IT'D PUT FIGHTING LIFE IN HIM
"There was the famous evening when Cleveland's Larry Doby tried to steal home with the bases filled and Joe Page, of the New York Yankees, was well on his way to walking the hitter. Manager Steve O'Neill, coaching at third, took a terrific and unjustified booing.
'I never forget the way Steve looked that night,' said Lou Boudreau. 'Bill McKechnie and I made him sit between us on the bench for a few minutes after the game was over. Even then, when we went into the clubhouse, I asked George Susce to keep an eye on him. He was simply bursting to slug the first man who asked him why he sent Doby home. Believe it or not, I know a couple of fellows who did ask him. As if any coach in the game would do a trick like that.'
'I was in Dayton that night,' recalled [Ski] Melillo, 'but I heard the game by radio. I said to the guys who were with me: 'After that one, Steve O'Neill will never die. Just so somebody at his bedside, when it looks as if he's all washed up, remembers to whisper: 'Steve, did you tell Doby to steal home?' If I know Steve, he'll start swinging every time he hears that question.' "
-Ed McAuley in the Cleveland News (Baseball Digest, July 1952)
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