Tom Housenick: Faces of Game Night: Catasauqua AD Tom Moll always cheering on Rough Riders, Red Sox or Tar Heels

Oct. 23--------

This is the second in a series featuring those who have dedicated their lives to local high school athletics from behind the scenes.

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Tom Moll was a 7-year-old on a bus trip to New York's Shea Stadium to see the Phillies play the Mets when news broke that Yankees captain Thurman Munson died in a plane crash on Aug. 2, 1979.

He remembers watching Game 6 of the 1986 World Series as a 14-year-old in his bedroom of his Catasauqua home.

"The remote control didn't make it past that night," Moll recalled, "because I smashed it when the ball went through [Red Sox first baseman Bill] Buckner's legs."

Moll recalls where he was for many significant sports moments in his lifetime.

It's been even easier for the 46-year-old to track the biggest memories created by his beloved Red Sox and University of North Carolina men's basketball program during the last three decades because he was -- there.

As in the stands, in the arena. Countless times.

The Catasauqua High School graduate has been in attendance for many of the Rough Riders' shining athletic moments as director of athletics every year except one since 2006.

When not handing out Colonial League, District 11 or PIAA awards to Catasauqua athletes and tweeting out pictures of their interviews with local media, Moll is driving or flying to witness the Red Sox and Tar Heels make their own memories.

He's been to Detroit, Phoenix, Houston and San Antonio for Final Four thrills and heartbreak.

He attended every game of the 2004 American League Championship Series, a dramatic, seven-game event that changed the fate of Boston baseball forever.

Moll has been to 38 major-league stadiums, all but two (Colorado and Oakland) currently in use, and many ACC basketball venues.

"I've been fortunate to be able to do that," he said. "A lot of my friends growing up used to go, but a lot of them got married, had kids or didn't have the resources to go.

"I just said at some point, 'I'm going to go myself.' It's sort of awesome. There's not usually a time I'm not sitting a bar somewhere across the country."

Moll, who will be in Boston and Los Angeles for the World Series starting Tuesday night, began his sports excursions with a childhood trip to Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium.

Starting in middle school, he took annual weekend trips to Boston to see extended family and the Red Sox play at Fenway Park.

"It's a neat place to go, a neat city and it's not that far," Moll said.

The passion grew from there.

Here are a few of his most memorable journeys:

1. 2004 ALCS: Red Sox vs. Yankees

"I remember the Saturday night game [Oct. 16] in Boston, Moll said. "It was like 19 to whatever [8]. I left and went to some 24-hour diner north of the city.

"It was midnight. The place was packed. Everyone in the diner was at the game. They all had their Red Sox gear on.

"You could hear a pin drop. Everyone thought they were done, down 3-0 in the series."

Moll kept the faith.

He went to a Patriots game Sunday afternoon with a friend, who decided it wasn't worth going to Game 4 of the Red Sox series that night. Moll went. Boston won.

Moll had company when the series extended to Game 7 in Yankee Stadium. He and four friends saw the Red Sox make MLB history.

"I read somewhere that they called up to George Steinbrenner's box asking what to do with the Red Sox fans [after the game]," Moll said. "He said, 'Let them go. It's their night.'

"My only regret from that whole year was not going to St. Louis to see them win the World Series."

Moll went to St. Louis for the 2013 World Series, then trekked to Boston to witness the Red Sox clinching the title in Game 6.

2. Labor Day 2018 in Atlanta

The Braves' SunTrust Park, located about 20 miles north of Atlanta, is surrounded by shops and restaurants.

Moll found himself in a Mexican restaurant about 30 minutes before the final game of Boston's three-game series there at noon on Sept. 5.

"The games are three hours long," he said. "I don't worry about getting there when they start."

Atlanta led 2-0 after the first inning, then 7-1 in the fifth.

Throughout the game's first couple of hours, Moll met, among others, a Florida State graduate student who was doing a project on stadiums' economic impact on the regions they are in.

Moll, a Boston native sitting next to him and a barmaid were asked a series of questions.

Then the Red Sox rally.

"It's 7-1, then 7-5, 7-6 and 7-7," Moll recalled. "Then, I'm like, 'Tab.'"

Moll, who saw all three games in the series, made it to the stadium in time to see Freddy Freeman give the Braves an 8-7 lead in the bottom of the eighth before the Red Sox secured the series sweep thanks to a Brandon Phillips two-run homer in the top of the ninth.

Former Brave Craig Kimbrel got the save for the Red Sox in a game that took 3 hours, 44 minutes.

3. Road trip and a birthday party

When Moll worked in insurance after college, he often took enough time off to see Boston in consecutive road series.

In 2003, his journey started in Toronto. He detoured through Detroit to see Roger Clemens, then with New York, make his second attempt at his 300th career win.

The Yankees blew a 7-1 lead on June 1. Clemens was long gone before the club won in 17 innings.

Moll also was in New York on May 26 to see his beloved Red Sox beat the Yankees in Clemens' first attempt.

He headed from Detroit to Pittsburgh to pick up Boston again.

During a lengthy rain delay before the first game there, Moll met a group of men from Chicago who worked for the man who owned a bar next to PNC Park.

It was Pirates outfielder Kenny Lofton's birthday. Moll got an invitation to the party from the men from Chicago. He saw on a TV at the party Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa's infamous moment when his bat breaks and cork comes out of it.

"Mario Lemieux's golf tournament also was that weekend and everyone was staying at the Hilton I was at," Moll said. "I'm checking out that Thursday and Michael Jordan is standing there when I get off the elevator."

4. The phone book

Moll's 1989 trip with Eric Snyder had nothing to do with the Red Sox or Tar Heels. He saw a Notre Dame football game against SMU.

The two were looking through a local phone book when they come across Fighting Irish coach Lou Holtz's number, so they called.

After Moll talked to Holtz's wife, Holtz picked up the other line and a brief conversation ensued.

Moll ended it by thanking Holtz for talking to him and 'God bless you.'

"I have no idea why I said that," Moll recalled. "But Holtz said, 'No problem and he already has.'"

5. Bachelor party

Moll and former Catasauqua and current Nazareth football coach Tom Falzone were among those headed to New York City for Jeremy Eberhardt's bachelor party.

The day's itinerary ran through Moll.

"Any city you go to," Falzone said, "you want to be with Moll. He knows what train to take, where to park, where to get drinks, which hotel to stay at.

"You follow that guy."

Appendix: Getting tickets

Moll learned in the early 2000s which usher and ticket person to tip (and how much).

He also discovered a secret entrance to Fenway Park.

"I had a deal with this guy who told me to go out to where the garage is in center field," Moll said. "He told me to stand next to the barricaded gate, and when it opened to slide in and go.

"I was like, 'What is going on right now?' I was in Fenway Park a lot without a ticket."

The future

Moll transitions to basketball with a trip to Michigan to see North Carolina in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Wednesday, Nov. 28, and to Chicago to see North Carolina play Kentucky as part of the CBS Sports Classic on Saturday, Dec. 22.

He also is planning a wraparound Martin Luther King holiday weekend trip to Miami, when the Tar Heels play the Hurricanes on Saturday, Jan. 19.

Moll is going to Colorado next September to see the Red Sox against the Rockies and visit family in the Denver area.

That would leave only one MLB stadium (Oakland's Alameda Stadium) left on his list.

"I don't spend money on anything else, really," he said.

Moll does, however, spread his cheer.

"My son, Peyton, [Moll] converted him to be a North Carolina fan because he's always bringing him hats and shirts from games and sending him pictures," Falzone said.

Moll has plenty of pictures from his journeys. They'll help with the memories he's made from being where the Red Sox and Tar Heels have celebrated historic moments.

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THE MOLL FILE

Age: 46

Home: Catasauqua

High school: Catasauqua, Class of 1990; captain of boys basketball team as a senior; first-team Colonial League all-star as a senior.

College: Elizabethtown, Class of 1994; played for legendary coach Dave Lebo; political science degree

Jobs: Director of athletics and student activities at Catasauqua High; District 11 treasurer; District 11 athletic director association representative; district chairman for boys and girls tennis; district chairman of budget/financial sub-committee and marketing/merchandising sub-committee.

Fandom: Boston Red Sox, North Carolina Tar Heels

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