A sudden and surprising idea for this column may come at any time from any direction. This one came from Chatter from Dugout reader Harvey Riebe, a former Detroit Tiger catcher, who often shares some of his many baseball anecdotes culled from his playing years. In a recent letter he mentioned his manager, Steve O’Neill, whom I knew to be at the helm of the Tigers when his team won the World Series in 1945, but could recall little else about him. This is his story.

Stephen Francis O’Neill was born on July 6, 1891 in Minooka, a small town tucked in Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal country. Both Riebe and O’Neill were friends in their retirement years, and both lived in the Cleveland area. Harvey said of his former manager, “Steve O’Neill was as Irish as they come, and he often referred to his name as Steve Francis Michael Patrick Mickey Erin Guiseppi O’Neill. I asked why the Guiseppi? Steve said that’s the Italian in me, but it still sounds Irish to me.”

Steve’s three brothers also made it to the top making the O’Neills one of the few four-sibling or more baseball families. Jack, a catcher, had five years with three teams; Mike, a pitcher and outfielder, saw five years with the Cardinals and Reds; and Jim spent two years with Washington as an infielder. Steve, of course, was the most successful of the brothers in baseball with a total of 44 years as ballplayer, coach, and manager in both the minor and big leagues.

O’Neill began his playing career with Elmira in 1910 at the age of 18, and then had one year with Worcester of the New England League before called up by Cleveland at the end of the season for nine games. He was a part-time catcher for the Indians for the next three seasons before he took over the regular catching duties in 1915. Even good ballplayers have bad days, and young Steve probably saw his worst day on the field ever on July 19, 1915 when a record eight Washington Senator runners stole bases against him, all in the first inning. At first the Indian backstop’s batting average was most uninspiring until 1919 when he hit .289 followed with three consecutive batting averages at .311 or more. The 165-pound, 5’10” Irishman was not a long ball hitter as he totaled only 13 home runs in his entire playing career.

In 1920 Cleveland won their first pennant and World Series with Steve usually behind the plate, his only post-season games as a player. His team, however, first had to overcome the game’s first and only ML on-the-field fatality when Indian shortstop, Ray Chapman, was struck on the left temple by Yankee submarine pitcher Carl Mays on August 17th. Both Ray and Steve had come up by Cleveland about the same time as promising newcomers, and both soon became regulars. The Indians won the Championship by downing Brooklyn 5 games to 2. Steve hit .333, had seven hits, and batted in two to help win Game One. O’Neill and his team were involved in curious and strange Game Five that featured three memorable events: Cleveland’s Elmer Smith hit the first ever WS grand slam; Steve’s teammate, Jim Bagby, hit the first home run by a pitcher, and Indian Bill Wambsganss was able to turn in the first and only unassisted WS triple play. The Indians won the game 8-1.

The durable and steady ballplayer caught more than 100 games for ten consecutive years, but as happens with all ballplayers, Steve’s abilities began to decline. Stephen Francis was traded to the Red Sox in 1924, waived to the New York Yankees for the 1925 year, went back to the minors for a year with Reading and Toronto in the International League, and then followed with two seasons with the St. Louis Browns. After appearing in 10 games in 1928, his 17-season big league career ended with a .263 batting average.

But Steve was not out of baseball for long as his long tenure of squatting behind the plate led him to coaching and managing. He was player-manager in Toronto from 1929 to 1931, a player-coach for Toledo in 1932, and back to player/manager for Toledo in 1933 and 1934.

In 1935 he was now coaching for the Indians, but in the middle of the season manager Walter Johnson, the famed Big Train, was given the boot after several mediocre years. O’Neill now became the new skipper. Less than three years later Steve was fired, but the quiet, low-key, and patient baseball teacher had the opportunity to work with and develop several young Cleveland players. One was Bob Feller and another was Lou Boudreau.

Next week: Part 2. The Irishman moves to Detroit

As Irish as They Come

A look at Steve O’Neill, ballplayer, manager, and nice guy

Bygone baseball by

C. Philip Francis

Part 2

Manager Stephen Francis O’Neill was with the Cleveland Indians for part of 1935 and all of ’36 and ’37. His team was able to reach third place in his first year, but fell to fifth and fourth the next two seasons. In 1936 Steve had no player hitting below .287, but had poor pitching. In 1936 the Indians met the St. Louis Cardinals in an exhibition game. Wanting to rest his tired regular hurlers and watch a new young, fast-pitching right-hander, 44 year-old O’Neill climbed into his catching gear one more time. He was about to catch “a fireballing wildman” named Bob Feller.

After the teenager from Van Meter, Iowa struck out eight of the first nine Cards, a rowdy bunch called the Gashouse Gang, he joined O’Neill and his team on the train that was heading for Washington. Bob won five games that year, and then began to rewrite Tribe pitching history as he went on to win 266 games, all with Cleveland, in his 18-year big league career. The Irishman was developing a reputation as a teacher and developer of new and young ballplayers. Not only did O’Neill help steer Feller to baseball stardom he also worked with one more Cleveland legend.

The Indians gave the hook to the calm and gentle Irishman after the 1937 season following the decision to bring in a more fiery leader. (Note: That leader was Oscar Vitt whose tough and aggressive style of managing led to a player rebellion in 1940. He was fired, and never again led a ML team.) O’Neill was with the Buffalo Bisons of the International League in 1939 where he had two promising infielders, Lou Boudreau at third and Ray Mack at second. By moving Lou from third to shortshop and teaming with Mack, Steve created a first-class double play combo for the Cleveland Indians. They became full-time players in 1940, and were together much of the war years. In 1942 at age 24 Boudreau was named manager/player making him one of the youngest managers ever.

The quiet man from the Pennsylvania coal mines received his second chance of piloting a major league ballclub when he was hired by the Detroit Tigers for the 1943 season. Detroit had won a pennant in 1940 under the leadership of Del Baker, but even with solid starting pitchers such as Bobo Newsom, Hal Newhouser, Dizzy Trout, and Tommy Bridges, the Tigers fell 26 games behind the Yankees in 1941 and 30 back of New York the next year. The team was now ready for a change.

The Tigers barely had a winning season in 1943 when finishing fifth, and then lost to the St. Louis Browns by only one game in the tight ‘44 pennant race. The war had stripped the game of many players leaving the young, the old, the infirm, and the unsound. It was the year when the St. Louis Brown won their only pennant, and the only time the two St. Louis teams squared off in a World Series. In 1945 it was now Detroit’s time, and Steve O’Neill was able to win a World Series Championship when his Motor City charges beat out the Senators by a game and a half. Hank Greenberg, recently returned from he wars, hit a grand slam home run in the decisive final game.

The Series starred the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago Cubs, and because of wartime travel restrictions the first three games were to be played in Detroit, and the remaining four in the Windy City. Although one baseball scribe said that it was impossible for either team to win this Series, the Tigs became world champs. It took all seven games, and Detroit prevailed after scoring five in the first inning of the final contest. They held on as Hal Newhouser pitched a complete 9-3 victory.

Newhouser was an intense and impassioned ballplayer, and it took much of O’Neill’s patience to keep Hal “focused on winning ballgames instead of arguing with umpires.” The left-handed Detroiter had many classic matchups with Bob Feller over their almost parallel careers. Both men are in the Hall of Fame, and both came under the leadership and tutoring of Steve O’Neil – Rapid Robert’s first two years in the bigs with Cleveland, and Prince Hal’s best five years in Detroit, 1944-1948, when he was the dominant pitcher in the American League.

All managers are hired to be fired, and so Steve left the Tigers after the 1948 season. He was informed of his release while raking leaves at home by a phone call from a Cleveland sportswriter, and went on to manage both the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies for a total of five years. He died on January 26, 1962 in Cleveland at the age of 71.

In his fourteen years on the bench, Steve Francis O’Neill never had a losing season, saw his players celebrate a World Series Championship, and did it all as a fellow who was always considered a nice guy.

Chatter from the Dugout welcomes comments, and may be reached at: dugoutchatter@ejourney.com

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