Paul McSweeney

Paul McSweeney was a long-time prominent St. Louis semi-pro baseball player and all-around amateur athlete who played three games for the American Association’s Browns in 1891.

Paul Alphonsus McSweeney was born in St Louis on April 3, 1867, the first child of Paul and Louisa McSweeney. Paul Sr., a stonecutter, had emigrated from Ireland as a child, while Louisa was born in Illinois, as Louisa Blong. In the 1870 census the family lives at a non-specific location in St. Louis; Paul Sr. is 32, Louisa, listed this one time as “Agnes,” is 24, Paul is three, sister Mary is one, plus there is an eight-year-old domestic servant, Mary Monahan.

Somehow the family was counted twice in the 1880 census, by two different census-takers. According to one Paul Sr. is 40 and Louisa 35, while according to the other they are 42 and 34. 13-year-old Paul is working as a clerk in a drugstore, while two more little sisters have been added—one census-taker has Agnes, 5, and Anna, 3, while the other has Annie, 5, and Agnes, 3.

The 1885 St. Louis city directory shows their address as 4235 Cook Ave, with Paul working as a junior clerk at Samuel C. Davis & Co. By 1887 he was a clerk in the assessor’s office. Teenage Paul got heavily into sports, especially baseball. From the Fair Play of Sainte Genevieve, Missouri, of August 18, 1888:

 A Splendid Game of Baseball.

A trimmer, more export and more gentlemanly company of baseball players never visited Ste. Genevieve than the members of the Missouri Amateur Athletic Club, who made their appearance in our city on Saturday night last, to encounter our local nine, the Riversides. It was soon noticeable that they were all picked athletes, well able to maintain their reputation as the crack amateur baseball club of Missouri. The courteous treatment which visiting clubs from St. Louis have received at the hands of the Riversides, and the good reputation which the latter have acquired as a strong team, made the M.A.A.C. look forward with pleasant anticipation to an opportunity for playing a game with them.

On Sunday the visiting nine were scrutinized closely as they practiced a little in front of the Southern Hotel, and with the result that their offer of ten to five that they would shut out the Riversides could find no takers. A procession of both the clubs marching double file, side by side, was arrayed at one o’clock p.m. The cornet band led the way…

Joe Murphy, the regular pitcher of the M.A.A. Club was not present but his place was well filled by Paul McSweeney, who throws a beautiful ball, swift and puzzling…

The November 7 Sporting Life ran an article on the M.A.A.C. team, saying:

Early in the season the M.A.A.C. offered three prizes to its clubs—one for batting, one for stolen bases, and one for fielding. McSweeney captured two of the prizes—one for batting and one for stolen bases, and Heck captured the one offered for fielding.

The next newspaper reference I found to Paul was in the St. Joseph Daily Gazette of March 4, 1889, in an article about the upcoming spring training for the American Association’s St. Louis Browns:

The first two games of the Browns’ preliminary schedule will be with the M.A.A.C., the local champions on Saturday and Sunday, March 23 and 24. In the opening game Joe Murphy, the king of the local amateur pitchers, will face the Browns, who will have the bright young all-around player, Paul McSweeney, to pitch.

Why Paul would be pitching for the major league team against his own amateur teammates, I can’t imagine. The only further mentions I found of him in 1889 were in the April 19 Alton (Ill.) Daily Telegraph (“Mr. Paul McSweeney, of St. Louis, was in the city last night.”) and the July 10 St. Louis Republic (he attended the anniversary party of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Felton). But apparently by this point he was already a local amateur star of boxing, wrestling, and association football (not yet being called soccer) in addition to baseball.

In 1890 Paul was still with the M.A.A.C. team, and was still paying visits to Alton, Illinois. In 1891 I don’t know where he was before September 20, but that was the day he made his major league debut. He played in three straight games for the Browns, at home against the Washington Statesmen. He had three hits, one a double, in 12 at-bats, and stole a base; in the field, he played second base in all three games and third base in part of one of them, making five errors in 14 chances at second and three errors in seven chances at third. There were six more games in the Browns’ season, but Paul did not play in any of them. I found no contemporary accounts, but a 1938 article said that his mother did not approve of his playing professionally; at any rate that was the end of his major league, and possibly his pro, career.

The only thing I found about Paul in 1892 was that in October he participated in a boxing match as part of the grand opening of the Young Men’s Athletic Club in Alton. In 1893 the St. Louis city directory shows him as a deputy assessor at the court house, still living with his parents at 4235 Cook Avenue. The May 29 Alton Daily Telegraph reported:

Mr. Paul McSweeney won two boxing matches in St. Louis Saturday night. He is considered one of the best amateur boxers in St. Louis.

From the St. Joseph Herald, September 2:

OUR CHAMPIONS.

THEY WILL HAVE TO PLAY BALL THIS AFTERNOON

The Belleville Clerks Have Been Accustomed to Winning and Have a Reputation to Sustain.

There doubtless never was as much interest manifested in baseball in this city as now. The attention of the “cranks,” “fans” and enthusiasts all over the city is challenged by the pending contests between the two best baseball teams that ever met on a St. Joseph diamond to wrestle for championship honors. Today at 3:30 the umpire will summon into action the great Belleville Clerks, whose record is one of which no independent baseball team in the country ever boasted before, and the St. Joseph club, whose already generally conceded strength is augmented by a cognizance of the fact that they will have to play ball and play hard.

The winning of the series means a great deal to each team, and from 2:30 today until the last man goes down on Monday afternoon both teams will bitterly contest every inch of ground with a vengeance…

Paul was to play right field for the Clerks. The same newspaper edition, under the heading “Something About the Players,” said that “Paul McSweeney, captain of the Bellevilles, is one of the best all-round players in the country.”

In 1894 Paul was still the captain of the Clerks. In the 1895 city directory he is listed as a “dep. coll.” with the Internal Revenue; sister Mary now has her own listing as a stenographer, living at 4235 Cook along with Paul and stonecutter Paul Sr. In late 1896 there was speculation that the National League’s Cleveland Spiders might be interested in Paul, but nothing came of it. From the Evansville Courier and Press, August 14, 1897:

The Belleville Clerks of Belleville, Ill., will play the local team next Sunday. The Clerks ball team has been in existence since 1892 and have won four fifths of the games ever played. The Belleville people have chartered a special train of twenty coaches and will be here in abundance.

Paul McSweeney, the captain of the Belleville Clerks, is perhaps the best amateur athlete [illegible]. He will pitch for his team in Sunday’s game.

From the September 24 Daily Illinois State Journal of Springfield:

Signed With Springfield.

Paul McSweeney, late captain, and big Bill Fairback, late first baseman of the Belleville Clerks, are now members of the Springfield team, having signed Wednesday with the club for the balance of the season.

If this were true, and if it were referring to Springfield’s team in the Class B Interstate League rather than an amateur team, then Paul’s professional career was not limited to his games with the Browns. In any case it seems to imply that the Clerks had disbanded.

In either 1898 or 1899 Paul joined the semipro Alton Blues. From the Alton Evening Telegraph, March 7, 1900:

McSweeney Will Remain.

Manager Charles Wilson, of the Alton Blues, says Paul McSweeney will not leave the Alton team this year, as reported. He stated the rumor gained circulation in base ball circles, but it proved to be unfounded. McSweeney will remain as captain of the Blues.

But four weeks later, April 5:

McSweeney Will Go.

As the TELEGRAPH announced one month ago Paul McSweeney will not play with the Alton Blues this season. The announcement was flatly contradicted by Manager Wilson at the time who said McSweeney would not play with the Hargadine and McKittrick new team, but the first information was correct. It was given out yesterday that the Blues’ catcher had decided to leave the team because of pressure of his employers to join the team organized among their employees in the store…

At some point between the 1899 and 1901 city directories, Paul’s occupation changed to bookkeeper with “Hargadine-Mittrick D.G. Co.” The 1900 census shows him as a bookkeeper in the dry goods business, living on Cook Avenue with his parents, Mary, and Agnes.

I didn’t find any more 1900 references to Paul until October 17, when he was mentioned as one of the players scheduled to participate in a benefit game at Sportsman’s Park that would feature Joe McGinnity. In December 28’s St. Louis Republic, in an article about Canadian football (still not being called soccer) champions the Berlin Rangers and their visit to town, Paul was named as one of the top players on the Christian Brothers College team that would be facing the Rangers—though I’m fairly certain 33-year-old Paul was not a student.

In February 1901 Paul was a delegate for the St. Louis Democratic mayoral race. In April he was appointed a clerk in the assessor’s office, and in May there was a mention of his playing in a baseball game for the Christian Brothers College team, against the Alton Blues. In 1902 he was back with the Blues; from the August 30 issue of Sporting Life:

DIELS DEFEAT ALTON

Pitcher Terry Allows Illinois Team but Three Hits.

In a game that was as hotly contested as any semiprofessional engagement in St. Louis and the surrounding country, and yesterday’s game was the first of a series of three for the local honors and carried a side stake of $100. The Diels, accompanied by a band of St. Louis rooters, went to Alton, carrying the regular team. Delegations from other suburban towns swelled the attendance and it is estimated that more than 1,500 persons witnessed the game…

Herr pitched a masterly game and Paul McSweeney caught his usual brilliant game, but without hits the Blues could not overcome the early lead of the Diels…

During the off-season Paul started officiating association football games rather than playing in them. The January 4, 1903, St. Louis Republic reported:

Paul McSweeney, who for a number of years was one of the stars of the game, is even a better referee than he was a player. From the time the whistle blows to start the game until its close, “Mac” keeps the teams playing football. In former years the players were in the habit of disputing the referee’s decision, and getting away with it, but McSweeney will not stand for any playing to the spectators.

Same newspaper, February 1:

CLOSE PENNANT RACE IN “SOCKER” GAME

Paul McSweeney’s handling of the pibroch is the best seen in this vicinity since the palmy days of Lawrence Riley. The former socker star sees all that happens. His knowledge of the game has been derived from a vast experience, and the saplings listen to his decisions with bated breath.

“Pibroch” apparently means bagpipes, and my best guess is that here it is being used to refer to the referee’s whistle. On February 24, busy Paul found time to get married. From the next day’s Republic:

BALL PLAYER’S LIFE CONTRACT.

Paul McSweeney Is Married to Miss Annie Kelly.

Miss Annie Kelly of No. 1306 North Sarah street was married yesterday morning to Paul McSweeney, a clerk in the City Hall, at St. Ann’s Church by the Reverent Father McDonald. The marriage ceremony was performed at nuptial high mass at 8:30 o’clock.

Judge John Egan and Miss Mary McSweeney, the bridegroom’s sister, served as attendants.

McSweeney is not only well known and popular in athletic circles here, but for several years played semiprofessional baseball in Belleville, Murphysboro and Alton.

As a ball player he had few equals outside of the players in the big leagues, and more than once managers of the National League tried to get his signature to a contract. McSweeney, however, declined to accept any engagements as a professional baseball player.

As an association football player McSweeney also shines, and for several years he was considered one of the best forwards in St. Louis. This year he has been one of the official referees at the association football games, and is popular with the players.

This made it sound like Paul was no longer playing baseball, but that was not the case. In 1903 he caught for a team called the Kerns in the Trolley League, the St. Louis-area semipro league. In August he was a ringer in a game between two Illinois towns, as described in the Jacksonville Daily Illinois Courier:

MURRAYVILLE LOSES PRIZE BALL GAME.

Hundreds of People Witness Contest With Carrollton.

The game at Murrayville Tuesday afternoon between Carrollton and Murrayville for $300 a side and the gate receipts was won by Carrollton by a score of 6 to 2. Both teams loaded up with foreign players until the personnel of the two teams resembled the towns they represented about as much as an ordinary hobo resembles J. Pierpont Morgan.

Carrollton had old Bob Talbot, a has been, on the rubber, and Paul McSweeney behind the bat…All Talbot had was a slow out curve up high, but McSweeney worked the two rubes who were umpiring so that they would call a strike if the ball was a mile high. To top the whole thing off, Talbot had a horseshoe in each hip pocket, which was a great aid in helping him win the game…

After baseball season Paul went back to refereeing football/soccer. And from the December 28 St. Louis Republic:

PERENNIAL PAUL McSWEENEY.

E.E. Barnes and Paul McSweeney would like to play some good pair handball for something worth while. Mr. McSweeney is the perennial wonder of local athletics. He has been in the front rank of baseball, football, wrestling and boxing for twenty years, and is to-day as fast as he was when he began playing in 1880 [when he was 13]. Close to 40 [36], he is apparently no older than when he was 20…

From the Moberly (Missouri) Democrat, January 17, 1904:

ST. CHARLES’ NEW CAPTAIN

Paul McSweeney, probably the best-known semi-professional baseball player in St. Louis, has been appointed manager and captain of the St. Charles Browns for next season, and he will have entire charge of the team in so far as its make-up and the playing of games is concerned. The St. Charles team is a member of the Missouri-Illinois league, better known as the “Trolley league,” and it owns its own park at St. Charles. McSweeney has been playing with the Alton teams, and he has made such a high-class reputation as a player that he is in demand by minor league teams. He has refused to leave the city, however. He has been catching for the Alton team, and will probably continue in that position at St. Charles. McSweeney has not as yet made up his team, but will line up his players at once. McSweeney has many friends among the ball players, and he should be able to line up a first-class team for St. Charles.

A month later the same newspaper reported that Paul would in fact be catching for his new team, but I didn’t find anything more about him playing baseball in 1904. That year the city directory showed him at 1306 N Sarah, no longer living with his family now that he was married, and an April 23 story in the Republic said that he would be acting as a judge at a night of amateur boxing and wrestling. In the fall he again was a football/soccer referee.

In 1905 Paul was with a semipro team sponsored by a woman’s magazine called The Woman’s Magazine. A 1957 Sporting News feature on the Kerry Patch neighborhood of St. Louis and its baseball history included reminiscences from old-timers Lefty Leifield, Bobby Byrne, and Frank Huelsman, such as:

“Remember the Woman’s Magazine team that came into existence around that time?” queried Leifield.

“Yep,” replied Huelsman. “A rich-man’s outfit. Those kids didn’t have to buy their own uniforms, balls or bats. They had a wealthy sponsor, the magazine company. Phil Kavanaugh and Paul McSweeney were members of that club.”

Paul was a 38-year-old “kid.” From Sporting Life, July 8:

MAGAZINES DEFEAT THE DIELS.

Moselle’s Braves Play Snappy Ball and Clout Boultis Hard in Fourth.

The Woman’s Magazines again played to their form yesterday when they defeated Tommy Cahill’s Diels at Magazine Park by a score of 5 to 2…

McSweeney’s braves cracked out eight hits off Boultis and made only one error, while Connett allowed the Diels only six hits and fanned four batsmen…

Same publication, one week later:

RECORD GAME WINS FOR THE MAGAZINES.

McSweeney’s Braves Require Fourteen Innings in Which to Defeat the Ben Millers.

The Woman’s Magazines and Ben Millers set the record mark of the Trolley League yesterday when they battled for fourteen innings…

The best crowd of the season turned out to see the game, and increased interest was manifested as the zeros kept piling up on the bulletin board…

Paul McSweeney set a mark for first basemen in the Trolley League by accepting twenty-eight chances.

The White Seals of St. Louis were the 1905 Trolley League champions; in 1906 Paul was put in charge of that team, and they won again. In 1907 he moved to another Trolley League team, the Ziegenheins, which apparently represented a funeral home; in the one box score I found he played first base and batted sixth. In the 1908 city directory he is living at 3846 St. Louis Avenue, still listed as a clerk in the assessor’s office, while in 1909 he is called an abstract clerk. Other than that the only news I found of him in those two years was a 1909 Sporting Life mention that he had been appointed a Trolley League umpire, which may suggest that he was done as a player.

In the 1910 census 43-year-old Paul and 37-year-old Fannie (rather than Annie) are on St. Louis Avenue, with no children. Paul is listed as a clerk for a railroad; the city directory of that year just lists him as a clerk, not specifying where. A story in the Moberly (MO) Weekly Monitor speaks of the Trolley League and the Missouri-Illinois League, previously the same thing, as two different leagues, and mentions Paul as an umpire in the Missouri-Illinois League.

In 1913 the city directory changed Paul’s address to 4251 Maffitt Avenue, and began listing him as a bookkeeper. The 1938 article mentioned earlier reported that he was the auditor of the St. Louis Country Club and that he had had that job for 26 years, which would put the start at 1912. In 1914 he was still being mentioned as a soccer referee, though apparently he was no longer umpiring. In the 1916 city directory his address is 4248 Maffitt.

In the 1920 census 52-year-old Paul, listed as an auditor for a city club, and 44-year-old Fannie, who has only aged seven years since 1910, live at 3912 Maffitt Avenue, along with one other couple, so presumably it was a duplex. In 1920 and 1922 Paul refereed the national soccer championship games.

Then there’s a gap until the 1930 census, which finds Paul and Fannie renting a house at 7529 Forsyth Boulevard in Clayton, a suburb adjacent to St. Louis, for $50 a month. On September 30, 1931, the Alton Evening Telegraph ran a story about a baseball:

Ed Yager Has Ball Used Back in 90’s

Ed Yager has a baseball that harks back to the old days here. It was used in the last game played by the old Alton Blues under Yager’s management. The game was played in the early nineties, and the Blues defeated the Belleville Clerks.

Some of the players in that game were Paul McSweeney, one of the greatest catchers who ever showed here,…

If the timing is right then Paul was presumably playing for the Clerks in that game. On July 7, 1938, the Alton Evening Telegraph ran a feature article that I have cited twice here previously, the timeline of which is not always consistent with the facts I have found:

Paul McSweeney, Catcher, Charley Wilson, Manager of Old Blues, Here for Visit

Recall Thrilling Games of Days When City Was Baseball-Mad

Two men who brought baseball fame to Alton at the turn of the century were here for a brief visit, this morning, and stopped at the Telegraph to renew old friendships with reporters of that day, now owners of the Telegraph.

The visitors were Paul McSweeney, called one of the greatest catchers of his day, and Charley Wilson, who managed the famous Alton Blues of 1900-01-02.

McSweeney is 72 [71] and in excellent health. Wilson, in the seventies, is the same smiling Wilson who led the Blues to notable victories. Both are ruddy-cheeked, vigorous, and active—McSweeney as auditor of St. Louis Country Club, a position he has held for 26 years; and Wilson as trader on the St. Louis Merchants Exchange as representative of the Terminal Grain Co.

Some of the great games of other days were played over this morning. It was recalled that McSweeney, then celebrated for his grace as a catcher, on more than one occasion took off the mask and chest protector to go into the pitchers’ box where his talent as a hurler was little short of his ability as a receiver. McSweeney had many offers to go into professional baseball. He played a few games for Charles Comiskey’s famous old St. Louis Browns, but Paul’s mother did not want him to take up baseball as a profession so the player left the Browns and sought a business career, with baseball as a recreation.

Fifty-one years ago, McSweeney came to Alton for the first time to play on the Alton club managed by George Mold. James J. Mullen of Alton was a member of that team.

In 1900, the Belleville Clerks team was brought to Alton and played the Alton Blues. That was a great ball club, Wilson said today. McSweeney was the catcher and field captain…

That famous Alton club was notable for many things. A number of its players came from excellent families and they held good positions. Baseball to them was an avocation. They were a clean-living lot, too, which wasn’t exactly the custom in the baseball of the early 1900’s.

A reporter looked at McSweeney’s hands, expecting to find fingers and thumbs gnarled. Only one finger was bent, the result of a fracture.

“Paul’s hands don’t look like those of most men who’ve done a lot of catching,” the reporter remarked.

“Paul was so good he didn’t get his hands hurt,” said Wilson, proudly.

McSweeney was asked about today’s baseball stars. He thinks Johnny Vander Meer, sensational Cincinnati pitcher who hurled two consecutive no-hit games, among the greats. He has seen him pitch only a few innings, but watched him in batting practice.

“Vander Meer was in the outfield, chasing flies. He was keeping in shape—and that’s what makes a pitcher great. He had all the actions of a star.”

McSweeney thought Joe DiMaggio, the Yankees siege gun, a great player, but didn’t think “DiMagg” a greater hitter than Joe Medwick of the Cardinals.

“Medwick may not be as spectacular, in the field,” opined McSweeney, “but he’ll hit oftener.”

By the time of the 1940 census Paul was retired. He and Fannie were living at 7518 Forsyth Boulevard in Clayton, almost across the street from their previous residence, for $30 a month. They would live there for the rest of Paul’s life, which came to an end on August 12, 1951, in Missouri Baptist Hospital in St. Louis, after a stay of six weeks. The cause of death was colon cancer, which he had suffered from for two years. He was 84 years old.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/M/Pmcswp101.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mcswepa01.shtml