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MARCH 4, 1897–JUNE 19, 1947

Major League Career

1915; 1917; 1925

Time as a Red

1925

Position

PITCHER

BEING THE MOP-UP MAN ON THE 1925 REDS WAS A PRETTY BORING JOB because there wasn’t much mopping to do. The Reds boasted a brilliant pitching staff, led by Hall of Famer Eppa Rixey, Dolf Luque, and Pete Donohue. For three straight years (1923–1925) they led the National League in ERA; in 1925, Rixey and Donohue each won 21 games. So Neal Brady spent a lot of days that summer watching rather than pitching.

But he probably was happy just to be there—back in the majors after cups of coffee way back in 1915 and 1917. Not that he was an old-timer when he signed with the Reds. He’d gotten an early start.

Cornelius “Neal” Brady was born in Covington and grew up mostly in Ludlow. He attended St. Xavier High School, then located in downtown Cincinnati, and after graduation he signed with Dallas in the Class B Texas League, where he produced a spectacular first professional season. He won 20 games that year, and was nearly unhittable, posting a microscopic WHIP of 0.873. The Yankees apparently heard about the young phenom and signed him late in the season. He debuted on September 25 and appeared in two games, starting one, pitching 8.2 innings. If he was invited to spring training the following year, he didn’t make the team, likely suffering arm trouble because he threw just 70 innings that year at Class AA Toronto. In Dallas, he had thrown 382.2 innings—far too many for such a young pitcher—and may have burned out his arm. He definitely was never the same again.

He resumed a heavy workload the following season but was far less effective. The Yankees did bring him up to pitch a couple of games in 1917, including his first Major League victory—3–2 over Philadelphia. He then spent the next five seasons toiling in the American Association, posting mediocre numbers, perhaps suffering from a sore arm, given the way his innings totals plummeted in 1921 and afterward. By 1924, he had returned home and was pitching for Ludlow’s semipro team, a job he probably could have maintained while on the Reds staff the next season, given how little they needed him. Rixey, Luque, and Donohue finished as the National League’s top three in innings pitched that year.

He did make 20 appearances for the Reds, including three starts, but mostly worked in relief and not especially well. Though still only 28, his best years on the mound clearly were behind him. In 63.2 innings, he surrendered 73 hits and 20 walks while striking out only 12. Eight years after his first Major League victory, he did win his second one, beating the Cardinals 10–1 with a complete game. He finished the year 1–3 with a 4.66 ERA, and the Reds released him at the end of the season.

Brady then joined the Ludlow police department and continued to pitch amateur ball while staying active in local sports as both a player and a coach. For many years, he worked for Coca-Cola as a personnel manager, eventually settling in Ft. Mitchell, where he and his wife, Ida, raised two daughters. He also was president of the Summit Hills Golf Club. He suffered a heart attack in 1947 and died at the age of 50, leaving behind a what-might-have-been tale of young promise poorly managed by coaches who should have known better.