Buck O'Neil

I just finished reading an amazing book entitled, "The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America." Buck was a man who played in the old Negro League, finishing his playing days just before Jackie Robinson helped to break the color barrier in professional baseball. He was a man who had every right to feel bitter, betrayed, and angry over the simple fact that his skin was the "wrong" color, but he refused to feel that way.

"Hatred will steal your heart.
Don't have any fight left.
Accept what's around you.
That's what this country was like.
Thought it would change someday.
Waited for it to change."

Instead, he made it his life-long mission to spread the word about the great Negro League, and to tell the story of the amazing players of his generation, and to trumpet their cause to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Buck was truly an ambassador for the game of baseball. He was always a positive person, full of life and love for others, whose very presence in a room would make grown men and women cry while he asked them to remember the good times they had in their youths, spent with their fathers at baseball games. He not only wanted us to remember the great players of the past, but to see that baseball is indeed a great game, and one that deserves to be loved by many.

"Funny.
That's what I remember most,
Stories.
Don't remember the games much.
Don't remember names much.
Don't remember the bad times.
I forgot who won and lost most of the time.
Stories.
Silly stories.
I remember those."

Buck lived to be 94 years old, and was present at Cooperstown when 16 men and 1 woman from the Negro League were finally inducted into the Hall. Many felt that Buck also should have been one of those inducted on that day (myself included). Many were outraged at his exclusion, and people were dumbstruck and rightfully upset. But, Buck kept his positive attitude. He was even asked to speak at the induction ceremony.

"Would you really speak? I asked Buck. Of course, he said happily. If they asked me...It would give me a chance to talk about these great players. It would give me a chance to tell the story again. Buck, I said slowly, I don't see how you...He put his arm on my shoulder and said: Think about this, son. What is my life about?"

Buck died before he got inducted into the Hall, but hopefully one day soon his plaque will adorn the walls of the Hall alongside the many other men who meant a great deal to the sport of baseball, and whose lives impacted countless people.