Wally Moon (born April 3, 1930 in Bay, Arkansas) is a former Major League Baseball outfielder. Moon played his 12-year career in the National League for the St. Louis Cardinals (1954-58) and Los Angeles Dodgers (1959-65). He batted left-handed and threw right-handed. Moon made his majors debut on April 13, 1954. In order to make room for him in the roster, St. Louis sent the veteran Enos Slaughter to the Yankees. Moon responded for good. In his first at-bat, he belted a home run against the Cubs; in the same game that Tom Alston became the first black to play for the Cardinals. Moon finished with a .304 batting average, 12 home runs, 76 RBI, and career-high numbers in runs (106), hits (193), doubles (29), and stolen bases (18) in 151 games. He earned both the MLB Rookie of the Year and The Sporting News Rookie of the Year honors. Almost an unanimous vote, Moon won easily over rookies Ernie Banks, Gene Conley and Hank Aaron.
A fine left fielder with a good arm, Moon also played right field and center as well as the first base. He was a Gold Glove Award winner in 1960 as he made the All--Star team in 1957 and 1959.
Twice in his career, Moon compiled double figures in doubles, triples, home runs and stolen bases: 22, 11, 16, 12 in 1956, and 26, 11, 19, 15 in 1959. In that season, his first with the Dodgers, he took his team from seventh place to the World Championship, providing support in the line-up for Duke Snider, Gil Hodges and Don Demeter. Beside this, he hit a career-high 24 homers in 1957. Moon enjoyed another good season in 1961, batting .328 with 17 home runs and 88 RBI.
A career .289 hitter, Moon also hit 142 home runs with 661 RBI in 1457 games. He had tremendous discipline at the plate, compiling a remarkable 1.90 walk-to-strikeout ratio (644-t0-591), with a .371 on base percentage and a .445 slugging average for a combined .816 OPS. Appropriately, he scored the last run ever in the Coliseum.
