FURTHER MOORE
Two college legends helped shape Moore into No. 1 pick
How two college legends helped shape Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame inductee Mike Moore into No. 1 pick
Just one year into his collegiate career, Mike Moore felt his trajectory changing.
As a star at Eakly High School, Moore faced little adversity. After all, he had a minuscule 0.05 ERA as a senior.
That just made the 1979 spring — his freshman year at Oral Roberts University — disheartening.
Going from being nearly unhittable to a .500 mark was tough. New pitching mentor Jim Brewer had made tweaks to Moore's delivery that had yet to prove effective.
Perhaps i t was time to go back behind the plate. Scouts had shown interest there, too.
ORU coach Larry Cochell wasn't interested in that. He made an offer. Moore should use the summer i n Liberal, Kansas, to pitch. I f he still struggled, he could move to catcher.
Moore l ost j ust once that summer. The idea of catching was gone.
“It all changed then,” Moore said.
Behind the guidance of two legends, Moore became the No. 1 overall pick in the 1981 MLB Draft—the only top baseball pick in state history — before pitching in two World Series as part of a 1 4- year career in the big leagues.
Moore is now part of a seven-member class that will be inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame on Monday. He will take his place alongside Johnny Bench, Mickey Mantle and others as one of the state's all-time great baseball players.
“I think I was blessed to do what I did,” Moore said. “I was always told that if you didn't want to work you shouldn't
have hired on, so if I had the chance to play baseball I was going to give it everything I had to try to play baseball.”
Cochell made the 185mile trek to Eakly more than once in the late 1970s. Cochell and ORU were on the rise. Cochell led the Golden Eagles to the College World Series for the first time in 1978. ORU had a sparkling new stadium that rivaled the best in the country.
Moore was Cochell's next prize.
The tall, powerful righthander grew up helping his f amily on a peanut farm. Moore was “country strong” and armed with an overpowering fastball. MLB and college scouts took notice. Dozens of radar guns were visible in the stands each game.
They were no match for ORU's stadium and Cochell, who later led Cal State Fullerton and Oklahoma to the College World Series. Even the St. Louis Cardinals, who drafted Moore in the third round, had no shot.
Moore then talked with Brewer, a Broken Arrow native who was the Montreal Expos' pitching coach after a 19-year career that included a World Series title with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Brewer would later become ORU's pitching coach, but he first made an impact from afar. Moore said Brewer tweaked his mechanics before his debut season, bringing the frustrations that turned into a big league career.
Moore left ORU as the school' s all-time winning est pitcher. Seattle drafted him No. 1 overall in 1981 and he made his MLB debut a year later.
In 1989, Moore finally found a place to win. He signed with Oakland, went 19-11, made the AllStar Game and helped win the World Series with two victories. He pitched again in the Fall Classic the next season. Moore retired in 1995 with 79 career complete games.
Now, he' s dishing out his own advice as a volunteer assistant at Look eba-Sickles High School.
“He's just a great kid, non-assuming, never acted special, never thought he was special,” Cochell said. “He's just a good ole' Oklahoma boy from Ea klyt hat never changed.”