Moon Mullen

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Moon Mullen was an American baseball player who spent one season in Major League Baseball as a second baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1944. Born February 9, 1917, in Olympia, Washington, he batted left and threw right, stood 5'9" tall, and weighed 165 pounds. He made his MLB debut on April 18, 1944, and played his last game on October 1, 1944. In 118 games that year, he hit .267 with 124 hits, 51 runs, and 31 RBIs, including 9 doubles and 4 triples, with 4 stolen bases and no home runs.

Mullen attended the University of Oregon, where he played baseball and basketball, and was part of the Ducks team that won the first NCAA men’s basketball championship in 1939. His nickname “Moon” came from the Moon Mullins comic strip. After 1944, his baseball career was interrupted by U.S. Army service in World War II, and he missed the 1945–46 seasons. He later played mainly in the Pacific Coast League with the Portland Beavers, and his last professional season was 1950 as player-manager of the Boise Pilots in the Pioneer League.

Off the field, he married Jessie for 72 years. He returned to Olympia to coach high school baseball and teach biology and zoology for 27 years. Moon Mullen died on February 28, 2013, in Stanwood, Washington, at age 96 after suffering a stroke. He was the last surviving member of Oregon’s 1939 NCAA basketball championship team and one of the oldest living former major leaguers.