1959

Herb Moford was born on August 6, 1928, in Brooksville, Kentucky. He was captain of the basketball team at Bracken County High School for two years and graduated in 1946.

In 1947 he was signed to a contract with the Cardinals at a tryout camp in Lexington, Kentucky. His first assignment was to the Johnson City Cardinals of the Appalachian League. After going 1-4 at Johnson City he was with the Salisbury Cardinals of the Eastern Shore League. Despite a poor start, he persevered and in 1948 enjoyed a spectacular season with Salisbury.

His 1949 season was split between Winston-Salem and Columbus (Georgia), Class B and A respectively. In 1950, he pitched all of two innings with the Houston Buffaloes in the Double-A Texas League, but threw 196 innings at Allentown. Both 1951 and 1952 were begun with Columbus, but this time it was Columbus, Ohio, for the Red Birds, a Triple-A club. 

The Red Birds had transferred Herb to Omaha in the Western League, but then found out that he’d signed up to take his Army Reserve training at Fort Hayes, in Columbus. In mid-July he reported for summer encampment. 

He was with the Red Birds for only ten innings in 1952, spending the bulk of the season with Lynchburg (in Class B) with back-to-back seasons with Columbus in ’53 and ’54.

Herb made the 1955 Cardinals in spring training and spent the first two months of the season with St. Louis. The last game he pitched for St. Louis was his first start. It was at the Polo Grounds in June. He was 26 years old and was returned to Rochester, where he struggled. At the end of July, he had to leave for two weeks in the Reserve, at Camp Breckenridge in Kentucky. By the end of the season, with an ailing arm, his ERA, against minor-league batting, was 4.71. 

A middling year followed in 1956, starting with Rochester for six games, and thereafter with the Triple-A Omaha Cardinals. He began the 1957 season with Omaha again, but was traded to the Detroit Tigers in July.

The Tigers had him pitch for their American Association club, the Charleston (South Carolina) Senators. He began the 1958 season with Charleston and his 6-0 start, with an earned-run average of 0.95 in 57 innings of work resulted in a summons to Detroit. By season’s end he had recorded a 3.61 ERA.

It had appeared the Tigers wanted Herb in 1959, but the Tigers decided they had a greater need, for a catcher, and so in December they traded him to the Boston Red Sox.

He started the season with the Sox, but appeared in only four games, in April and May, with an 11.42 earned-run average. To cut the roster down to the player limit, he was sent to the Minneapolis Millers before being sent to the Miami Marlins, the Baltimore Orioles’ Triple-A club, at the end of June.

Starting in 1961, Baltimore had Rochester (International League) as its Triple-A affiliate, and Herb pitched for the Red Wings in 1961.

In December the newborn New York Mets purchased his contract from the Orioles. He had the distinction of pitching in the first game in Mets history on Opening Day in St. Louis, and then pitched in the Mets’ first home game as well, at the Polo Grounds. He had just one decision for the Mets, a loss to Houston, in April. He pitched two innings of one-hit ball, his last innings in the major leagues.

In May, two days before the cut-down date, Herb was returned outright to Rochester and found himself back in the Baltimore system and pitching for Rochester in 1962 and part of 1963. He was released in mid-May and thus ended his career in professional baseball.

Herb had a tobacco farm in Dove, Kentucky, and later in Minerva, Kentucky. He had some cattle too, but tobacco was the cash crop. He also served as the campaign manager for former teammate Jim Bunning‘s unsuccessful 1983 attempt to be elected governor of Kentucky. 

Herb Moford died at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati on December 3, 2005., at age 84.