This is My Town by Edward J. Gerrity
Scranton Times
Scranton Times
September 1976
This is a story that can appropriately be
title, “The Last of the Blues”—the famed Minooka Blues, a baseball team
organized in the very early 1900s that won acclaim nationwide for its smart and
brilliant playing on its home field in Minooka and on lots faraway from home,
too. It was a selected group of youths that was taught the diamond sport from A
to Z, and in their first three seasons, there was not a single defeat marked on
their outstanding record.
On last September 5, James O’Neill of
Mercersburg, a former Minooka resident who had played shortstop for the Blues
and whose diamond performances attracted a scout for the Washington Senators
and later was signed for the start of a major-league career, died in
Mercersburg. So far as can be ascertained, he was the last survivor of the
great Minooka Blues.*
Jimmy came from a family of brothers who
graduated from local sandlots to the major leagues in the early 1900s. Jimmy
played two seasons with Washington in the early 1900s. Jimmy played two seasons
with Washington in the American League in 1920 and 1923. His brother, Steve,
who was the star catcher in his days with the Blues, signed with the Cleveland
Indians as a maskman and was an outstanding fellow who handled all types of
pitchers while at Cleveland from 1911 to 1928. Sports writers termed Steve as
the best catcher in baseball at that time.
