Remembering the Legendary Buck O’Neil
by Brother Rogers
When I heard that baseball legend Buck O’Neil died last Friday night about a month shy of his 95th birthday, I was sad. But not for long, because you cannot think of Buck O’Neil without thinking about the smile he always wore and the joy he brought to so many with his buoyant personality and his stories about baseball’s Negro Leagues.
In 1999 Buck O’Neil came to Starkville to dedicate the historical marker at McKee Park honoring Starkville native Cool Papa Bell, one of the first Negro League players inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. O’Neil had risen to national fame in 1994 (“discovered” at age 83) for retelling his entertaining stories in the documentary “Baseball” by director Ken Burns. Many recall his appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman.
Buck O’Neil has been called baseball’s greatest ambassador. Born in 1911, he played for and managed the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues in the days before blacks were allowed to join major league baseball. He knew Cool Papa Bell, Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and other great black baseball stars of the 1930s and 1940s. He was named major league baseball’s first black coach by the Chicago Cubs in 1962 and helped discover future Hall of Famers Ernie Banks and Lou Brock. He established the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.
Buck O’Neil used to say he had done it all. He hit the home run, he hit for the cycle, he traveled the world, he testified before Congress, he made a hole-in-one in golf, he married the woman he loved and he shook hands with presidents.
No one who saw Buck O’Neil in Starkville on that spring day in 1999 will ever forget it. The ballroom in the Colvard Student Union was packed with 400 people. He had already stolen the show by dancing in the aisles with numerous women. When he stood up to speak, he did not say a word. Instead, he waited for the crowd to get quiet and softly sang, “The greatest thing in all my life is loving you.” For Buck O’Neil, life was about others – about helping others and bringing joy to their lives.
A native of Sarasota, Florida, Buck said he was born so far south, if he had stepped backwards he would have been a foreigner. He talked without bitterness about the days of segregation, and he praised Mississippi for the progress we have made. “I am so proud of Mississippi,” he said. “You have come a long way.”
His lack of bitterness is one of the traits I most admired in Buck O’Neil. From racial discrimination that denied him a chance to play in the major leagues to the disgrace earlier this year when he fell a few votes shy of being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, he remained positive. He was more concerned with getting his fellow stars in the Negro Leagues into the Hall of Fame than himself.
Buck O’Neil was certainly entertaining when he visited Starkville, but there was more to Buck O’Neil than just telling humorous stories. The morning after his speech on the campus of Mississippi State University, he visited East Oktibbeha County High School. An incident occurred there that will stick in my memory for as long as I live.
This 88 year old man received a spontaneous standing ovation from teenagers after telling them to live clean and work hard in school. But there was a student who sat in her wheelchair in the corner of the gymnasium. I noticed that she remained completely expressionless throughout his speech. Buck O’Neil spotted her as he was leaving and asked if she could smile. She continued to show no expression. He walked over to her, and still her lips did not move. He put both of his big hands on her face covering each cheek, leaned down and kissed her sweetly on the forehead. She burst into a smile.
That’s the way I will always remember Buck O’Neil – as someone who not only sang that the greatest thing in all his life was loving others, but as someone who truly lived it. He may have been the greatest spokesman for baseball, but he was an even better man.
Brother Rogers works at the Stennis Center for Public Service and is a guest columnist for the Starkville Daily News.
When I heard that baseball legend Buck O’Neil died last Friday night about a month shy of his 95th birthday, I was sad. But not for long, because you cannot think of Buck O’Neil without thinking about the smile he always wore and the joy he brought to so many with his buoyant personality and his stories about baseball’s Negro Leagues.
In 1999 Buck O’Neil came to Starkville to dedicate the historical marker at McKee Park honoring Starkville native Cool Papa Bell, one of the first Negro League players inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. O’Neil had risen to national fame in 1994 (“discovered” at age 83) for retelling his entertaining stories in the documentary “Baseball” by director Ken Burns. Many recall his appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman.
Buck O’Neil has been called baseball’s greatest ambassador. Born in 1911, he played for and managed the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues in the days before blacks were allowed to join major league baseball. He knew Cool Papa Bell, Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and other great black baseball stars of the 1930s and 1940s. He was named major league baseball’s first black coach by the Chicago Cubs in 1962 and helped discover future Hall of Famers Ernie Banks and Lou Brock. He established the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.
Buck O’Neil used to say he had done it all. He hit the home run, he hit for the cycle, he traveled the world, he testified before Congress, he made a hole-in-one in golf, he married the woman he loved and he shook hands with presidents.
No one who saw Buck O’Neil in Starkville on that spring day in 1999 will ever forget it. The ballroom in the Colvard Student Union was packed with 400 people. He had already stolen the show by dancing in the aisles with numerous women. When he stood up to speak, he did not say a word. Instead, he waited for the crowd to get quiet and softly sang, “The greatest thing in all my life is loving you.” For Buck O’Neil, life was about others – about helping others and bringing joy to their lives.
A native of Sarasota, Florida, Buck said he was born so far south, if he had stepped backwards he would have been a foreigner. He talked without bitterness about the days of segregation, and he praised Mississippi for the progress we have made. “I am so proud of Mississippi,” he said. “You have come a long way.”
His lack of bitterness is one of the traits I most admired in Buck O’Neil. From racial discrimination that denied him a chance to play in the major leagues to the disgrace earlier this year when he fell a few votes shy of being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, he remained positive. He was more concerned with getting his fellow stars in the Negro Leagues into the Hall of Fame than himself.
Buck O’Neil was certainly entertaining when he visited Starkville, but there was more to Buck O’Neil than just telling humorous stories. The morning after his speech on the campus of Mississippi State University, he visited East Oktibbeha County High School. An incident occurred there that will stick in my memory for as long as I live.
This 88 year old man received a spontaneous standing ovation from teenagers after telling them to live clean and work hard in school. But there was a student who sat in her wheelchair in the corner of the gymnasium. I noticed that she remained completely expressionless throughout his speech. Buck O’Neil spotted her as he was leaving and asked if she could smile. She continued to show no expression. He walked over to her, and still her lips did not move. He put both of his big hands on her face covering each cheek, leaned down and kissed her sweetly on the forehead. She burst into a smile.
That’s the way I will always remember Buck O’Neil – as someone who not only sang that the greatest thing in all his life was loving others, but as someone who truly lived it. He may have been the greatest spokesman for baseball, but he was an even better man.
Brother Rogers works at the Stennis Center for Public Service and is a guest columnist for the Starkville Daily News.