During his brief tenure as co-owner of the Red Sox, McAleer quarreled with longtime friend and colleague Ban Johnson, president of the American League.

[6] In 1885, McAleer joined another minor league organization in Charleston, South Carolina; and in 1887, he played for a team based in Memphis, Tennessee.

During one season of his minor league career, he became part-owner of the DeHaven Comedy Company, a theatrical road troupe that was organized in Youngstown.

[6] His interest in show business remained a constant, and in later years McAleer developed a strong friendship with Broadway composer and performer George M.

[7] Later that year, the club's notoriety prompted other National League teams to propose a boycott of Cleveland, "until the Spiders mended their ways.

[9] On April 24, 1894, he assisted in Cleveland's 1–0 victory over Cincinnati with a single in the ninth that drove home Buck Ewing, who had doubled.

[2] Along with teammates Cy Young, Jesse Burkett, John Clarkson, and Charles Zimmer, McAleer also participated in the Spiders' victory over the Baltimore Orioles in the 1895 Temple Cup, a post-season series between first and second-place teams of the National League.

[13] As baseball historian Bill James noted, the Spiders were forced to cancel home games due to poor attendance and "turned the last two months of the season into a long road trip".

[17] McAleer, a close friend of Johnson and his associate, Charles Comiskey, played a significant role in the new league's development, recruiting scores of experienced players from the NL.

[18] Browns owner Robert L. Hedges, a Cincinnati carriage maker, replaced the "affable" McAleer with the "crustier" Jack O'Connor, who was expelled from the league in 1910 for seeking to influence the outcome of the annual batting championship.

[18] On September 22, 1909, McAleer became the manager of the Washington Senators (popularly known as the "Nationals"),[19][20] a team that had ceased to be competitive since the death of star hitter Ed Delahanty six years earlier.

[24] Baseball historians Donald Dewey and Nicholas Acocella noted that the game "almost put an end to the career" of U.S. Vice President James S. Sherman, who "took a foul ball off the bat of Frank Baker directly in the head".

[3] By the time the Red Sox entered the sixth game of the 1912 World Series, the team had secured a 3–1 lead over the New York Giants.

Then, McAleer pressured the team's manager, Jake Stahl, to hand the ball to unseasoned pitcher Buck O'Brien for the "clincher".

[3] McAleer's recommendation was apparently part of a strategy to ensure that the seventh game of the Series would be played at Boston's new Fenway Park.

[27] Although the Red Sox's loss to the Giants (at 5–2) guaranteed that the Series would conclude in Boston, the incident created conflict between McAleer and Stahl.

[29] The team suffered a public relations fiasco, however, when a Red Sox shareholder sold seats at the stadium that had been reserved for the club's most ardent fans, the "Royal Rooters".

[3] Finding themselves without seats, the Royal Rooters, led by Boston Mayor John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, marched around the stadium in protest.

The Youngstown Daily Vindicator reported: "As the auto bearing Mr. McAleer turned into West Federal Street, hundreds of sticks of red fire were burning at Central Square, while the quiet atmosphere was occasionally punctured by the explosion of a bomb".

His feud with Johnson turned out to be a lifelong affair, despite efforts taken by their mutual friend, Charles Comiskey, to smooth over the rift.

[5] McAleer indicated that his controlling interest in the Red Sox entitled him to make all major decisions regarding the organization, Ward wrote.

[28] These back-to-back incidents involving individuals associated with the Red Sox team "reinforced Johnson's belief that the club president was the source of all the trouble", Dewey and Acocella wrote.

[28] In his recent book, The Irish in Baseball, David Fleitz observed that McAleer's abrupt dismissal was typical of Johnson, "who had a history of ending relationships when they no longer benefited him personally".

[33] When the couple settled in Youngstown in 1913, she participated in charity work and joined the Altar and Rosary Society at St. Columba's Church, where she attended religious services.

[33] A few months later, McAleer married a Youngstown woman, Georgianna Rudge,[6] a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music who was almost 23 years her husband's junior.

Active in the community, McAleer served on the city's original draft board, which had been authorized under Ohio Governor James M. Cox during World War I.

[6] In retirement, the former baseball manager maintained friendships with celebrities including George M. Cohan and King Alfonso XIII of Spain.

[1][36] McAleer's hometown newspaper, The Youngstown Daily Vindicator, eulogized the ex-Major Leaguer in the following terms: "Forceful and resourceful, but always retiring when there was talk of his share in the development of baseball, James R. McAleer died within a matter of weeks after the passing of Byron Bancroft Johnson, his chief partner in the forming of the American League, and the man with whom he 'broke', which break brought about his retirement".

[41] More recently, baseball historian David Fleitz observed, "this brilliant defensive outfielder was a smart, clever, and ambitious man who helped to create two of the original eight franchises of the American League".