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O'Neil becomes oldest pro player

metirish Jul 19 2006 01:44 PM

] July 19, 2006, 8:09 AM EDT KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- John Jordan "Buck" O'Neil never got a free pass in life. The grandson of a man brought to this continent a slave, O'Neil moved to Kansas City to avoid racial persecution in the Deep South. He played baseball during an era of segregation, and earlier this year was denied entry into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by a special 12-member panel. It figures that on Tuesday night, when the 94-year-old O'Neil stepped into the batter's box during a minor league All-Star game, nobody could quibble over an intentional walk. Except maybe O'Neil and a few thousand fans. "I just might take a swing at one," he said before Tuesday night's Northern League All-Star game. Leading off for the West in the top of the first inning, O'Neil argued with the umpire after the first pitch from Kansas City T-Bones pitcher Jonathan Krysa sailed high and was called a ball. After another high pitch that narrowly missed his head, O'Neil took a called strike before being walked, as planned. O'Neil ambled to first base, then took a lead off the bag as if he were going to stay in the game before being pulled for a pinch runner. After the top of the inning, T-Bones owner John Ehlert announced that a trade had been brokered to bring O'Neil to the T-Bones, allowing him to also lead off the bottom of the inning. In his second at-bat, O'Neil took three balls -- all of them high and greeted with a chorus of boos from the crowd -- before swinging at a pitch and almost spinning off his feet. Possibly lost in the novelty of the inning, the umpire gave him two more balls before sending him down to first base with his second walk of the night. The T-Bones signed O'Neil to a one-day contract, making him the oldest man ever to play professional baseball. He surpassed 83-year-old Jim Eriotes, who struck out in a minor league game in South Dakota earlier this month, by more than a decade. "This is special, very special," O'Neil said after his second at-bat. "I've been in baseball 70 years. This is how I made my living. And here I am at 94 with a bat in my hand." Clad in a red-and-white Kansas City Monarchs jersey, O'Neil said he thought the last time he had swung a bat in a game was in 1955. Asked if he remembered who he was facing in that last at-bat, he replied: "I don't remember yesterday and you ask me who the pitcher was in 1955?" Nobody disputes that O'Neil's involvement in the game bordered on a gimmick. But O'Neil's supporters hope it also provides more ammunition in their quest to get him into Cooperstown. In May, 17 people from the Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues eras were voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. On a day that was to be his crowning achievement, O'Neil quietly sat at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo., and accepted that his name wasn't called. "It was a roller coaster for everybody except him," said Bob Kendrick, the museum's director of marketing. "Certainly he was disappointed. But he taught us how to handle disappointment. In the scope of things that have happened in his life, not getting into the Hall pales in comparison." Since the ballot was cast, the T-Bones have become the unofficial champions of Buck O'Neil. The club has been passing petitions through the stands at all home games, asking commissioner Bud Selig or former commissioner Fay Vincent to intervene. T-Bones officials say they've already collected more than 10,000 signatures. "The Negro Leagues were the original independent baseball," Ehlert said. "And Buck O'Neil is the patriarch of independent baseball." Standing in the shade at CommunityAmerica Ballpark, John Park labored Tuesday to gather signatures, already sweating through a white T-shirt that read "Sign the petition. Get Buck in the Hall." "He's a legend in his own time," said Park, 59, from Kansas City, Kan. "I don't know all of the statistics. I'm just saying how I feel." Across the stadium, opposite O'Neil's name emblazoned on the outfield wall, Abbey Evert marveled that the sinewy, old right-hander was stepping to the plate on a day when temperatures in Kansas topped 100 degrees. "It's pretty crazy," said Evert, 17, from Shawnee, Kan. "That's someone who really loves baseball." But O'Neil dismissed concerns about the heat. "This is Kansas City weather," he said. "We used to play doubleheaders in this weather with wool uniforms." A lifetime .288 hitter and two-time Negro League batting champion, O'Neil became Major League Baseball's first black coach with the Chicago Cubs. He went on to discover Hall of Famer Lou Brock and countless others as a scout, and now works tirelessly with Kendrick to keep alive the story of the Negro leagues. His exclusion from the Hall of Fame caught nearly everybody by surprise. Players including Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks and Brock took aim at the selection process, and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Kansas City, said the vote had left "a community in tears." "He should be celebrated in baseball," said Kansas City T-Bones manager "Dirty" Al Gallagher, a former San Francisco Giants third baseman who met O'Neil in the late 1960s. "Why the commissioner hasn't put him in the Hall of Fame, I have no idea." http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/ny-spbuck0719,0,4404693.story?coll=ny-sports-mezz

Edgy DC Jul 19 2006 01:45 PM

One of these days, one of these publicity stunt appearances is going to go kaboom in their faces.

metirish Jul 19 2006 01:53 PM

Yeah I was thinking the same thing while reading the article, I mean having a 94 year old swinging the bat sounds like a health hazard, was it in the Burns baseball series that O'Neill sang "take me out to the ballgame", whatever it was it was wonderful.

SteveJRogers Jul 19 2006 01:54 PM

Edgy DC wrote: One of these days, one of these publicity stunt appearances is going to go kaboom in their faces. The blame lies directly with Bowie Kuhn, Bill Veeck and later Jerry Reinsdorf for their using Minnie Minoso in the 70's and 80's as a stunt to get Minnie the "most decades played in" record. Course Veeck and Finley did go to the Satchel Paige well one too many times so. I mean Finley even wanted to do a photo shoot of a young Catfish Hunter on Paige's lap for crying out loud!

Yancy Street Gang Jul 19 2006 01:57 PM

No, the blame goes to whoever decided to sign a 94-year-old to a one-day contract. Just because Minnie Minoso did something a couple of decades ago doesn't mean that something even crazier has to be done today.

MFS62 Jul 19 2006 02:04 PM

Yancy Street Gang wrote: No, the blame goes to whoever decided to sign a 94-year-old to a one-day contract. Just because Minnie Minoso did something a couple of decades ago doesn't mean that something even crazier has to be done today. I think this was an extreme circumstance because they truly believe he got shafted by the HOF committee. Maybe he'll get in as one of those "long time contributors" since he was a major league coach as well as a scout. I didn't remember those things until I read them in this article. And I guess you could say that's what this was all about -reminding people of his many contributions to the game - not just as a player. Later

TheOldMole Jul 19 2006 02:26 PM

That's the thing about O'Neil. He may not be one of the greatest Negro Leaguers ever, but his contributions to baseball are incalculable. It's like saying Bob Hope doesn't deserve the Congressional Medal of Honor because he never wiped out a tank battalion.

Edgy DC Jul 19 2006 02:35 PM Edited 2 time(s), most recently on Jul 20 2006 11:11 AM

]I think this was an extreme circumstance because they truly believe he got shafted by the HOF committee. They couldn't think of any way to complain besides this? I think it's more likely that they thought it was a fun idea --- it probably was --- and came up with the notion afterwards that it was a way to promote his enshrinement. I'd hope that, if he knew going in that it was about lobbying for his induction, that he'd have nothing to do with it. Do any of us have any idea if he was as good as or better ballplayer than, say, Judy Johnson or Ray Dandridge? I have no problem with people being enshrined for multiple-level contributions, and for merely being a great ambassador for the game.

Nymr83 Jul 19 2006 04:26 PM

i also have no problem with "general" enshrinements, provided that they are being enshrined for "overall contributions" or something other than a normal player, the plaque should be different, talking about their contributions to the game rather than trying to "make something out of nothing" with their on-field statistics

TheOldMole Jul 19 2006 06:32 PM

People who saw them say he wasn't.

Edgy DC Jul 20 2006 09:42 AM

And the best source of "peolple who've seen them" is probably him. A few points here: 1) They're admitting a whole bunch of negro leage personnel this year, including the first female inductee. He was, I'm sure, a big consultant on who should get in, and I'm sure he got more than due consideration. 2) There's really no written protocols for considering a coaching career or a scouting career at this point. The Hall of Fame is pretty much for players, managerss, owners, and umpires (and combinations), with seperate galleries for journalists and broadcasters. There probably should be, though that doesn't mean we should admit a cascade of them. At all. 3) I doubt the nice folks iin that independent league "truly believe he got shafted." It was good publicity for the league and, in his case, good publicity for Negro League History, which he has an interest in promoting, and the Negro League Museum is in Kansas City. 4) The man is a walking encyclopedia on black baseball, with a lot of knowledge of white baseball from the first half of the century as well. he's been a generous ambassador and historian with a great set of teeth for a man his age. Maybe that should make him a Hall of Famer. But there's no precedent for that, so it's hard to argue that he's been shafted on that score.

MFS62 Jul 20 2006 10:14 AM

But how do you classify Doubleday and Albert Spalding? Did they play? Did they own teams? But they're in the Hall. In what wing? What category? But maybe that's why baseball performers Max Patkin and Al Schact (??) haven't received some consideration. There's no formal place to put them.They each brought joy to fans at ballparks for over 50 years (major and minor). A "contributor to baseball" wing to include coaches and individuals like the two I mentioned above might address that. And while they're at it, there should be (if there isn't already) an International wing, for inclusion of players who have had great careers in foreign leagues that may not be considered major league here(Hector Espino and Sadahara Oh come to mind). Later

Edgy DC Jul 20 2006 10:19 AM

Spalding played and managed, neither with great success. He also pretty much invented the Doubleday myth.

Yancy Street Gang Jul 20 2006 10:22 AM

I'm pretty sure Spaulding was a player. A pitcher, I think. Does Abner Doubleday actually have a plaque in the Hall? Or does everyone just think he does, as with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello? If he's in, he shouldn't be. Actually, whenever I spend much time thinking about the Hall of Fame, and who's in and who isn't, I start thinking that they should just shut the place down.

Edgy DC Jul 20 2006 10:26 AM

Dooubleday has no plaque. Spalding, I sold short. He was a fine pitcher, excellent really. It's just that his career was cut short: A.G. Spalding was the premier pitcher of the 1870s and an organizational genius during baseball's formative years. He led the league in pitching victories in each of his six full seasons in Organized baseball (1871 to 1876). His 47 victories led the '76 Chicago White Stockings to the first-ever National League championship. With the success of the sporting goods business he founded in 1876, Spalding left the playing field for an executive role with the White Stockings; as team president from 1882 to 1891, he directed the club to three pennants. Few top pitchers lasted past 30 in that era.

SteveJRogers Jul 20 2006 10:42 AM

Edgy DC wrote: Dooubleday has no plaque. Spalding, I sold short. He was a fine pitcher, excellent really. It's just that his career was cut short: A.G. Spalding was the premier pitcher of the 1870s and an organizational genius during baseball's formative years. He led the league in pitching victories in each of his six full seasons in Organized baseball (1871 to 1876). His 47 victories led the '76 Chicago White Stockings to the first-ever National League championship. With the success of the sporting goods business he founded in 1876, Spalding left the playing field for an executive role with the White Stockings; as team president from 1882 to 1891, he directed the club to three pennants. Few top pitchers lasted past 30 in that era. I was about to say. Spalding though is in there as a Contributor though, not as a player There is a Contributor in there though that has no business being there. Morgan Bulkeley. Essentially William Hulbert's figurehead of a superior in the first year of the NL's existance (sort of like Joe McDonald having the GM title on the early 80's Cardinals despite everyone knowing Whitey Herzog really was making all the moves) Baiscally the owner of the Hartford team and only spent one year as the first ever President of the NL. Hulbert took assumed the title the next year. Bulkeley went into the Hall with Ban Johnson in the early 1940's thanks to the Centennial Committee's wrongheaded logic that the first President had to have been some sort of trailblazer, they were correct about Johnson, but due to shoddy research of 60 years previous Bulkeley goes into the Hall and it took untill the 1990's for Hulbert to finally be recongized as the true first leader of the National League.

Willets Point Jul 20 2006 11:08 AM

Congrats to O'Neil, he's a good guy and I'm glad he got a chance to play again. Publicity stunt or no, I think it's all good, clean fun.

seawolf17 Jul 20 2006 11:43 AM

Willets Point wrote: Congrats to O'Neil, he's a good guy and I'm glad he got a chance to play again. Publicity stunt or no, I think it's all good, clean fun. You know, it's all fun and games until the 94-year-old leads off against Roger Clemens in a minor league rehab start and gets drilled between the numbers.

Willets Point Jul 20 2006 01:24 PM

Or goes 4-4 in a minor league stint against Jose Lima.