March 6, 1945: Harry O'Neill is Killed in Action

March 6, 1945, 80 years ago: Harry O'Neill is killed in action in World War II. He was 1 of 2 Major League Baseball players lost in "The Big One."

Harry Mink O'Neill was born on May 8, 1917 in Philadelphia. Like Elmer Gedeon, the other player to be killed in the war, he starred in 3 different sports, in his case, baseball, football and basketball. And, like Hall of Fame pitcher Eddie Plank, he went from Gettysburg College to the Philadelphia Athletics. They signed him right after he graduated in 1939.

But manager-owner Connie Mack only put him into 1 game, on July 23, as a defensive replacement in the 8th inning, for catcher Frankie Hayes. He didn't get to bat, becoming what's now known as a "Moonlight Graham." The A's lost to the Detroit Tigers, 16-3 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. (That ballpark was renamed Tiger Stadium in 1961.) He wore Number 30 in that game, was switched to Number 36, but got into no more games.

He played 16 games for the Harrisburg Senators in the 1940 season, batting just .238, and that was it for his professional baseball career. He later played semi-pro football and basketball, until the attack on Pearl Harbor. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, and rose to the rank of 1st Lieutenant. On June 16, 1944, he was wounded in the Battle of Saipan, and recovered in time to take part in the Battle of Tinian.

On March 6, 1945, 14 days after the Marines raised the flag on Iwo Jima, Lt. Harry O'Neill was killed there, by a Japanese sniper. He was 27 years old, and was survived by his wife, the former Ethel McKay.

By a weird coincidence, both MLB players who were killed in World War II, O'Neill and Elmer Gedeon, and the one who was killed in the Korean War, Bob Neighbors, played in the majors only briefly, during the 1939 season, for teams that no longer exist in those forms. (Gedeon played for the Washington Senators, Neighbors for the St. Louis Browns.)