From The Sporting News, 12-5-1907

From The Sporting News, November 5, 1925.

Note: Louie Almada told me, as kids, they’d follow Jimmy O’Connell around.  He was the most friendly player to the kids who shagged fly balls at Washington Gardens Park.  Louie also remembered what a great swing he had.  After he was suspended for his involvement in the 1924 gambling scandal, it was rumored that he was being taken advantage of because of his youth.  I find it hard to believe that somebody who spent three full seasons with San Francisco in the Coast League and two with the Giants would be considered an “innocent,” but here’s one of the stories that came out during the period:

It is reported that an effort to get Commissioner Landis to reinstate Jimmy O’Connell for his part in the 1924 scandal is underway in New York.  One unnamed person is reported to have said that O’Connell was so green  an innocent that he went to the club house to get some left-handed bats at the request of an older player….



O’Connell wound up living in the Central Valley, dying in Bakersfield in 1976.  He worked in oil industry for some 40 years.