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.