was a defensive replacement who didn't get a chance to bat.  Our Little League rule was that each kid was required to play two innings.  A few of my coaches would play the younger kids in the last two innings.  If we were the home team, the young kids might not even get a chance to bat.  We also had a slaughter rule (now called a mercy rule) whereby the game would end after five innings if a team was up by 10 or more.  This rule also would keep kids from getting any at-bats.

Those poor coaching plans led Little League to the continuous batting order and allowing players to switch on and off the field each inning.  Now every kid can be involved in every inning of the game.

Back to Graham, known from the movie Field of Dreams.  Graham's career was first mentioned in W.P. Kinsella's book Shoeless Joe which was the inspiration for the movie.  I would love to make a Shoesless Joe Kellogg's card someday.  If I can get that to work I'd need a Moonlight Graham card too.

Shoeless Joe has some good quotes in the movie.  Ty Cobb asked to play on the field in the movie and was told to "stick it" because, as Joe said "none of us could stand the SOB when we were alive!"