Some stories are about sports are too good not to tell. John "Buck" O’Neill is a man most people haven’t heard of. He was an athlete, one of the great players of the Negro League era. Wikipedia gives the run down on his stats:
O’Neil had a career batting average of .288, including four .300-plus seasons at the plate. In 1946 the first baseman led the league in hitting with a .353 average and followed that in 1947 with a career best .358 mark. He posted averages of .345 and .330 in 1940 and 1949 respectively. In 1948 he took over as manager of the Monarchs and guided them to three league titles in 1951, 1953, and 1955. He played in four East-West All-Star games and two Negro League World Series. O’Neil also joined the legendary Satchel Paige as a teammate during the height of the Negro League barnstorming of the 1930s and 1940s to play countless exhibition games.
He went beyond that. He became a scout for the Cubs and discovered the talented Lou Brock; he sat on the Veterans Committee and helped 8 Negro Leaguers get elected to the Baseball Hall-of-Fame and serves on the board of Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
The man’s a legend, an ambassador for the game, someone who knows what courage and disappointment is, but isn’t bitter. Art Thiel of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer described O’Neil this way:
Whatever the element that appealed, everyone departing the high school’s library after his talk wondered the same thing: How can I be more like this guy?
His outlook on the Negro Leagues is amazing:
John Jordan O’Neil, a grandson of slaves who picked celery in his native Florida when he wasn’t learning ball, lived through it, as player and manager for the Kansas City Monarchs in the 1940s and 1950s.
Often when he talks of that time with contemporaries, he finds pain and silence.
"A lot of older black folks don’t want to remember this time," he said. "I say, ‘You got to know your history.’
"It was a time when baseball brought great joy. When people talk about it with me, they begin to remember what they wore to the games, where they went afterward.
"It is not a sad story. It’s a celebration."
Thiel included this introduction from Ken Burns to O’Neil’s autobiography:
His life reflects the past and contains many of the bitter experiences that our country reserved for men of his color, but there is no bitterness in him," he wrote. "It’s not so much that he put that suffering behind him as that he has brought gold and light out of bitterness and despair, loneliness and suffering. He knows he can go farther with generosity and kindness than with anger and hate.
"He is wise, funny, self-deprecating and absolutely sure of what he wants from life. He is my hero, my friend, my mentor, he is, like Abraham Lincoln and Jackie Robinson, what human progress is all about."
This was supposed to be the year that O’Neil finally got into the Hall-of-Fame at age 94, but it didn’t happen, O’Neil’s response reflected the type of man He is:
"God’s been good to me," he told about 200 well-wishers who had gathered to celebrate but instead stood hushed and solemn. "They didn’t think Buck was good enough to be in the Hall of Fame. That’s the way they thought about it and that’s the way it is, so we’re going to live with that. Now, if I’m a Hall of Famer for you, that’s all right with me. Just keep loving old Buck. Don’t weep for Buck. No, man, be happy, be thankful."
Today (last night for those of you on the East Coast), Buck O’Neil became the oldest man to bat in a professional ball game. For the first time in his life, he played pro-ball against White player. As was planned, he walked, though not without trying to get a base hit first. A young pitcher was shocked at the idea of a man that old coming to the plate in 100 degree heat. O’Neil’s response:
“This is Kansas City weather,” he said. “We used to play doubleheaders in this weather with wool uniforms.”
Classic Buck O’Neil. Such dignity and class are rare in this world, but they must be noted. Its time, its far past time to open the doors of Cooperstown to this great man.
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