His first Major League hit was as a pinch hitter off reliever Bobby Thigpen of the Chicago White Sox on June 5 and his first career home run came on July 6 against Jeff Muttis of the Cleveland Indians.

[2] In 2000, Neel was ordered by the State of Texas to pay $5,000 a month in child support to his ex-wife who is the mother of his two children, a son and daughter.

After retiring from baseball after being cut midway through the 2001 season, the remarried Neel purchased a 16-acre 700,000 sq ft (65,000 m2) island in Vanuatu in the South Pacific, where he and his wife ran a 21-room resort which cost a reported $1.5 million[3] overlooking a lagoon.

He chose to live there because since Vanuatu did not have any extradition treaties with the United States, this would allow him to stay there for at least five years, then gain citizenship there so he would not have to pay his ex-wife anything.

[2][1] Called "the worst dead beat dad in 'the history of Texas'",[3] he owed over $725,000 in child support,[4] ultimately determined to be $778,000.

[3] In 2005, a grand jury in San Antonio indicted Neel on a charge of foreign travel to evade child support obligations.

On December 11, 2008, Neel was arrested at the Los Angeles International Airport by US Health and Human Services investigators after he exited a plane from Sydney, Australia; he awaited trial in San Antonio, Texas.