Minooka, Pa. - Famous for Baseball

Boston Sunday Post - February 16, 1919

Scranton, Pa. – Columns have been written about Ireland’s saints and scholars, and columns can be penned about Minooka’s Big League players and sailors. Each place has been given fame and honor through its particular products.

TOWN IS FAMOUS

Steve O'Neill

Through its famous sons, the name of Ireland will always be known throughout the world, and through the boys, Minooka has sent to the baseball circuits and the patriotic young men it has given to Uncle Sam’s service, especially the navy, it has gained a reputation that makes it foremost among the small towns that dot the United States from coast to coast.

Minooka is a mining town. Mining is its one real industry. It is part of Lackawanna Township and is located a short way from Scranton. Three quarters of the population is of Irish descent and it is a real family town. Every person knows the other. In it, one’s troubles become his neighbor’s troubles, and the same with joys and pleasures. It is an extraordinary town in more than one respect, but of course, its chief claim to fame rests in its baseball products, its large representation in the U.S. Navy, and while it may sound peculiar, in some of the freakiest mine caves that the anthracite regions of Pennsylvania turn out. That’s going some, too.

The town we speak of is the home of Steve O’Neill, crack catcher of the Cleveland Indians, of Chick Shorten, who recently moved to Detroit from Boston in a trade, and of Mike McNally, the Red Sox infielder who shook mitts and talked with King George. It is a town that sent the famous O’Neill brothers’ battery to the majors; the town that developed Tom Philbin, former professional catcher and more recently a Detroit scout.

Within a few miles of it, Hughie Jennings, manager of the Detroit Tigers, was born, and on its lots, the present boss of the Bengals played many a game that helped fit him for fame and fortune on the diamond.

AND MORE OF ‘EM

It is a place where Bill Coughlin, former fighting captain of the Detroit Tigers appeared in many a hard fought contest as a busher. Jimmy Kane, once with the Nationals and previous to that with Pittsburgh, also gained much of his early baseball experience in Minooka. Tom Quinlan, of this city, now in treatment in France for wounds received in action, and who was with the Chicago Americans a few years back was another player who received much of his early baseball training at Minooka. Jimmy O’Neill, once the property of the Boston Americans and formerly with Buffalo, Wilkes-Barre and Shreveport, is another of Minooka’s baseball products. Festus Higgins, who pitched for Scranton and Binghamton in the International and New York State Leagues and Jack Gallagher, formerly of the Carolina Association, also graduated from the Minooka baseball college.

Jack O’Neill was one time considered the best catcher in the National league and was Minooka’s first “real” representative in the majors. Hughie Jennings preceded him, but Hughie was born in Moosic, an adjoining borough, and while he frequently appeared with Minooka teams, is not considered a native son. After Jack reached the majors, his brother, Mike, appeared on the baseball horizon. The others followed with Steve O’Neill, Chick Shorten, Gallagher, Higgins, Jim O’Neill and McNally acting like graduates of the old Minooka Blues, a team that made amateur history in this region, and one that was coached by the veteran Jack O’Neill.

The feats of the Blues will always be remembered in Minooka.  They stand out more than  the fact that Mike McNally was privileged to grab the hand of King George at Chelsea, England last July 4; and in Minooka, the average citizen believes that Mike is more than an ordinary individual because of that famous incident. Old men will bring you back to the Minooka Blues once you start to talk baseball dope, and Steve O’Neill, Shorten and McNally never tire of recalling some of the games in which they figured as members of the team.

The Blues were composed of boys in Minooka playing in a league in which other teams were made up of players far older and generally considered happened that the youthful Blues were winners over the older fellows. With Jack O’Neill as the team’s board of strategy, the Blues prepared and followed a style of play that proved too much for their rivals. They played what Minooka christened “inside ball for amateurs” with the boys depending more on good fielding, good pitching, good bunting and speed around the bases than their ability to slam the ball – a faculty the average amateur club strives for.

ONE OF THE BEST

On those Blues, Steve O’Neill, now the star catcher for the Cleveland Indians, and generally considered one of the league’s stars, was the backstop. The pitcher was Festus Higgins, and Shorten was one of the outfielders. Gallagher was another. Mike Flaherty, at one time a New England leaguer, was an infielder. So were McNally and Jimmy O’Neill, all of whom were mere kids compared to their rivals. The team played a defensive style. They sought to keep the other team’s run column down more than to build up their own. Only a few of them were not able to hit the curves of the older pitchers, but they were taught how to bunt by Jack O’Neill and how to make the best of this style. Bunting was something new to the amateur ranks then. The average manager would give you the laugh if you told him to have his players bunt their way to victories, yet it was the Blues ability to bunt that helped make them famous in the coal fields. Base running was another strong feature of their play, and if the Boston fans who have seen McNally sprint believe that Mike developed the art in the Hub, they are mistaken. He had it when he was playing with the Blues. This team cleaned up nearly every amateur team in the region at the time. And today it is represented in the majors by three players who are being counted on to fill regular berths this season. Most of the other players are out of the game.

Mike McNally and Steve O’Neill were assisted to a great extent in their climb to the majors by Mike O’Neill, former St. Louis lefthander and more recently a minor league manager. . He was the older O’Neill who gave Steve his first real trial in fast company. That was when he was managing Elmira. Tom Philbin, another baseball product of Minooka, was the regular catcher for the club but he had been injured. The second backstop was also disabled so Mike was forced to put Steve behind the bat for 16 or 17 games. Up until that time, Steve was accompanying Elmira just to get experience and was not being counted to get into the game. But when the opportunity presented itself, the youngster made such a good showing that he worked behind the bat regularly for the rest of the season, but merited advancement to faster company via the draft when the pennant race ended. He was drafted by the Athletics and sent along to Worcester. Later in a deal between Mack and Cleveland, O’Neill went to the country’s sixth city, where he remains one of its baseball stars.

It was at Utica that Mike O’Neill gave McNally the chance to make good. Mike went to Utica from Elmira to succeed Charlie Carr as manager and took McNally with him as an in fielding prospect. Utica had a splendid shortstop the preceding year named Hartman, but he had been lost through the draft and Utica fans were worried that there would be a hole in the infield the next season. They had heard that McNally was a promising rookie, but realized it was a lot to be asking for a kid to replace a man who had delivered the goods. McNally soon satisfied these doubters that he was capable of doing more than simply feeling the other fellow’s shoes. Instead he proceeded to put up an article of shortstopping that made the other fellow’s seem ordinary, and Mike became the idol of the club. It was but a short time before Mike started advancing to the highest ranks where he retains membership today.

Jack and Mike O’Neill, the Minooka boys who made the famous O’Neill brothers’ battery in the National League are now through with the game. Jack, still hale and hearty, is working for the Keyser Valley shops of the Lackawanna railroad, still serving as coach of baseball teams. Mike is in the oil business in Shreveport, Louisiana. He managed Shreveport last season until the minors closed down. Previous to that, he managed Elmira, Utica and Syracuse in the New York State League. He also saw service in the famous outlaw Tri-State League, following his departure from the majors.

Just now, only a few of Minooka’s baseball celebrities are living there. Shorten is in the navy. Philbin is business in Boston. Jennings makes his home in Scranton. Mike O’Neill is in Shreveport and Jack Gallagher is in the navy. Steve O’Neill, McNally and Jack and Jimmy O’Neill are the only ones left. Steve, Jack and Jim have been working at a railroad shop in Scranton, but Steve quit a few weeks ago to begin training for the upcoming baseball season. McNally lives home with his mother and since his return from service in the navy, he  has been kept busy telling Minooka people about his experiences abroad and his trip to old Erin, the country that is the real foundation for  the Pennsylvania town of “ballplayers and sailors.”

Minooka’s record for naval enlistment gives it the highest percentage, based on population, in the country. It was noted for naval enlistments even before the war, but once hostilities started, it broke all records. Hundreds of Minooka boys joined the navy, not forgetting the many who joined the army. Some Minooka families have four and five boys in the navy. It is well known in naval circles that a short time ago, when Secretary Daniels was on a visit, he insisted upon going through the town, and when Lieutenant Commander Payne of Philadelphia was there, he spent five hours in the village, talking to the fathers and mothers of the sailor boys.

Contributed by Mary Beth Van Winkle