A Sad Day for Baseball

O'Neil, Negro Leagues player, dies at 94
Positive attitude and enthusiasm marked baseball ambassador
By Justice B. Hill / MLB.com

John "Buck" O'Neil, one of a handful of survivors from the Negro Leagues, grew up too soon to benefit during his life's prime from a country that went on to dismantle the color barrier that stood in front of him.

Yet he'd often tell people, "I was right on time." He'd say his life was absent regrets, and that's a belief that might well be O'Neil's endearing message to others. It should be a message that Americans, black or white, cling to.

To hold tightly to that message would be the most fitting way to remember Buck O'Neil, who died Friday at a hospital in Kansas City. He was 94.

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig's words reflected the baseball's world's feelings.

"Major League Baseball is saddened by the passing of Buck O'Neil," Selig's statement read. "Buck was a pioneer, a legend and will be missed for as long as the game is played. I had the good fortune of spending some time with him in Cooperstown a couple of months ago and I will miss his wisdom and counsel. I have asked all clubs to observe a moment of silence before today's games."

"He is the face of the Negro Leagues in many ways," said Bob Kendrick, marketing director of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. "For me, personally, he was a dear friend, and I learned so much just being around him."

If any one man deserved to be the face of the too-brief history of "black baseball," O'Neil would be it.

Barred by skin color from a career in the Majors, he toiled in Negro Leagues through its glory years in the 1930s and '40s, but when Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby opened the door to the big leagues in 1947, O'Neil was too old to walk through it.

By then, he'd put away his first baseman's mitt and moved into management. He turned his attention to tutoring black ballplayers for careers in the bigs. In one sense, it might be said that O'Neil helped bury the Negro Leagues.

The TrekMedic remembers:

O'Neil also said at this year's Hall of Fame Induction ceremony:

"I never learned to hate anybody. I hate cancer. It killed my mother and it killed my wife 10 years ago...I hate AIDS because it killed so many people. But I can't hate any human being because my God never made anyone ugly."