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New book tells story of 1950s baseball, collecting cards of a little-known player
Steve Wiegand is a veteran author of 10 books, but none pertaining to sports—until recently.
He never envisioned writing about little-known, 10-year veteran utility player Danny O'Connell. While initially that might not sound enticing, as someone who has read an advanced copy, he brilliantly intertwined 1950s baseball, baseball cards, and great behind-the-scenes stories.
The book is called “The Uncommon Life of Danny O'Connell: A Tale of Baseball Cards, Average Players and the True Value of America's Game.” While I'm not a voracious reader, I cruised through the 350-page book in about a week and loved how he weaved 1950s baseball, Americana, never-before-heard stories, baseball cards, and yes, the focus of the book—multisport talent Danny O'Connell.
Whether you know of him or not, O'Connell’s story is interesting and curious. Are you like me, wondering, “Why O'Connell?” Well, I asked Steve the same thing when he was my guest on episodes 285 and 286 of the Sports Card Nation podcast.
As a young San Francisco Giants collector, his packs never seemed to contain the Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda cards he was hoping for. Yet Danny O'Connell always seemed to show up.
During the pandemic, Wiegand started to delve into the life and career of O'Connell, and it was more interesting than his initial thoughts, and the idea for a book started to come to life. He also wanted to streamline the story of cards into the book as well.
He went to the National Sports Collectors Convention in Atlantic City in 2022 to see about grabbing some O'Connell cards. It wasn't as easy finding him as he thought it would be. When he found one, the dealer asked him, “Why are you interested in this O'Donnell card?” Steve told the dealer he was writing a book about him. The dealer looked at the stats on the back of the card and said, “Really.”
To do the research Wiegand went to Paterson, N.J. and interviewed family members and former players who played with O’Connell and against him. All spoke of O’Connell’s baseball intelligence and defense, which was highly regarded. O'Connell came up as a slick-fielding third baseman but injuries and opportunities had him moving all around the infield. However, that lack of stability did not help him longterm. He also seemed to play for managers who were temperamental and moody, so sometimes an 0-for-4 day was rewarded with a week or two of inactivity.
O’Connell carved out a 10-year career highlighted by solid defense and smarts. Like most from that era he had various jobs during the offseason. Had he not tragically died at the young age of 40, most agreed he was on track to be a coach and manager, something he was starting to do before his passing.
The book includes stories of him crossing paths with some legends of the game as well as some great behind-the-scenes baseball stories and anecdotes. It came out during the 2024 Major League Baseball All-Star break and is a great read.
Wiegand has remained a San Francisco Giants fan but also has a newfound appreciation for the person and player O'Connell was. After reading the book you can count me in that category as well.
— John Newman is a collector, dealer and the host of the Sports Card Nation podcast. Catch his Hobby Quick Hits on Monday and his guest interviews on Friday on your favorite podcast platform. You can reach him at sportscardnationpc@gmail.com or on Twitter at @sportscardnati1
John Newman is the host of the Sports Card Nation podcast
