BUCK O'NEIL, 1911-2006

Attention must be paid to Negro leagues legend Buck O'Neil, who died last night at the age of 94.

Others who knew the man can better tell the story of how O'Neil lived, and how he died. Most sports fans of this generation were introduced to him through his role in Ken Burns' 1994 Baseball documentary. Not to audition for a job on the Kleenex beat, but here was a man who lived under the yoke of racism most of us can't relate to, and came through it without any outward bitterness. Some of us who haven't gone through one-1,000th of what O'Neil and his contemporaries endured in the 1930s and '40s can't claim to say the same thing.

As a manager and scout, he helped advance the cause of African-Americans in sport, and later strived to keep the history of black baseball alive through his work with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, where he starred for the legendary Monarchs. On another level, O'Neil conveyed the message that baseball will always bring you joy... eventually, and not always in the form you might have expected or wanted.

It will, as Mike Schmidt once said, turn around and punch you in the nose every time you think you've got it all figured out. It can also bring you out of a funk, like when your favourite team halts a losing skid by, apropos of nothing, pounding out 12 runs on 16 hits against the other team's ace pitcher.

By all accounts, Buck O'Neil learned that, lived it and loved it: "Baseball is better than sex. It is better than music, although I do believe jazz comes in a close second. It does fill you up."

Or: "I can see a guy hit the ball out of the ballpark, or a grand slam home run to win a baseball game, and that same guy can come up tomorrow in that situation and miss the ball and lose the ball game. It can bring you up here but don't get too damn cocky because tomorrow it can bring you down there. See? But one thing about it though, you know there always will be a tomorrow. You got me today, but I'm coming back."

Words to live by...

Related:
Buck O'Neil Wikipedia page
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum
Shadow Ball: Buck O'Neil Interview (PBS.org)

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