There was a race to sign Joe Nealon in 1905. The San Francisco Chronicle said he was “thought to be the equal of Hal Chase,” the fellow first baseman and Californian who made his major league debut that season.
By November, West Coast newspapers had reported that at least four teams were after Nealon—the New York Highlanders, Boston Americans, St. Louis Browns, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago Cubs, and Pittsburgh Pirates were after Nealon.
Joe Nealon
There likely would have been even more interest in Nealon if not for his background; as The Chronicle said after Nealon signed with the San Francisco Seals before the 1905 season:
“Parental objection had to be overcome, and this was accomplished through an understanding that the boy would remain in professional baseball not more than two or three seasons.”
Nealon was the son of the James C. Nealon, a wealthy real estate executive, elected official, owner of thoroughbreds, and one of the best known handball players on the West Coast who often played with boxer Jim Corbett.
Nealon attended St. Ignatius College (now the University of San Francisco) and had played in the California State League in 1903 and 1904.
Cincinnati and Boston appeared to be the most aggressive pursuer of Nealon; according to The Cincinnati Enquirer:
“Everybody who has seen him work says that Nealon will fill the bill. He is described as a second Bill Lange at the bat, and a new edition of Charley Comiskey on the bag. Allowing for exaggeration he seems to be the real goods.”
The Reds dispatched Ted Sullivan to San Francisco. The Americans sent Dan Long. They did not know that Pittsburgh Pirates Manager Fred Clarke was on his way West as well; Clarke arrived first. The Pirates manager won out. The Pittsburgh Post said:
“It was against these two men that Clarke had to use his ingenuity in securing Nealon. The player is a freelance and was at liberty to join a team of his own selection. Being independently wealthy and playing baseball only for the sport he finds in it. Nealon was not influenced by any financial proposition.”
Reds owner August Herrmann told The Cincinnati Enquirer:
“I had become very much interested in young Nealon and regret that we did not succeed in getting him, but there is no use mourning over his loss.”
While Herrmann might not have been mourning, others in Cincinnati were and blamed Sullivan.
Jack Ryder of The Enquirer said:
“Why was not Ted Sullivan on the ground earlier? Ted left Cincinnati a week ago last Saturday (October 29) with instructions to make a bee line for Frisco. Mr. Herrmann knew that there was keen competition for the services of Nealon…If Sullivan had reached San Francisco on Tuesday or Wednesday, as he was expected to do he would have got in ahead of Fred Clarke, and the chances would have favored his securing the player.”
Ryder said he had a letter from James C. Nealon written to Herrmann promising “that his son would sign with Cincinnati, ‘other things being equal,’” Ryder noted that the Reds “offered the boy more salary than any other club including Pittsburgh.”
Ryder concluded:
“Fred Clarke, who was on the spot, while Ted Sullivan was not, was able to persuade (Nealon) that the Pirates are a far better aggregation than the Reds.”
Ted Sullivan was not about to blamed, and fired off a letter to The Enquirer:
“There is not a man in the city of Cincinnati that would feel as much hurt as myself to lose a good man for the Cincinnati club. The two years that I have acted as agent for Mr. Herrmann he has treated me like a king, and has showed a disposition to back my judgment on the skill of a player.”
Ted Sullivan
Sullivan said in the letter, he had discovered Nealon’s “hidden skill” in August:
“The skill I noticed in Nealon (I wrote Mr. Herrmann at the time) was skill hidden beneath a dross of inexperience and youth.”
While he conceded that some time in the major leagues would “make him a star,” he assured The Enquirer he was not of the caliber of Sullivan’s favorite first baseman:
“The greatest first baseman in the history of the game, Charles Comiskey, was my own selection and making (which I say without egotism), but the California fledgling, without disparaging him, is a pallbearer compared to the magnetism of the matchless Comiskey.”
Sullivan blamed his inability to sign Nealon on Nealon’s father. He claimed to have offered $3,800 to the first baseman in August, and was told that money was not the critical consideration, but complained that Nealon Sr. had immediately “proclaimed throughout Frisco, with the aid of a flashlight, and had also the newspaper men transmit (the offer) to all of the papers in the East.”
As for arriving is San Francisco after Clarke, Sullivan blamed that on the railroads:
“(I) was blocked between Salt Lake and Sacramento, caused by the immense amount of trains”
But, said Sullivan, none of that mattered. Nealon’s father had not dealt with the Reds in good faith:
“Mr. Nealon Sr., who claimed he was not out for the money, called Fred out on the porch of the house and showed him, in confidence, the offer from Cincinnati.”
The latest Cincinnati offer was $6500—with a clause that promised $1000 more than any other offer Nealon would receive–Sullivan said. Clarke matched the $6500, he said, and signed Nealon.
Fred Clarke
There was more said Sullivan:
“Now comes the most brazen effrontery of offended dignity that has more hypocritic brass in it than the Colossus of Rhodes. With this standing offer of Mr. Herrmann’s in his hands for days before I arrived, I asked Mr. Nealon Sr., why he did not close with Mr. Herrmann on such a grand offer. ‘Why,’ says he, ‘I consider it an insult for any man to make me such an offer as that, as it would appear that I was playing one club against the other.” Think of that insult—one man offers another man $1000 more than the highest bidder and he is insulted.”
Sullivan closed his letter by again questioning Nealon’s prospects of making an immediate impact, and said:
“I would rather go down to Millcreek bottoms and pick up some young fellow that wanted to make baseball a profession, than any young man in the United States who thinks that he is condescending to play ball for $7000.”
Sullivan was not the only representative of a club who had expressed interest in Nealon who now questioned the prospects ability. In response to Frank Chance of the Chicago Cubs who said Nealon was “not of National League Caliber,” The Pittsburgh Press responded:
“Sour Grapes?”
The rest of the story on Friday.
Baseball History Daily 