May 5, 1906: White Sox settle for 12-inning tie with Naps despite John O’Neill’s heroics

Only 11 home runs were hit at Cleveland’s League Park in 1906.1 So when John O’Neill launched a long home run on May 5 – the first of the season at the ballpark2 – to give the Chicago White Sox an early lead over the Cleveland Naps, Forest City fans cheered as he rounded the bases.3

O’Neill drove in another run in the fifth inning, then preserved a 3-3 deadlock in the eighth with two spectacular catches and an outfield assist. Neither team could score any more runs, and umpire Silk O’Loughlin was forced to call the game after 12 innings because of darkness.

O’Neill was born and raised in the baseball hotbed of Saint John, New Brunswick, a city of 40,000 people on the Bay of Fundy. He played for the semipro Saint John Roses for several seasons4 before getting a brief and unsuccessful trial as a 19-year-old with the Worcester Farmers of the Class A Eastern League late in 1899.5

During the next three seasons with the Roses (1900-02), O’Neill gained more seasoning by playing alongside future and former big-leaguers, including Larry McLean, Andy Coakley, and Frank Sexton.6 When another shot at Class A ball presented itself in 1903, O’Neill hit .333 with the Milwaukee Creams, third best in the Western League, earning him a contract with the Boston Americans.

O’Neill made his big-league debut with the Americans in May 1904 before being sent to the Washington Nationals in a midseason trade for veteran outfielder Kip Selbach.7 The 24-year-old O’Neill struggled in his rookie campaign, hitting just .238 with one homer and 21 RBIs in 112 games.8

In 1905 O’Neill played for the Milwaukee Brewers in the American Association, hitting a solid .322 and tying for the team lead with six home runs. The White Sox purchased his contract in September 1905, and the speedy switch-hitter opened the 1906 season as the team’s starting right fielder.9

The race for the AL pennant was wide open in 1906, with every team other than Washington and the St. Louis Browns considered contenders when the season began.10 On the morning of May 5, Cleveland was in second place with an 8-6-1 record, just a half-game behind the surprising Nationals. The White Sox, without star pitcher Doc White until mid-May,11 had gotten off to a slow start and were two games out of first with a 7-8 record.

Frank Smith, one of the AL’s best pitchers the previous two seasons, started for Chicago.12 The 26-year-old righty had a record of 1-1, with his win coming in a four-hit complete game against Cleveland on April 23.

Happy Townsend, a 27-year-old right-hander, took to the mound for Cleveland. Townsend was making his first home start for the Naps since being acquired in an offseason trade.13 On April 22 in Chicago, the White Sox knocked him out early, but he bounced back to earn the victory in his second start a week later against the Browns.14

After Townsend retired player-manager Fielder Jones to start the game, O’Neill stepped into the left-handed batter’s box. O’Neill had started every White Sox game in right field and was batting just .169, the worst mark in the American League other than teammate Billy Sullivan’s .150 average. Considering that he had just one round-tripper in 477 career at-bats, the Cleveland Plain Dealer wasn’t far off when it quipped that his home-run record was “about as extensive as [railway magnate] Russell Sage’s list of charities.”15

O’Neill slammed the first pitch from Townsend deep to right field and,16 according to the Chicago Inter Ocean, the ball “sailed clear over the thirty-foot fence above the field gate, dropping into Lexington Avenue. It was one of the longest swats ever made on the grounds.”17 O’Neill’s four-bagger was the first by the White Sox in 1906, and the only homer Townsend allowed all season.18

Chicago extended its lead to 2-0 in the second on an RBI double from the light-hitting Sullivan.

After Townsend surrendered a one-out triple to Jones in the fifth, O’Neill followed with an RBI single, putting Chicago in front, 3-0.

Smith, meanwhile, had kept the Naps off the scoresheet in the first four innings by scattering two hits, a walk, and a hit-by-pitch.

Smith got the first two outs in the bottom of the fifth before running into trouble. Cleveland loaded the bases on an infield hit by center fielder Harry Bay, an error by third baseman Lee Tannehill on Bill Bradley’s grounder, and a walk to Elmer Flick.19 Nap Lajoie, beginning to look like his old self after getting a serious leg infection late in the 1905 season, walked to force Bay home with Cleveland’s first run.20 Smith avoided any further damage by getting shortstop Terry Turner to bounce into a force out at second.

Bunk Congalton – one of two Canadians in the Naps’ lineup – and first baseman George Stovall hit back-to-back singles to open the sixth.21 The Naps’ other Canadian, catcher Jay Clarke, doubled down the right-field line; Congalton and Stovall crossed the plate and the game was suddenly tied, 3-3. After Smith retired Townsend, veteran southpaw Nick Altrock came on and recorded the final two outs of the inning.22

O’Neill almost single-handedly kept the Naps off the scoresheet in the eighth. He made the first out by racing into foul territory and making a superb one-handed grab of Turner’s fly ball near the wire screen in front of the pavilion.23 After Congalton reached on his second consecutive single,24 Stovall hit a line drive into shallow right-center field. O’Neill raced in to rob Stovall of a hit and then threw to first to double up Congalton, ending the inning.25

Neither team could score in the ninth and the game went into extra innings.

The White Sox had two baserunners in scoring position with one out in the 10th, but Townsend retired left fielder Frank Hemphill and Tannehill to end the threat.26

The Naps nearly won it with two out in the 12th. After O’Neill dropped Bradley’s fly ball in the gloaming, Flick drove a ball down the right-field line that was foul by a foot.27 Flick returned to the batter’s box and Altrock struck him out to end the game.28

O’Neill heated up in May, reeling off a 15-game hitting streak, only to cool off again in June. When a 1-for-12 dry spell dropped his on-base percentage to .289 in mid-July, O’Neill was replaced by Ed Hahn as Chicago’s starting right fielder.29

The White Sox continued to play mediocre baseball for much of the first half and on July 25 they were in fourth place, nine games behind the league-leading Philadelphia Athletics. Boosted by great pitching from emerging star Ed Walsh,30 the White Sox finally caught fire. From July 26 to August 23, Chicago went 23-1-1 – including a record 19-game winning streak – to build a 5½-game cushion on Philadelphia.31 After squandering the lead by Labor Day, Chicago fought back to win its second pennant in franchise history.32 The White Sox finished with a 93-58-3 record, three games ahead of the New York Highlanders and five up on Cleveland.

The White Sox were considered heavy underdogs when they faced the 116-win Chicago Cubs in an all-Chicago World Series. The Pale Hose were dubbed the Hitless Wonders for their league-worst .230 team batting average and .286 slugging percentage, although they still pieced together the AL’s third best offense by leading the league in walks, hit-by-pitches, and sacrifices and being the most difficult team to strike out.

The White Sox outpitched the Cubs by a wide margin in the World Series and, to the surprise of many, won the series in six games. Four White Sox hurlers, Altrock, White, Walsh, and Frank Owen, combined to limit the vaunted Cubs offense to just eight earned runs in the Series.33

O’Neill’s only appearance came in Game Three after Hahn was struck in the face by Jack Pfiester’s pitch on a sacrifice attempt in the sixth inning.34 Pinch-runner O’Neill scored on a three-run triple by George Rohe, accounting for the only runs of the game.35

O’Neill became the first Canadian to appear in a World Series game between the American and National Leagues,36 and the country’s first AL/NL World Series champion.37 In early November O’Neill returned home a hero.38 He was greeted at the Saint John train station by hundreds of well-wishers and presented with a gold watch, chain, and locket.

In the spring of 1907, rookie Mike Welday beat out O’Neill for the backup outfielder job and the White Sox demoted O’Neill to the minors just before the regular season began.39 He never played in the big leagues again, and the long home run he hit at League Park on May 5, 1906, was his last round-tripper in the majors. O’Neill batted .243 with 2 homers, 42 RBIs, and 41 stolen bases in 746 career at-bats.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Carl Riechers and copy-edited by Len Levin. Thanks to Cassidy Lent of the Giamatti Research Center at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown for providing a copy of John O’Neill’s Hall of Fame file.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, Stathead.com, Seamheads.com, and the SABR biographies of John O’Neill, Larry McLean, Andy Coakley, Jack Coombs, Nap Lajoie, and Fred Mitchell. Unless otherwise noted, all detailed play-by-play information for this game was taken from the article “Chicago vs. Cleveland” in the May 5, 1906, edition of the Chicago Daily News.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CLE/CLE190605050.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1906/B05050CLE1906.htm   

Photo credit

The image of John O’Neill is cropped from a photo taken by George R. Lawrence (Public Domain).

Notes

1 American League batters hit 137 home runs in the 1906 regular season, an average of one round-tripper every 4.5 games. A home run was hit at League Park once every 7.2 games. (Most of the homers at League Park in 1906 were hit over the fence.) Bennett Park (9) and South Side Park (3) were the only AL parks in which fewer homers were hit in 1906. “‘Long Tom’ Was Same Old Puzzle,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 9, 1906: 8; “Dusty Was Once More the Goods,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 10, 1906: 16; “Bender Was Far From a Mystery,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 17, 1906: 16; “Both Contests Won Easily,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 19, 1906: 8; “Naps’ Chances Were Smashed,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 2, 1906: 6.

2 The May 5 contest was the fifth home game for Cleveland in 1906. Only three Naps hit a home run at League Park in 1906: Bill Bradley (June 16), Jay Clarke (first game of doubleheader on September 18), and Bunk Congalton (October 2).

3 William John O’Neill is not to be confused with James Edward “Tip” O’Neill, the most famous Canadian ballplayer of the 19th century. Tip O’Neill of the St. Louis Browns was the best hitter in the major leagues in 1887; his career spanned from 1883 to 1892. To confuse matters, John O’Neill – like many O’Neills of his era – was frequently referred to as Tip O’Neill. “Pulled Off a Thrilling Game,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 6, 1906: 17.

4 The author found several Newspapers.com references to an “O’Neill” and an “O’Neil” pitching for the Saint John Roses in 1894. John O’Neill pitched for the Roses in 1895 and he continued playing for the Roses until the end of the 1902 season, mainly as a second baseman. “The Roses Win,” Saint John Daily Telegraph, August 5, 1895: 3; “Rose B.B. Club Entertained at Supper,” Saint John Daily Telegraph, October 17, 1895: 3.

5 O’Neill was signed by Frank Selee, manager of Boston’s National League team. He was assigned to the Worcester team in August 1899 but played poorly in his brief trial. O’Neill played second base and hit .173 in 12 games with Worcester. As of December 2025, Baseball-Reference listed his 1899 player stats under the name “J.F. O’Neil.” “‘Tip’ O’Neill’s Work,” Saint John Daily Telegraph, August 28, 1899: 3; “‘Tip’ O’Neill of the Collins Team Eager for Season to Begin to Show His Ability,” Boston Post, March 3, 1904: 3.

6 McLean, a native of Fredericton, New Brunswick, played with the Saint John Roses in 1900. After a brief trial with the Boston Americans at the start of the 1901 season, he returned to the Roses. He went on to become one of the best catchers in the National League during the Deadball Era. Coakley was an 18-year-old student at the College of the Holy Cross when he pitched for the Roses in 1901. Sexton pitched for the Roses in 1900; he had twirled for Boston’s NL team in 1895. Other future and former big-leaguers to play semipro ball in Saint John early in the twentieth century included Jack Coombs, Louis Sockalexis, and Fred Mitchell. Mitchell, playing under the surname Yapp, pitched for the Saint John Alerts in 1900. The 19-year-old Coombs pitched for the Alerts in 1902 and again in ’03; the 31-year-old Sockalexis pitched for the Roses in 1903. Brian Flood and Richard Papenhausen, Saint John, A Sporting Tradition, 1785-1985 (Saint John: Neptune Publishing, 1985), 125; “New Blood for the Alerts,” Saint John Daily Telegraph, August 11, 1902: 7; “Alerts Down the Roses Again,” Saint John Daily Telegraph, July 6, 1903: 5; “Played League Ball Saturday,” Saint John Daily Telegraph, June 29, 1903: 7; Gary Belleville, “July 27, 1907: Larry McLean’s arm, bat propel Reds over Giants,” SABR Games Project, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/july-27-1907-larry-mcleans-arm-bat-propel-reds-over-giants/, accessed December 11, 2025.

7 O’Neill hit .196 in 17 games for the Boston Americans. He was traded to Washington on June 30, 1904.

8 O’Neill also committed a league-leading 16 errors in center field.

9 “Deals Made for Players,” Chicago Tribune, September 2, 1905: 8.

10 The White Sox had finished in second place with a 92-60 record in 1905, just two games behind the Philadelphia Athletics. “Close Race Anticipated,” Syracuse Herald, April 16, 1906: 10.

11 Chicago was also without its regular third baseman, Lee Tannehill, for the first 14 games of the season. Doc White was coaching baseball at Georgetown University until mid-May. He had gone 17-13 with a 1.76 ERA in 1905. He pitched his first game of the 1906 season on May 21 and went on to win the AL ERA title. He finished the season 18-6 with a 1.52 ERA. “Notes of the White Sox Game,” Chicago Tribune, April 18, 1906: 7.

12 Smith had thrown the first of two career no-hitters in the second game of a September 6, 1905, twin bill against the Detroit Tigers. He went a combined 35-22 with a 2.11 ERA in 1904-05, his first two seasons in the big leagues.

13 Townsend was traded from the Washington Nationals to the Detroit Tigers on December 5, 1905. The Tigers dealt him to the Naps for veteran pitcher Red Donahue on December 24.

14 Townsend lasted just 1⅔ innings on April 22 against the White Sox. He gave up five runs on five hits and two walks. Townsend pitched all nine innings against the Browns on April 29, surrendering three earned runs on seven hits and two walks.

15 The 89-year-old Sage was extremely wealthy and a well-known miser. He died roughly two months after this game. “Pulled Off a Thrilling Game.”

16 “Pulled Off a Thrilling Game.”

17 League Park hosted games for the NL’s Cleveland Spiders from 1891 to 1899; Cleveland’s AL team had played there since 1901. In 1906 it was 308 feet to straightaway right field, 315 to right-center field, and 439 feet to the right-center field corner. “Sox and Cleveland Struggle Twelve Innings to 3 to 3 Tie,” Chicago Inter Ocean, May 6, 1906: 9.

18 Townsend finished the 1906 season 3-7 with a 2.91 ERA in 92⅔ innings pitched. His last major-league appearance came on September 21, 1906. The White Sox hit only seven home runs in 1906. The next time they hit more than seven home runs in a season was 1911. As of 2025, the single-season franchise record for fewest home runs was just 3 in 1908.

19 “Sox and Cleveland Struggle Twelve Innings to 3 to 3 Tie.”

20 Bay suffered a season-ending injury on July 19 and did not play in the World Series. “Hoodoo Man Gave Naps Awful Rap,” Cleveland Press, July 20, 1906: 12.

21 “Pulled Off a Thrilling Game.”

22 The author deduced that Smith retired Townsend in the sixth inning from the box score.

23 “Sox in Twelve Inning Tie,” Chicago Tribune, May 6, 1906: 13; “Pulled Off a Thrilling Game.”

24 Congalton was appearing in just his third game of the season. He was playing left field for a slumping Jim Jackson. “Sox and Cleveland Struggle Twelve Innings to 3 to 3 Tie.”

25 “Sox and Cleveland Struggle Twelve Innings to 3 to 3 Tie”; “Pulled Off a Thrilling Game.”

26 “Pulled Off a Thrilling Game.”

27 The fact that Bradley reached base with two out was deduced. “Pulled Off a Thrilling Game.”

28 Altrock pitched 6⅔ scoreless innings of relief, allowing just two hits and no walks.

29 The White Sox purchased Hahn’s contract from the New York Highlanders on May 10, 1906. Hahn hit only .227 for the White Sox in 1906, but he drew walks at a much higher rate than O’Neill. Hahn compiled a .335 on-base percentage with Chicago in 1906.

30 Walsh had a breakout season in 1906, winning 10 straight decisions from July 10 to August 22. He finished the season 17-13 with a 1.88 ERA and a major-league-leading 10 shutouts. He turned 25 years old on May 19.

31 The 1906 White Sox held the record for the most consecutive wins in the AL or NL (since 1901) until the 1916 New York Giants reeled off 26 straight wins. As of the end of 2025, the 1916 Giants still held the record and the 1906 White Sox were tied for the fifth longest streak with the 1947 New York Yankees. “Each MLB Franchise’s Longest Winning Streak,” MLB.com, August 17, 2025, https://www.mlb.com/news/baseball-s-longest-win-streaks-c268160952.

32 The White Sox won the AL pennant in 1901. The first modern World Series was in 1903.

33 The White Sox committed a whopping 15 errors in the series, resulting in 10 unearned runs.

34 Sy Sanborn, “Rohe and Walsh Win for the Sox,” Chicago Tribune, October 12, 1906: 1.

35 Rohe had taken over as the starting third baseman when Lee Tannehill suffered a knee injury on September 3. “Sox Lose Lead and Tannehill,” Chicago Tribune, September 4, 1906: 10.

36 O’Neill became the first Canuck to bat in the World Series; he popped out against Pfiester in the eighth inning. A World Series was played between the champions of the National League and American Association from 1884 to 1890. A postseason series was also played between the first- and second-half champions of the NL in 1892. Canadians James “Tip” O’Neill and Arthur Irwin appeared in World Series games during this period.

37 Arthur Irwin was Canada’s first World Series champion. In 1884 the NL-champion Providence Grays played the New York Metropolitans, champions of the American Association, in the inaugural World Series. Irwin’s Grays swept the three-game series from the Metropolitans.

38 “Tip O’Neill Received Ovation from Friends,” Saint John Daily Telegraph, November 3, 1906: 11.

39 Frank B. Hutchison Jr., “Cubs and White Sox Beginning to Drop Youngsters,” Chicago Inter Ocean, March 31, 1907: 9; “Sox Guaranteed $40,000 Bonus to Win World’s Series,” Chicago Inter Ocean, April 11, 1907: 4.