Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 127, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 May 1912 — START OF CHARLEY O’LEARY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

START OF CHARLEY O’LEARY

Was Messenger Boy of 17 When He Broke Into Fast Company— Now With Indianapolis. The release by Detroit of Charley O’Leary, who goes to Indianapolis, recalls an interesting story of his entry into professional baseball. From a messenger boy’s uniform to that of a major league club all in one afternoon was the lightning change he made. O’Leary had played ball around the lots in Chicago all his life and had distinguished himself as the star of the Mandel Bros. nine. One afternoon in 1900 he was sent out to the White Sox park when the South Side team was new in Chicago. It happened the shortstop, Shugart, had been injured and the club not provided with a capable man to take his place. The Sox really were in desperate - straits and hardly knew how they would fill in their line-up until somebody who knew O’Leary spied him and said: “There is a kid who can play the Infield; give him a chance.” The manager asked O’Leary if he thought he. could fill the bill and Dip, who was willing to take a chance on almost anything, replied that the job was made’to order for him. They dug up a uniform for the boy, then but seventeen, and he doffed his messenger’s togs. He made good from the jump and might have finished the season with the Sox if he hadn’t sustained a broken arm as a result of stopping one of "Rube” Waddell’s wild ones with his personO’Leary went to Des Moines of the Western league the next season and

played with that club for several years, going to Detroit in 1904. The White Sox won the pennant the year O’Leary was with them and his fine playing was responsible in a large manner for this success. Comiskey’s reason for letting Dip go the next season was that he had an idea the youngster would be a better ball player if given a chance to gain some minor league experience.

Charley O’Leary.