Negro League great Buck O'Neil, 94, dies

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15164010/



Buck O’Neil, baseball’s charismatic Negro Leagues ambassador who barnstormed with Satchel Paige and inexplicably fell one vote shy of the Hall of Fame, died Friday night. He was 94.

Bob Kendrick, marketing director for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, said O’Neil died at a Kansas City hospital.

O’Neil had appeared strong until early August, when he was hospitalized for what was described as “fatigue.” He was released a few days later, but readmitted on Sept. 17. Friends said that he had lost his voice along with his strength. No cause of death was immediately given.

<snip>

In February 2006, it was widely thought that a special 12-person committee commissioned to render final judgments on Negro Leagues and pre-Negro league figures would make him a shoo-in for the Baseball Hall of Fame. It would be, his many fans all thought, a fitting tribute to the entire body of his life’s work.

But when word came from Florida that day that 16 men and one woman had been voted in, he was not among them. For reasons never fully explained, he fell one vote short of the required three-fourths.

[fishwax]

1. Total sham that he didn't get in to the HoF

Here's to Buck O'Neill :toast: He had a full life, and I'm sure he'll be missed.

[Counciltucky]

2. Agreed.

What a guy. I met him once. Hell of an ambassador to the game.

[Bluzmann57]

3. RIP Mr. Buck O'Neil

What a good will ambassador for all of baseball he was. For that alone he should be in the HoF. Mr. O'Neil was a genuinely nice man who never showed any outward bitterness and he will be missed. What a full and interesting life he must have had.

[Auggie]

4. The real shame was that there was a Negro league to being with.

It pains me greatly to think of all the accomplishments and possible accomplishments that have gone unnoticed or unfulfilled because of the racism and bigotry that has occurred through history. Such a damn waste of humanity.

[Counciltucky]

10. Perhaps...

...but on the plus side, the Negro Leagues left us baseball fans with legendary stories which couldn't have been duplicated in the white leagues.

Read O'Neil's book, "I Was Right On Time" (I got my copy autographed by him in 2003), or even better, Satchel Paige's book, "Maybe I'll Pitch Forever" -- the latter is side-splittingly hilarious.

[GOPisEvil]

5. Shame on the Baseball Hall of Fame. Shame!

No way should Buck O'Neil enter the Hall posthumously.

RIP Mr. O'Neil. You are one of the true greats.

[1gobluedem]

6. and...Desmond Howard....gives

props to Buck O'Neill!

[Captain Hilts]

8. Tell me about this. nt

[Captain Hilts]

7. Touch 'em all, Buck! nt

[rockymountaindem]

9. This might seem an odd time to say something like this

but damn does he look good in that picture. Amost like he hasn't aged from the picture that sculpture was made from. First of all, I hope I live to be that old. Secondly, I hope I still look as good when/if I get there. I'm too young to have followed his career, but he must have been somethin' out there.

[vickitulsa]

11. Buck O'Neil is a perfect example of the kind of player

and the kind of man who SHOULD be in the sport's hall of fame!

The fact that they kept him OUT didn't change HIM -- but it changed a lot of fans' opinions of the HoF, mine included.

Hell, when it comes down to it, Buck O'Neil is ONE OF A KIND! The very BEST kind. Hope Saint Peter's ready for him, because it won't be easy to keep Buck inside the Pearly Gates! :)