Les Moss

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John Lester "Les" Moss (born May 14, 1925 in Tulsa, Oklahoma) is a former player and manager in Major League Baseball. He played catcher for the St. Louis Browns for the most significant portion of his career, and was a backup catcher almost all his career, although at some points he could have been considered to be switching off with Sherm Lollar.

In 13 seasons, he posted a .247 batting average with 63 home runs and 276 RBIs. He had 552 hits in 2234 at bats. He finished his career with the Chicago White Sox, still oddly alongside Lollar who had made the venture to Chicago along with Moss.

He managed the White Sox and Detroit Tigers. He began his tenure with the White Sox on a 36-game temporary basis in 1968 after Sox manager Al Lopez had to undergo an emergency appendectomy. He went 12-24 (.333), although Lopez had not done, and did not do, too much better that year with the White Sox.

He was hired with by the Detroit Tigers to succeed Ralph Houk for the (1979) season. In his time with the Tigers he went 27-26. He actually was not fired for cause or because he was ineffective, but rather because Sparky Anderson had unexpectedly become available. Moss was named manager soon after the 1978 season concluded. However, the Tigers had not counted on Anderson being fired on November 27th 1978 by Cincinnati. Moss was a victim of bad timing, as the Tigers came to a deal to bring Anderson to the Tigers after the first third of the '79 season. Dick Tracewski coached 4 games as interim manager until Andreson's arrival.

Moss finished with a managing record of 39-50 (.438) in 89 games. Late in his on-field career, Moss served as pitching coach of the Houston Astros.

[edit] See also

• Chicago White Sox all-time roster

[edit] External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference
• Retrosheet