A 1916 advertisement for Coca-Cola featuring New York giants Captain Larry Doyle.
Four years earlier, when Doyle led the Giants to a National League championship–hitting .330 and winning the Chalmers Award as the league’s most valuable player–he told a reporter from The New York Evening Journal that his success was driven by a snub from White Sox Manager Jimmy “Nixey” Callahan:
“When he was playing in a western minor league city (the Three-I League with the Springfield Senators) the (New York) Highlanders heard of him and asked Callahan, then playing independent ball (in Chicago’s City League), to look him over. Callahan watched Doyle perform in several games and then wired the Highlanders:
“‘He isn’t fast enough. Can’t field and isn’t a first-class hitter.’
“So Doyle was passed up and Callahan sent in a bill for $200 to cover his expenses and time. Then (John) McGraw walked up…and paid $4,000 (actually $4,500) for Doyle, who couldn’t be purchased now for three times that amount. All of which goes to show that some of the best judges of ball players make serious mistakes.”
Baseball History Daily 
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