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Top photo, Fred Gedrich and Sam Madison, Giants all-pro cornerback, at the White House. Above, from left Lou “Bikes” Ciampi; John Spoelstra, president of Mandalay Sports; Lou Ciampi and Jim Ciampi.

Top photo, Fred Gedrich and Sam Madison, Giants all-pro cornerback, at the White House. Above, from left Lou “Bikes” Ciampi; John Spoelstra, president of Mandalay Sports; Lou Ciampi and Jim Ciampi.

Top photo, Fred Gedrich and Sam Madison, Giants all-pro cornerback, at the White House. Above, from left Lou “Bikes” Ciampi; John Spoelstra, president of Mandalay Sports; Lou Ciampi and Jim Ciampi.

Bernie Stiroh sent me a copy of a 1921 news story with the headline: “Duryea Team Wins Over Major Leaguers.” From the story:

“Decided success marked the baseball game yesterday afternoon for Jimmy O’Neill of Minooka, former members of the Washington Senators, who has been unable to work of platy ball since being stricken with pneumonia.”

The story doesn’t say where the game was played but does say that “2200 followers of the national pastime form all sections of Lackawanna County” attended.
The Duryea club, which won the Inter-County pennant that season, beat a team of major and minor leaguers 6-4.
Duryea lineup: Garvey
, 3b; Keating, ss; Harris, 2b: Wycalis, lf; Walsh, rf; Westnock, cf; Medres, 1b; Jordan, c; Brazill, p and Glynn, p.
The major/minor team line up: “McGuire, 3b; Neher, ss; Burns, 1b; Shorten, lf; O’Neill, c; Murphy, cf; F. Murphy, rf; J. Murphy, 2b; Higgins, p; and Mattes, p.

I did a little research. There was a Tom McGuire who got in one game with the 1919 White Sox and was from upstate New York. He could be the McGuire on the team. Chick Shorten was from Scranton played seven years in MLB. He was an outfielder with the Tigers in 1921. The O’Neill who caught, Hall of Famer Steve, was Jimmy’s brother. There was only one man named Neher ever in MLB. He played in only one year in 1912 with Cleveland. Steve O’Neill was with Cleveland in 1912 so that may well be him. He would have been 32 in 1921.
There were several men named Burns to reach MLB. The best bet was probably George who was a teammate of O’Neill’s in Cleveland in 1921. Burns was the AL MVP in 1926. There were several Murphys to reach MLB, but I couldn’t find any who fit. There were also several men named Higgins to reach MLB, but I couldn’t find any who fit.
The M. Harris who hit a home run for Duryea was Merle Harris, brother of Hall of Famer Bucky Harris from Hughestown.
Jimmy O’Neill was the youngest of the four brothers from Minooka to reach the major leagues. He got in 109 games in two seasons with the Senators in 1921 and ’23. Steve was born in 1893. He played and managed in the major leagues in a career that spanned from 1911 all the way to 1956.
The two oldest brothers, Mike and Jack were both born in Ireland in 1877 and 1873. Jack played from 1902-06. Mike’s career was similar. They were teammates with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1902 and ’03.
By the way Jim recovered from the pneumonia. He lived to age 83.

***

Fred Gedrich was at White House when President Bush met with the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. He sent me two pictures. One is a group photo with VP Dick Cheney, Giants Coach Tom Coughlin, Giants QB Eli Manning, and President Bush. The second photo, which is here on the page, is Sam Madison, Giants all-pro cornerback, and Fred.
“President Bush seemed to really enjoy himself,” wrote Fred, “and I, along with many in crowd, particularly enjoyed his humor about Giants’ playoff run and special poignant comments about the team’s inspirational leader, Lt. Col. Greg Gadson, who accompanied team to White House.”
Lt. Col. Greg Gadson lost both legs in Iraq receiving a Purple Heart and three Bronze Stars for his heroism. Greg served as the Giants inspirational leader in Super Bowl drive. The team gave him a Super Bowl ring.
Excerpt of Coach Coughlin’s comments:
“We were called the road warriors. Well, we pale in comparison to the real warriors, the warriors that we visited today at Walter Reed. The thing that impressed all of us so much was their attitude, their positive attitude, the look in their eye, their patriotism, their knowledge of what they were fighting for. And as I always say, we receive great inspiration from our soldiers, and it’s an honor to be with them, and it’s an honor to have Greg Gadson with us in our drive to the Super Bowl Championship XLII.”

***

Independent Graphics sponsored a luncheon at PNC Field. John Spoelstra, president of Mandalay Sports the owners of the SWB Yankees and six other minor league teams, was the featured speaker. After Lou “Bikes’ Ciampi of Independent Graphics introduced Spoelstra in his usual upbeat way, Spoelstra joked the Bikes doesn’t have enough energy.
Spoelstra is considered something of a sports marketing genius. He was president of the NBA New Jersey Nets at a time when the Nets had not had a sell out in seven years and had the lowest attendance in the league. Though marketing he helped turn that around.
He told a hysterical story about how someone suggested that the Nets give away jock straps at the gate instead of hats, because that would get people taking about the Nets.
Spoelstra was the first major sports president to visit Japan where he became a friend of the president of Sony. Spoelstra asked the Sony president how he dealt with the pressure of always having to come up with something new. “At Sony, new is a way of life,” was the answer.
Spoelstra said that’s an unofficial Mandalay motto now. It doesn’t mean to keep coming up with ideas that have never been tried before, but rather to be vigilant in adopting new marketing trends and adapting proven ideas.
An example is “Play Ball” a booklet that is printed by Independent Graphics and distributed free to fans at every SWB Yankee home game.
Spoelstra said the idea hit him when he was handed a “Play Bill” the booklets that are handed out at Broadway plays. “Play Ball” is an adaptation of the Broadway “Play Bill.”
Play Ball is exclusive to each SWB home game. While the cover and some of the content stays the same for each home stand, other stuff in it has to be updated every night of a home stand. Independent receives updated information after every home game and in a 12-hour turnaround delivers 3000-to-10,000 “Play Ball” booklets for each home game with updated statistics, standings, news on each day’s game and trivia.