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A New Jersey native, Neil Deighan was player-manager of
the Madisonville Miners in 1922. At the time, he was also
under contract with the Louisville Colonels. In the local newspaper, his
club was unofficially called "Deighan's Devils." Unfortunately,
it's impossible (at the time this profile was written) to
know how well Deighan did as a batter because the Kitty
League failed to compile official statistics for the 1922
season. On June 15, he was hitting .342 in 111 at-bats. In
a game at Madisonville's Grove Park on June 18, Deighan
started and completed a triple play against the Cairo
Egyptians. The Miners held a four-run lead as Cairo
came to bat in the eighth inning. A leadoff walk, double,
and single scored a run and narrowed the score 6-3 and no
outs. With runners on first and third, Cairo first baseman
Abel hit a ground ball down the third base line. The ball
was fair, skipped foul, then rolled back into fair
territory. Catcher Deighan fielded the ball and threw to
first base, getting a slow-moving Abel for the first out.
Freshour, first baseman for Madisonville, saw the runner on
third coming home to score and threw the ball back to
Deighan, who nailed him at the plate for the second out.
Cairo player/manager George Hughes, who was running to
second, neglected to call time and instinctively left the
base path to argue with the umpire at home plate. Deighan
saw this mistake and rushed at Hughes with the ball, tagging
him for the third out! Deighan
led the Miners to a first-place finish with a 73-59 record
and an impressive 11.5 game lead over the Hopkinsville
Hoppers. But his club was disqualified for having an
ineligible player on its roster and ineligible to claim the
second-half title and the pennant. For more details about
Deighan's life and sports career, please see his page as one
of Camden,
New Jersey's Interesting People.
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