This Makes Me Very Sad-The Passing of Buck O'Neil

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/2003293090_buck07.html
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseball/287923_buck07.html
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6038012
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6038904


John Jordan "Buck" O'Neil died last night. He was 94-- a long full life of incident and quietly breaking boundaries. He played and managed in the Negro Leagues, becoming synonymous with the Kansas City Monarchs and in 1962 became the first black coach of a major league baseball team. He spent his entire life in baseball. He saw Babe Ruth play. He's given tips to Ichiro Suzuki.

I was working on a PBS "Be More" ad that featured O'Neil, when a fellow I worked with a lot in the old days, Rick Stanton, walked in, and we started talking about what had been going on in the years since we last talked. "So, you wanna hear my Buck O'Neil story?" he said. Rick used to play ball and had aspirations to go to "The Show." He had fun and became one of the cleverest copywriters I'd ever met. Well, he was on a visit to the Negro Leagues Hall of Fame in Kansas City with an acquaintance, and that person said, "Hey, you want to meet Buck O'Neil?" Lunch was arranged, and a meeting place was set up. Buck was waiting for them on a park bench, and they had a long happy lunch and at the end of it, Buck asked what they were doing the rest of their visit. The trip to NL Hall of Fame was mentioned and O'Neil, who was instrumental in getting it set up, said he'd come with. "You're kidding, right?" Rick said. "No," O'Neil said. "It'll keep me out of my wife's hair." So Rick and Buck and friend spent a glorious day story-telling and touring the facility. Rick said it was one of the best days of his life, and when Rick ran into Buck here in town a few years later, Buck still remembered him...in detail. Buck O'Neil was a kind, sweet generous man.

This year, because they were acknowledging the Negro Leagues for the first time, it was expected that O'Neil would be elected to the Major League Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, but he wasn't. The HoF crowed that they'd elected the first woman to the Hall, but she was a white woman who had owned a Negro League Team. Buck missed the cut. Fans around the country were outraged. A local team made a cross country trip to Kansas City on bicycles this summer with a petition to put Buck in. He met with them, though he was ill, and was overjoyed with the sentiment. He was also hired on to a ball club this summer and and given a time at bat, making him, officially, the oldest man to ever play the major leagues. The idea was to walk him, but Buck was swinging at pitches. Habit, I guess. Competitiveness. Guts. Or he wouldn't have it any other way. He was 94.

Now, he's dead and it would have been nice to have him inducted into the Hall while he was alive, but no, that couldn't happen. But O'Neil, who celebrated life and never expressed bitterness at the slights in his life, took it, like everything, in stride. "Just keep lovin' ol' Buck," he said.

Easily done, skipper. Easily done.

http://www.bestofbuck.com/800/bio.htm