If the NA is disregarded as a major league, he and Andy Leonard share distinction as the first major leaguers born in Ireland, their teams having met in the first NL game, 22 April 1876 (Leonard is first overall taking the NA into account).

(Doug Allison used buckskin mittens in 1870, but gloves and masks were only adopted for regular use by some catchers beginning in the late 1870s.)

Malone was the highest paid player in professional baseball in 1874 with an annual salary of $2,800 (equivalent to $75,402 in 2023).

He returned to the majors with the one-year Union Association in 1884, managing its Philadelphia entry and playing in one game.

The Society for American Baseball Research list Malone as a Civil War veteran, having enlisted in a 100 days’ regiment on July 15, 1864, and serving with Dick McBride as a private and corporal in Company A, 196th Pennsylvania.