In honor of Scott Fennessy’s win at the Chicagoland APBA Tournament, I present Theophilus Fountain “Offa” Neal of the 1905 New York Giants. Baseball Reference has his first name primarily listed as just “Offa”.
I was playing my second series of our divisional at the tournament on Saturday and sitting next next to Scott. He tells me, “Here’s someone who might work for your Tuesday column”. Sure enough, Offa Neal is one of the worst. So I quickly snapped a shot with my phone. I hope Scott’s 1905 Giants had better bench hitters to choose from than this. If not, he’s an even better manager than I thought. Scott, did Neal make an appearance in the tournament?
I’ve listed Offa Neal’s 1905 stats below but it would be simpler just to say that he went 0 for 13 with two strikeouts because that’s all he did. With that underwhelming season, that was Neal’s only year in baseball. In case you’re wondering (because I was), the record for the most career hitless at-bats by a non-pitcher is 23 shared by Mike Potter and Larry Littleton.
| Year | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1905 | 4 | 13 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
Illinois native Offa Neal’s 1905 card looks very similar to an American League pitchers’ card without the 45-14. He gets hit numbers 7-8-9, a 53-21, a 45-39 and that is about it.
Ugly numbers: 66-7, 11-8, 22-13
I dunno… I guess I’d rather have Jackie Hernandez.
Trivia: When he was in the minors, Neal played in the Three-I League which was based in this region (Illinois-Indiana-Iowa, get it?).
Thanks, Scott!
