Neill’s career path to the major leagues had taken an unexpected turn one year earlier, during his initial stint in the big leagues with the A’s, when he was sidelined by an injury. After being drafted out of Villanova University in 1991 by Alderson, who at that time was the Oakland general manager, Neill’s career had been on a steady climb, and he found himself in the majors during a call-up in the summer of ’98. But during his first week in the show, he was in left field playing in a game in Oakland against the Cleveland Indians. When a fly ball was lifted into shallow outfield, he and
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