The Real “Moonlight” Graham

If you have ever watched the movie Field of Dreams, you certainly remember the emergence of Archibald “Moonlight” Graham, but you may not know what the movie correctly depicts. In the famous film, Graham is played by Burt Lancaster, as a midwestern doctor who once had his day in baseball, but had fallen into obscurity shortly after. Of course once Ray Kinsella heard the voice, him and Terrance Mann were determined to go to Chisholm, Minnesota to find an old timey ballplayer. Now, I won’t spoil the movie, so I suggest you give the film a watch (it’s my personal favorite).

Now, let’s get into the logistics that only baseball history buffs care about; Graham played in only one major league game in his entire career, which is a focal part of the story. It’s important to know that the film did get the following correct:

• He played for the N.Y. Giants and John McGraw was managing.

• Graham played only one inning in right field, and the ball never left the infield.

• He retired to become a doctor and was married to a woman named Alecia for five decades.

• He never got to live out his dream of facing a big league pitcher in an at bat.

Of course the movie cannot be 100 percent accurate, but it is interesting to see how the film plays out differently than the book. The original book’s author, W. P. Kinsella wrote the book Shoeless Joe in 1982, and like many facets of the film, “Moonlight” Graham’s portrayal faced some different circumstances.

* Side note- Terrance Mann is a fictional author in the film, but the book uses J.D. Salinger as the one who Ray Kinsella is supposed to find, but Salinger refused to allow his name to appear in the film.

The book in my opinion is more interesting for a baseball fan, but not a story lover. Phil Alden Robinson read the book and loved it enough to turn it into a movie, but now let’s look at some differences between the novel and the award winning film:

• Graham debuted with the Giants in 1905, not 1922 like the movie states.

• When “Moonlight” Graham awes at Smokey Joe Wood, Mel Ott, and Gil Hodges, this would make little sense given the fact he played before all of these men debuted. He also debuted three years before Shoeless Joe Jackson.

• In the novel, Ray goes back in time to 1955, ten years before his death in 1965, but in the film he travels to 1972, the year of his death.

Another question the movie never answers may be the most obvious… how did he get his famous nickname? The novel has an interesting story to tell about it, but it’s doubtful to be true: One night while his minor league team was traveling, Graham could not fall asleep, and he took a walk in the moonlight. His teammates made fun of him for it as they yelled at him out their windows, and the name stuck. However, I do not believe this is true. My belief is Graham got his name for “Moonlighting” as a doctor in the off-seasons where he wasn’t playing baseball.

The truth is, this story is really the only thing that saved Graham from falling into obscurity and being forgotten forever. The author, W.P. Kinsella was flipping through The Baseball Encyclopedia (1969) and was looking at the roster of the world champion 1905 New York Giants, and noticed this obscure ballplayer. Kinsella was so fascinated that he stopped through his hometown one day, and interestingly enough, the scenes of Ray trying to find Graham in both the movie and the novel is a depiction of how the real life author did the same thing.

If you ask me, I would say we’re pretty lucky to know Archibald “Moonlight” Graham’s name, and know the legacy he left behind.