Pitcher’s suicide blamed on media

Press, 21 July 1989, Page 6

Pitcher’s suicide blamed on media

NZPA-AFP Anaheim California A former major league baseball pitcher, Donny Moore, shot his wife and killed himself over what a team-mate said was the news media’s focus on one pitch he made in 1986. Moore, aged 35, was released by the Kansas City Royals last month and became increasingly despondent, the police said yesterday. Lieutenant Marc Hedgpeth said Moore got into an argument with his estranged wife of 16 years, Tonya, on Wednesday evening, drew a gun and shot her several times before killing himself. Tonya Moore was admitted to a hospital with three gunshot wounds to her upper chest and stomach, and was listed in serious condition, the police said. A former team-mate with the California Angels, pitcher Brian Downing, reacted immediately to the news by blaming the American news media for overly criticising Moore after the American League play-offs in 1986, when the Boston Red Sox came back from a 3-1 deficit. “You (reporters) destroyed a man’s life over one pitch,” he said, adding: “The guy was just not the same after that:” In the fifth game of the series, California leading 5-4 with two men out in the ninth inning, Moore was within one strike of sending the Angels to the World Series. But Dave Henderson hit the next pitch out of the park to give the Red Sox a 6-5 lead. “Ever since Render-, son’s home run, he was extremely depressed,” said Moore’s agent, Dave Pinter.