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Wednesday, 05 July 2006 15:42 |
by DAVE KINDRED
Do you ever know something without knowing how you know it? You just know it. It just feels right. Like, of course. For instance, I know one thing about Buck O??Neil.
He belongs in baseball??s Hall of Fame.
But July 30, when Cooperstown opens its doors to 18 new members, O??Neil will not be among those honored.
Which is outrageous.
Sooner than
later, the good folks at Cooperstown will get it right. They must. They
have to know how badly their selection committee botched its work.
Asked to elect representatives of the Negro leagues, the committee did
the unthinkable if not the impossible. It named 16 men and a woman to
the Hall of Fame without electing Buck O??Neil.
As brain-locks go, an all-timer.
Not that O??Neil complained.
He??s a gentleman.
Well, I??m no gentleman; I??m a sports columnist.
So I??ll scream
and shout about the injustice, and I said as much to O??Neil, and here??s
what the classy gentleman said in response: ?®I??m happy for all those
who got in. Far as I??m concerned, everybody on that list deserved it.?∆
Thirty-nine
people were on the final ballot, including O??Neil. Yes, it is wonderful
17 were chosen by the committee. But leaving out O??Neil is like not
noticing an Everest has popped out of a wheat field in Kansas.
At age 94, he
can tell you about Babe Ruth??s swing: ?®Sweet. We always hoped he??d miss
the ball so we could see the whole swing. Sweet, just sweet.?∆ And the
sound of it: ?®Only heard that sound three times. Babe, Josh Gibson, Bo
Jackson. Came out of the dugout to see what was happening.?∆
Barry Bonds?? swing: ?®Compact and contact with power.?∆
Bonds and
steroids? ?®If he used them when they were against the rules, that??s
bad. But what??s going on is like a modern-day lynching. I don??t mean
that in a race way. People don??t like him, so they keep it going.?∆
Any advice for
Bonds? ?®I??ve talked to him twice this year, asked how he??s doing.
?¥Fine.?? I got no business giving him advice. He??s a grown man.?∆
Buck O??Neil is
the living history of Negro leagues baseball. Decent player. A
pennant-winning manager for the Kansas City Monarchs. A scout who
helped discover Ernie Banks, Lou Brock, Lee Smith, Joe Carter. In 1962,
the Cubs made him major league baseball??s first black coach.
After all that,
he became a tireless, charismatic, endearing advocate of harmony
reminding us that whatever differences of race exist, baseball brings
Americans together.
Bill James, the
author, baseball historian and Red Sox executive, explained this --
tried to, anyway -- in an essay posted on TheBaseballPage.com.
He has met many
Hall of Famers, and each was impressive, James wrote. But none ?®was
remotely as impressive, in person, as Buck O??Neil. . . . (He) combines
intelligence, energy, enthusiasm and charisma at levels that are almost
beyond belief -- and yet it is not these things that make him what he
is, either. . . . What makes him what he is . . . . obviously I can??t
put it in one sentence . . . but what makes him what he is, is that he
is driven by a personal philosophy to use these great gifts to make the
world a better place.?∆
I do not
believe, nor does O??Neil believe, that he belonged with Satchel Paige
and Josh Gibson in the first rank of Negro leagues players elected to
the Hall of Fame. But the Hall diminishes its integrity when it says no
to O??Neil and yes to a white woman, Effa Manley, whose contributions as
a team co-owner are arguable on their way to negligible.
Gentleman?
Here??s a gentleman: Buck O??Neil has had the door slammed in his face by
the Hall. He has been insulted by just enough of the Hall??s chosen
historians that admirers believe he fell one vote short of election.
Despite that brushoff, when invited to speak at the induction ceremony,
O??Neil agreed to do it.
?®Buck will bat leadoff, opening the ceremony,?∆ says Jeff Idelson, the Hall??s spokesman.
Nice that they
invited him, but if they think that makes everything OK they??re as
wrong as I was in suggesting recently that the Hall create a Buck
O??Neil Award for baseball??s great ambassadors.
There is only one way out of this for the Hall of Fame.
One way to do right by John Jordan ?®Buck?∆ O??Neil.
One way to regain a lost measure of dignity.
Elect Buck O??Neil.
?ÿ
David Kindred is
the lead columnist for The Sporting News. In a career spanning more
than 30 years, he previously worked as a columnist for the Louisville
Courier-Journal, The Washington Post, The National and the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution. He was named the National Sportswriter of the
Year by the National Association of Sportswriters and Sportscasters
in1998. Kindred has written six sports books, including ?®Around the
World in Eighteen Holes.?∆
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