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October 07, 2006

Buck O'Neil, 1911-2006

I think Reggie Jackson said it best: "I'm not sad for him. He had a long, full life and I hope I'm as lucky, but I'm sad for us." If you followed baseball, you knew Buck O'Neil, for he was a giant in the sport. No, he wasn't one of the all-time great sluggers like Ruth or Gibson, nor a tremendous pitcher like Paige or Johnson. But he saw them all, and more in his 94 years on the planet.

O'Neil was a first baseman for the Kansas City Monarchs. Yes, those Monarchs...the ones whose stars included a pitcher named Satchel Paige and a young shortstop named Jackie Robinson. Buck played with them both, and many other stars, during his career in the Negro Leagues. He then followed that up by breaking another barrier: O'Neil was the first black man to serve as a coach in the major leagues. That might not sound like much, but O'Neil was the first black hired by a ball club not for his brawn, but for his brain. (Although that is a simplification; really good baseball players need more than physical tools.)

But O'Neil really hit the big time with Ken Burns' documentary, Baseball. O'Neil's encyclopedic knowledge of the sport and his awe-inspiring ability to tell a story made him, as he put it, 'an overnight sensation at age 82.' With that experience establishing him as a more well-known spokesman for baseball, O'Neil spent the next twelve years criss-crossing the country thrilling audiences with his stories of ballplayers most of us know only as lines of text in a statistics book or grainy footage on a newsreel. O'Neil told stories about who they were and what they did, bringing the past to life as few can.

I had the good fortune to see O'Neil in Colorado Springs several years ago. I don't know if I've ever met anyone who was so full of life as he was; it was a privilege having a chance to listen to him and even to ask him a few questions. We are all a little poorer today.

Update: The Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City is holding a fund raiser for the John "Buck" O'Neil Education and Research Center. This expansion to the Negro Leagues Museum will allow researchers to delve into every aspect of the Negro Leagues, making it a huge boon for baseball scholars and historians alike. For those interested in baseball and American history (and who have money burning a hole in their pocket), it sounds like a pretty good cause.