Jayson Moxey

Jayson Nathaniel Moxey
(Jerry)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 172 lb.

• Born December 16, 1949 in Nassau, Bahamas

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Discovered while playing softball, Jayson Moxey did not play baseball until the age of 16. He came up as an infielder but later switched to the outfield. He played five pro seasons from 1968 to 1974 in the Houston Astros and Detroit Tigers chains, although he missed 1970 and 1971. A knee injury in 1969 required surgery, and he spent two years working in a bank in Nassau. After the long layoff, he hit just .229 in 1972 – but he became the Most Valuable Player in the Southern League (Double A) in 1973.

The Astros gave Moxey a chance to win a major-league job in spring training in 1974. Although he never got into a regular-season game at the top level, he was good enough to play at the Triple-A level for 124 of his 460 games in the minors. He hit .263 overall with 10 homers. After his pro career ended, he remained prominent in local leagues at home.

Moxey's greatest attribute was speed. As a youth, he was one of the outstanding junior sprinters in the Bahamas, a nation noted for its talented track athletes. A broken leg in his teens meant that he was no longer among the elite in that sport; he also got the nickname "Peg" while wearing a cast. Yet his swiftness was still evident in baseball and in basketball; with Beck’s Cougars, he was one of the leading hoopsters in the Bahamas in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Local journalist Fred Sturrup speculated that if Moxey had focused on baseball alone, he might have gone farther.

He coached for the Bahamas in the 1979 Pan American Games, when they were a surprising 3-5.

Notable Achievements

• 1973 MVP Southern League, Columbus Astros

Reference

• Sturrup, Fred: "Down Memory Lane with Jayson Moxey", Freeport News, April 20, 2010 [1]