Moxie Manuel

Mark Garfield Manuel

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 170 lb.

• Debut September 25, 1905
• Final Game September 14, 1908
• Born October 16, 1881 in Metropolis, IL USA
• Died April 26, 1924 in Memphis, TN USA

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Biographical Information

Moxie Manuel began his professional baseball career with the 1903 Vicksburg Hill Billies, going 12-14. The next year, he went 21-11 for Vicksburg. In 1905, Moxie went 22-18 for the Baton Rouge Cajuns and New Orleans Pelicans and made his major league debut with the Washington Senators.

Back in New Orleans in 1906, Moxie had a 17-15 record but went 20-1 in 1907. That season, he shut out the Birmingham Barons in both halves of a doubleheader without issuing a walk and scored the winner in one of the games. He pitched 58 scoreless innings, a Southern Association record. That year, he told a reporter that he pitched with his left hand against left-handed batters, making him an Ambidextrous Pitcher.

The Chicago White Sox picked up Manuel, who went 3-4 with a save and a 3.28 ERA in 18 games in 1908; the ERA was well above average at the heart of the Deadball Era in a pitcher-friendly park. Returning to the Southern Association, he went 30-36 for Birmingham and the Mobile Sea Gulls from 1909 to 1911. He also was 6-8 for two teams in the 1911 Union Association, then finished the season as an outfielder for the Kewanee Boilermakers. In 1912, Manuel was only 3-10 for the Bloomington Bloomers. A year later, he hit .237 as an outfielder for the Henderson Hens to conclude his career. Overall, he had gone 131-113 in the minors.

After retiring, he worked as a clerk, got married and raised a family. His hobbies included hunting and fishing. He died of peritonitis at age 42 in 1924.

Source: The Big Book of Jewish Baseball by Peter Horvitz and Joachim Horvitz

Related Sites

• Moxie Manuel at the SABR Bio Project