R.I.P. Buck O'Neil
Baseball fans the world over lost a friend last night with the passing of Buck O'Neil at the age of 94.
Mr. O'Neil both played and managed in the Negro Leagues for a number of years before the Chicago Cubs franchise managed to finally do something right by making him the first black man hired as a coach of a Major League Baseball franchise. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in terms of playing major league baseball, but it was Buck O'Neil who became the first black man to make decisions concerning a major league game.
Following his years as player and coach, Buck became a noted scout for several teams, and is the man credited with signing Hall of Famers Lou Brock and Ernie Banks to their first contracts.
In the years after his on-field career Mr. O'Neil gained notoriety for his storytelling ability and was often called upon for his recollections of the Negro Leagues and the stars and personalities that made the league what it was. He is featured prominently in the Ken Burns documentary of the history of the game.
He established the Negro Leagues Baseball Hall of Fame in Kansas City, Missouri and continued to act as ambassador and unofficial spokesman for the league and its players nearly up to the day of his passing.
This summer, in an attempt to finally recognize the importance of the league and the quality of its play, the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame commissioned a 12-person panel to hold a final vote for consideration of induction into the hall of former players and league executives.
Most felt it a foregone conclusion Mr. O'Neil, being imminently qualified in his own right and the sole living representative of those being considered, would be afforded his grandest stage from which to tell the stories no baseball fan could ever grow tired of hearing.
Sadly, when the final vote came out the Hall of Fame welcomed 17 new members representing the Negro Leagues, among them a woman who had owned a franchise, but Buck O'Neil was not among those named. It was later revealed Buck had missed induction by a single vote.
Yet Mr. O'Neil did not for second express any of the bitterness it would have been his right to have in the face of yet another in a series of indignities that stretches back more than six decades.
No instead Buck O'Neil traveled to Cooperstown, New York this summer to once again represent those who for too long have not had a voice. He gave the speech allowed to inductees.
"Shed no tears for Buck," he told them. "I couldn't attend Sarasota High School. That hurt. I couldn't attend the University of Florida. That hurt. But not going into the Hall of Fame, that ain't going to hurt me that much, no. Before, I wouldn't even have a chance. But this time I had that chance."
A star-studded affair had been in the works to celebrate Buck's 95th birthday this November. That party will go on as planned, but now will act as tribute to the memory of a man who had every reason to be angry, but no desire.
And now the final question is whether Major League Baseball will finally do the right thing and place Buck O'Neil in its Hall of Fame, an institution created specifically for the recognition of men like Buck, or will Bud Selig once again owe every baseball fan an explanation for yet another misguided decision?
JeffRey
Mr. O'Neil both played and managed in the Negro Leagues for a number of years before the Chicago Cubs franchise managed to finally do something right by making him the first black man hired as a coach of a Major League Baseball franchise. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in terms of playing major league baseball, but it was Buck O'Neil who became the first black man to make decisions concerning a major league game.
Following his years as player and coach, Buck became a noted scout for several teams, and is the man credited with signing Hall of Famers Lou Brock and Ernie Banks to their first contracts.
In the years after his on-field career Mr. O'Neil gained notoriety for his storytelling ability and was often called upon for his recollections of the Negro Leagues and the stars and personalities that made the league what it was. He is featured prominently in the Ken Burns documentary of the history of the game.
He established the Negro Leagues Baseball Hall of Fame in Kansas City, Missouri and continued to act as ambassador and unofficial spokesman for the league and its players nearly up to the day of his passing.
This summer, in an attempt to finally recognize the importance of the league and the quality of its play, the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame commissioned a 12-person panel to hold a final vote for consideration of induction into the hall of former players and league executives.
Most felt it a foregone conclusion Mr. O'Neil, being imminently qualified in his own right and the sole living representative of those being considered, would be afforded his grandest stage from which to tell the stories no baseball fan could ever grow tired of hearing.
Sadly, when the final vote came out the Hall of Fame welcomed 17 new members representing the Negro Leagues, among them a woman who had owned a franchise, but Buck O'Neil was not among those named. It was later revealed Buck had missed induction by a single vote.
Yet Mr. O'Neil did not for second express any of the bitterness it would have been his right to have in the face of yet another in a series of indignities that stretches back more than six decades.
No instead Buck O'Neil traveled to Cooperstown, New York this summer to once again represent those who for too long have not had a voice. He gave the speech allowed to inductees.
"Shed no tears for Buck," he told them. "I couldn't attend Sarasota High School. That hurt. I couldn't attend the University of Florida. That hurt. But not going into the Hall of Fame, that ain't going to hurt me that much, no. Before, I wouldn't even have a chance. But this time I had that chance."
A star-studded affair had been in the works to celebrate Buck's 95th birthday this November. That party will go on as planned, but now will act as tribute to the memory of a man who had every reason to be angry, but no desire.
And now the final question is whether Major League Baseball will finally do the right thing and place Buck O'Neil in its Hall of Fame, an institution created specifically for the recognition of men like Buck, or will Bud Selig once again owe every baseball fan an explanation for yet another misguided decision?
JeffRey
posted by The Crazy Leftist at 7:12 AM
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