Buck O'Neill

“Nowadays, whenever us Negro leaguers put on the old uniforms for autograph-signings and such, you can just see the years peel away. I’ve seen men lose 50 years in just a few hours. 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.” — the late Buck O'Neil (1911-2006), baseball pioneer


That quote was from one of baseball's best ambassadors. Who so loved the game that he promoted it. It's history and the remaining good of the game that allowed for one hack, one so called numbers geek to deny him his rightful place among a handful, and I do mean a handful of baseball's immortals.

When I first saw on ESPN that Mr. O'Neill, "The Real Mr. Baseball" passed on Friday. I, along with my family and friends were pissed. sadden by the passing of a man who lived in baseball's ugliest era..Hell, today I might can argue that baseball is still in it's ugliest era. Mr. O'Neill not only was denied a chance to play the game he loved and cherished, but he kept promoting it despite the paucity of black american players in the game right now. Kept promoting it after being disrespected and snubbed because his numbers were'nt right. Mr. O'Neill may have not played with whites, but baseball, especially the Chicago Cubs, did the right thing by it's players by allowing Mr. O'Neill to become the Majors first black coach in 1962. His lessons and teachings were more evident by the likes of Dusty Baker and Frank Robinson and others that paved a road that seems to be under construction.

On Friday, the world let history fade away without saying the ultimate thank you. Baseball let one of its ambassadors fade away without immortilizing him for all to read and point their fingers and say,

Now, son, right here is a man who loved the game so much that he gave every breath of his being to make sure that the greats, we just read about or see will never be forgotten...that's Buck O'Neill...