Player #106B: G. Earl McNeely. Outfielder with the Washington Senators in 1924-1927. 614 hits and 69 stolen bases in 8 MLB seasons. 1924 World Series champion. His 12th-inning single drove in the winning run as Washington took Game 7 of the 1924 World Series from the New York Giants. His most productive season was 1926 with Washington as he posted a .373 OBP with 84 runs scored and 18 stolen bases in 503 plate appearances. He last played with the St. Louis Browns in 1928-1931.
McNeely's SABR biography relates his 1925 season: He started the first five games of the season, but managed just three hits and lost playing time, first to Leibold and then to the newly acquired Joe “Moon” Harris. Harris would play either corner outfield position with Sam Rice moving to center. McNeely’s was the tale of three seasons. Going into the game of June 10, he was hitting .211, but after four hits that day, he went 16-for-29 over the next week to raise his average to .326. He reached a high of .353 after a 2-for-5 day on July 5. He made 72 of his 91 starts between June 10 and September 9.
McNeely was hitting .301 after a four-hit day on August 26, but the final month of the season was a disaster for him. He hit .212, going 14-for-66, from August 27 until the end of the season. Even though McNeely finished at a respectable .286, it’s no surprise that manager Harris chose to put Moon Harris in the starting lineup over McNeely in the 1925 World Series. Moon ended up as the Nats’ top hitter in a losing effort against the Pirates, with McNeely getting into just four of the seven games as a defensive sub and pinch runner. Perhaps McNeely’s worst statistic of 1925 was his base-stealing: He was successful in just 15 of 31 attempts during the season.
Still, McNeely was in center field for the most memorable play of the ’25 Series: Rice’s catch of Earl Smith’s long drive in Game Three. When Smith connected, Rice ran back toward the temporary bleachers, leaped, snagged the ball and fell head-first into the stands. He disappeared for at least 10 seconds before McNeely, who had just entered the game in center, pulled him out by his uniform jersey. Rice held the ball high and the out call was made. The Pirates were furious, but as Rice said for the rest of his life, when asked if he had held onto the ball, “the umpire said I did.” In a letter opened after his death, Rice insisted he never lost possession of the ball.
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