In Black America; Tribute To John "Buck" O'Neil (Black Baseball Legend)

The following is a tribute to the late John Jordan Bucconio. He died on October 6, 2006 of heart failure and bone marrow cancer. He was 94. From the Longhorn Radio Network, the University of Texas at Austin, this is in Black America. We are always pretty commissioned, we could fix this for my son, people, but you know, the major legals, they gon' play in Boston sometime it's been way of rigged in beer, both those fans didn't hold that many people, see this is why they feel it up, but they just couldn't hold as many people as we did, and oh man, this was in a frown, they had people coming from all over the country, long, yeah, they would put an extra car, extra car on the train on the train, but the people that come to New Orleans, come right on, pick up people in Memphis, Tennessee, all the way up to Chicago, for the whole star game, the New York circle would put all an extra train, bring people from out there, to the whole star game, the Santa Fe key, would put all an extra car, bringing people from four Westerns, to the whole star game, see?

Like, your loses don't have to push pitch in a ball game, so it is right, and there's so many big shots with don't have to push pitch in the ball game, just the ones don't have to push pitch in the ball game, but in a home don't have to push pitch in the ball game, there's all started, oh man, it was part of the fact. John Jordan Buck O'Neill, Chairman, Negro Leagues, Baseball Museum. In 1962 O'Neill became the first African American coach ever hired by a major league team when he was signed by the Chicago Cubs, his groundbreaking feat came seven years after his plan career ended, and 15 years after Jackie Robinson broke Baseball's color barrier as a player. From 1948 through 1955, he managed some of the finest Kansas City Marnault clubs, leaving them to five pennants and two Black World Series.

In 1951 and 1955, he managed each West All-Star teams, as a player O'Neill earned the reputation as a clutch hitter and an excellent first baseman. In 1946, he led the Negro National League in Batting with a 353 average, that year he hit 33 with two home runs in the Black World Series. I'm John L. Hanson, Jr., and welcome to another edition of in Black America. On this week's program, Negro League Baseball Great Buck O'Neill in Black America. Oh, man, it was not only a baseball game. It was a social event. See, when we play, we play a Sunday ball game, play the Sunday air and care for City. Well, you know, say, a morning service is a lemma clock, but hey, they set the morning service back to 10 o'clock. When the Marnault was in town, those people could come to the ball and they came looking good.

Pretty, yeah, and this was all who the country say we all met. We played an excellent, yes, that all the celebrities would come to our baseball game. Uh-huh, like the Duke Ellington, got basic. Uh-huh, and, uh, doing Hanson had a team. So did, uh, uh, who else, another ball player had a team, uh, Gap Callaway, and I sent my bowl baseball club. Hello, man, it was outstanding. I'll tell you what, once on that we in New York City, we stayed at the FDR, which I hope there, Mr. Woods on that hotel. And, uh, we stayed at that hotel and, rather than Adam's Clayton Powerful Senior, this is the baseball sermon, Able Scenery of the Baptist Church. This is the baseball sermon that's on the far, the Monarchs, the Memphis Red Sarge, the New York Two Wings, the New York Black Egg, is that who we won't play that Sunday in the Yanke Stadium.

Oh, man, the church was jumping. And after church, they all followed us after Yanke Stadium. We had got 45 times from people in the ballpark. baseball was originally a gentleman's game played by members of rival athletic clubs for recreation. In the aftermath of the Civil War, baseball enjoyed a great surge in interest, activity, and growth. Americans of all races joined in the game that became our national pastime. baseball was still an absence of sport. And some African-Americans played on all black ball clubs, while others played on integrated teams. However, on December 11th, 1868, African-American baseball players were excluded from participation by the National Association of Baseball Players.

In 1885, the first black professional team was the Cuban Giants. In 1920, the first black baseball league was organized. That same year, Rube Foster, the father of black baseball, found it the Negro National League. Bucco Nile is truly an American hero. His elegance, grace, and genuine love for people have captivated the harms and imaginations of kindred spirits worldwide. His illustrious baseball career spans seven decades. A segregated America denied on knew his chance to showcase his talents in the major leagues. Recently in black America spoke with John Jordan Bucco Nile. I didn't stay there very long, like my growing up, these was in southern Florida, but there there was a new fishing town in West Florida. And you grew up watching your father work in a celery factory or a farm. No, no, my father, my father was a saw miller. That was when, in the celery, that was, I was old. I got to be around 14 years old, 15 years old.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And you attended Edward Waters College? Edward Waters Jacksonville, Florida. And you started baseball there? Yeah, when I started baseball before I got there, I started baseball in my eighth grade in Sarasota playing with Sarasota Tigers. And what position did you play? First base. First base? Uh-huh. Always played first base? First base. I played some other position. You know, doing as a kid, you play a lot of position, but first base was my position as a professional. When did you realize that you had a talent for this game? Well, and I always thought I could always hold good hands. Mm-hmm. Uh-huh, could test the ball. So I always thought I could play. And once you became a professional, when was that? Well, I played semi-pro baseball with the Miami Giants.

But then, you know, I played college baseball. Right. Played semi-pro baseball with the Miami Giants. That was in 1934, 1935, I went west, and played with the three full academic Giants. Okay. Uh-huh, and 35, 36, and 37, that's when I started playing pro. Tell us what was it like playing for the Negro Baseball League? Outstanding. Outstanding, you know. The truth is, the Negro League Baseball was a lot different than the people trying to picture it, to you. We'll get us straight on this. The Negro League Baseball, though it's largest black business in this country. Okay. Well, it's with black insuances. Mm-hmm. Uh-huh, the white insuances are pensions policy for your grandmama. Mm-hmm. Uh-huh, just enough to bury the North Carolina Mutual Atlanta line. Uh-huh, actually, ensued out of home then, ensued out of crops, out of stock. They made millions.

Next was Madam C.J. Walker. Right. College of Mathology. Madam C.J. Walker. Oh, man, these cornrows, these kids doing that. Uh-huh. Madam C.J. Walker did that 100 years ago, but we called them pensions. Okay. So, actually, Madam C.J. Walker made millions. We're actually the first black woman millionaire in the country. And the day is the truth. Madam C.J. Walker was part of the first woman millionaire in the country that earned it. Right. You know, they had other women millionaires that inherited the money. But Madam C.J. earned the money. And next was the Negro League Baseball. All you need is a bus, couple of sets of uniforms. You get out 20. Or the best athletes did ever leave. And they made money. See, we played, you know, the majority of them. I have a league ball was played and made the league ballpark. It wouldn't like a lot of people to talk. Tell us about the gentleman you played with. Oh, man. Well, let me tell you what I played against and with. Okay.

Played against Babe Blue. Played against Dizzidine. Played against Barbiffella. Played against Buck Leonard Giants Gibson. Uh-huh. Oh, I played with Koo Papa Bale. Played with Satchel Payne. Will it drown? Oh, man. Will it kill Rogan? These are all the famous I'm telling you about. When you first started playing professional baseball, did you have any goals set that you wanted to achieve? Well, I just wanted to play, man. Okay. I just wanted to play and to be able to play on this level. It was outstanding. I was like, hey, these guys could play. They could, oh, man. They were outstanding to do all the things. That a baseball player supposed to do. Well, one thing about you saw that truth, though, was to win a maze, huh? Yes. With to earn it back. It's with to have a game and all these, you know, they played Negro League. I show you what Negro League was like. How long was the seasons?

We played about a hundred league ball games. Now, those were league ball games, but we played other ball games. You know, we bounced off. Right. That was a major league season. It was over. We were bounced off. And with Bayview ball stars, Dizzidino ball stars, Bob and Bella ball stars. Uh-huh. From New York City to Los Angeles, all the way across the country, because the baseball at that time, for West's baseball with the St. Louis. When you were manager of the Kansas City, Monox, you were also a player, weren't you? Yeah, well, and I actually played with the Monox and then in 1948, I started managing the Monox ball club, and I played some then, you know, the rest of the ball player. Tell us about Sasha Page, how good he was. Better than that. Oh, man, this guy could throw the ball. I'll tell you what,

like doing that time to then have these guns you see behind the league. Now, Ray Scott? The Ray Dagger? Yeah, well, and the government had a read-off, and it was a contraption to, you know, about the speed in Washington, D.C., and they clocked exactly at 100 miles an hour. Really? And Sasha said, hey, nothing. I didn't know they were timing me. I could have thrown harder than that. Yeah, you could throw ten-point control. Please, Sasha Page. One in the Major League. Sasha Page got to be 45-46 years old. It's playing with guys 20-25, and they're prime. And he won. Was baseball the only thing that you all did on the all seasons? No, season went a little. All season was with baseball. Yeah, all season was baseball called, like Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South America. Yeah, we would do that in the Wednesday. We had a lot of three in the Major League, $5,000

was the minimum salary. Mm-hmm. And the Major League during that time. So a lot of us made more than $5,000 because we had to clear a year round to do it. Okay. We would go to Cuba, Mexico, and the weather, and play ball. You also on the staff currently of the Negro League Baseball Museum. Oh, yeah, I'm determined at a boat. How did that come to be? Well, in the accident, we had a hardest citizen who was the head of the Black Archives. Call me, said, book, come down to office. I want to talk to you. I said, okay. Got to say, why don't we start a Negro League Hall of Fame? I said, uh-huh. We don't need a Negro League Hall of Fame. I think the guys that's good enough should be in the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown. Okay. He said, well, what do you suggest? I said, Negro League Baseball Museum. And that we started that in a little office in the Lincoln Building right across and where we are now, little office by the big and my roof. And I paid the rent one month,

fixed the rent fee to the month, kind of down some pay to the, a month just budget paid to the month. So these are former monarchs. And we did that. And Reverend Cleaver, who was on the city council at the time, they talked the city out some money, without any 18s and buying street area. They got $20 million. And that's when they started building and did build the building that we end now, which is an excellent building. And not only that in the same building, the jazz Hall of Fame is there. Right. When one visits the museum and we want people to actually visit the museum, what are some of the things they're going to see? Oh, at the museum they go, see all these baseball players I've been telling you about these Hall of Famers. They own a diamond. Okay. We got in the position on that diamond statue. We got statues and it's outstanding. And so many other things, we had artifacts from all over.

And because we advertised that people that they had anything pertaining to the Negro leagues, we would like to have them. And so many things are in the attic, in the basement, that these grandchildren had, didn't know what they were. So we got quite a few things that you would like to see. We got autograph balls from all the dignitaries that Colin Powell's, autograph ballers there. President Clinton's, autograph ballers there. President Bush got an autograph ball there. So, oh man, we got a whole lot of stuff there. It's worth seeing. What position or station in life did the Negro baseball have in African-American society back there? Oh man, it was, not only a baseball game, it was a social event. Okay. See, when we play, we play a Sunday ball game in the Sunday year and can't sit it. Well, you know,

say, a morning service is 11 o'clock. Uh-huh. But hey, they said the morning service back to 10 o'clock when the monarch was in town. So the people could come to the ball and they came looking good. Mm-hmm. Pretty, yeah. And this was all all the courtesy. We all, man, we played that and actually, yes, that the all the celebrities would come to our baseball game. Mm-hmm. Uh-huh. Like to do killing too. Okay. Don't base it. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Do we aren't strong had a team? So did, uh, who else is not a ball player? The Walnut ball player has a team to, uh, cap Halloween at our semi-pro baseball club. And oh, man. It was outstanding. I'll tell you what. One Sunday, we in New York City. We stayed at the, uh, which I hoped there. Mr. Whut? Mr. Whut's on that hope there.

We stayed at that hope there, and, Reverend Adam Trayden-Paul-Mazinha. Okay. To East of baseball. Ablecina is Baptist church. Mr. Baseball is a good sermon. That's Sunday for the Monarchs, the Memphis Red Sox, the New York Cubans, the New York Black Gang. Is that who we were going to play that Sunday in Yacke Stadium. Oh, man, the church was jumping. And after church, they all followed us after Yacke Stadium. We had got 45,000 people in the ballpark. Oh, man, it was really something. That was Negro League Baseball. See, and what happened is, like we would play baseball, maybe Duke Ellen the Count Basis, someone would be at the ball game. And that night, we would down in Harlem. We would go to the different clubs where they were playing. And see, doing that era, live music. And all the hotels had live music.

Yeah. The theater had live music, all the balls had live music. So, actually, these guys would be playing. Like in New York, the next day, we had Philadelphia. The old theater, we would go to the old theater that afternoon. To Matt May, we might catch a Count Basis. The next day, we in Washington, D.C. At the Harvard Theater, we might catch Mom Maybelline Rearth Park. And you know, this is, oh, man, this was exciting. And this was all over the country. You helped narrate portions of Ken Burns PBS baseball documentary. Were you pleased with what and how the Negro League was portrayed in that documentary? Of course. Okay. What type of feeling did it lend to you? Oh, man, it did so much. It did so much to the Negro League ball player that's now. Now, this is why you call it me. Right.

And for that, you wouldn't be calling me. And the same thing, the Negro League ball players now, they're signing all the cracks. They go into the different environment to the different major league ballpark. All of that from that Ken Burns documentary. In your opinion, why has the Negro League has taken so long for the public to recognize the accomplishments of such a rich and stored history of this country? Well, the one thing about it is that you didn't teach that history. Okay. You could wait a minute. It just says, when you had Harvard and a guy asked a young man could ask a professor, what about Dave Rue? He says, hey, go down to the library and pick up this. And you can read all you want about Dave Rue. So he asked, what about Josh Gibson? And he said, who? You understand what it means? So they didn't have that in our books. They didn't have all of these things. This is why it took so long. How did you pick up the nickname book? The man I played for, and mine, and the mine, and Josh, his name was Buck O'Neill.

And they had the play cards out. And they had my name, but they didn't know my first name to put on there. So they just put Buck, or they knew this was Buck O'Neill there, and stuff. Are there any players in the league today remind you of yourself and your playing days? Yeah, I guess it's... Yeah, some of them there. They got some guys there that they just have to be better than me. Who are they? They just have to be better than me, like the... Well, you know, Elston Harvard was my boy. Okay. And who reminded you of me would have been any banks? Okay. Uh-huh. That was the type guy I was. And speaking of Ernie Banks, you worked for the Cups? Yeah, when I joined Ernie Banks for the Cups.

Okay. And tell us about that experience being the first black coach in many years. When it was actually... It was kind of bittersweet to me. For the simple reason, I'm a coach in the Major League. That means I'd been scouting for them for years, traveling all over the country. Now I didn't have to travel all over the country. I was with my older mobile. Now I'm going to fly it on a plane. The meal money was better. And the salary was better. But that was the sweet part. The bitter part was... The baseball was over 75 years old when it made me the first black coach. I understand. In the Major League, and I knew Rue Foster, I knew C.I. Taylor, I knew Frank Duncan, I knew Bullock Hill Rogen, guys were qualified for this job that he just given me 75 years ago. And now I'm just a place black coach. Now that didn't speak too well for this country. Tell us about your batting average. Hey, good here.

Hit the ball. It's a ball. It's a ball. It's led to league. It's led to league. With a 345 batting average. And next year it's better than that. But it didn't lead to league called Willard Brown, who played on our team. He led to league. But oh, but I wind up by the 385. 285 lights on batting average. Why? Because of when I started managing, I would play sometimes just the rest of my ball players. And see, and I wasn't as good as I had been, you know. So that kind of brought the average down. We're now beginning the Major League season, but also little league. What advice would you give a young player in playing baseball? Hey, not only playing baseball, doing anything. Be the best that you can be. And that's what I'm telling you.

Be what you do and not be the best that you can be. That's all we can ask. Be your very best. Do you get an opportunity to speak with some of your former colleagues? Oh, yes, sure. Sure. We had them. Well, we had them in here six years ago. Had them here with 200 of them. We brought them here to Kansas City for the reunion. Okay. Uh-huh. And here before last, we brought them back for the reunion. Well, in the first time we brought them, we had 200. Uh-huh. Last time we brought them here, we just had 75. So, and I thought we were going to do it at the Museum every five years, but I'm going to have to speed it up. Of course, you know, that is easy. He's got 70 years old. So, you know, they won't be here too long. Do the young players understand the sacrifices in which you and your colleagues went through to, for them to have an opportunity, particularly after the American players, for them to have opportunity to play in the big leagues?

Of course, they do. I did. Of course, they do. They're winging up to it. It's exactly and burned documented. It's literary. And now, this Negro League Baseball Museum, when they come to Kansas City, they come by and visit the museum. Tell us about those all-star games you all had. Oh, all-star game was outstanding. I was all-star game. See, actually, we played all of them at Comiske Park. We got 50, 50, 5,000 people and folks. Yes, you got that. Actually, sometimes, you know, we are doing a Major League All-Star. Okay. Why we are doing that? Because, see, we always played at Comiske. We could pick 55,000 people. But, you know, the Major Leagueers, they won't play in Boston. Sometimes, then, we have rigged the field, both those fans didn't hold that many people. See, this is why they filled it up. But they just couldn't hold as many people as we did. And, oh, man, this was an affair. They had people coming from all over the country. New Orleans. Yeah.

They would put an extra card on the plane, on the crane. But the people that come from New Orleans, come right on, pick up people in Memphis, Tennessee, all the way up to Chicago for the All-Star game. The New York circle would put on an extra crane, bring people from out there to the All-Star game. The Santa Fe cheese would put on an extra card, bringing people from all over the world to the All-Star game. See? Like, your loses don't have the first pitch in a ball game. So it is white, and there's so many big shots with throughout the push, pitch, and the ball game. Just the orange zone out the push, pitch, and the ball game. Lean a horn, tone out the push, pitch, and the ball game. This All-Star game. Oh, man, it was quite an affair. In all your years in playing and managing baseball, are there any particular moments that stand out the most in your mind? Oh, yeah.

Well, oh, man, the most in my mind was the fact that I guess we over the season, 1943, Memphis, Tennessee. First time up, I double, next time up, I say, or next time up, I hit the ball, or the left field fence. Next time up, I hit it to left center. It looked like it was going out the ballpark. I'm going to push all the hits, fence. Hit the fence, hit the fence. Hit the fence, bounce back between the Santa Fella and the left field fence. I get to stay at base, the coach calling me. I can get it inside the park home run, but I stopped it through it. I wanted that triple. It gets for the cycle. Oh, I had a wonderful day at the ballpark that evening, I'm relaxing in the hotel. And William Disney, who will have a traveling secretary, he was down to death, having dinner. He's called a sad book on downstairs. I got some people I want you to meet. In the hotel, his wife was a schoolteacher. She had invited some young schoolteaches over to meet the ball player. I get downstairs, these people were sitting right in front of the door.

I pushed the door open and looked at a young woman and walked straight to her, my name is Buck O'Neill. We were married for 51 years. So I hit for the cycle that Sunday and met my future wife. Easter Sunday, 1940, Memphis, Tennessee. My man, I got to go. The late John Jordan Buck O'Neill, the first black coach hired by our major league team. He died on October 6, 2006, at the age of 94. If you have questions, comments or suggestions asked your future in black America programs, email us at lowercase J. Hanson, H-A-N-S-O-N at kut.org. Also, let us know what radio station you heard us over. The views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of this station or of the University of Texas at Austin. You can hear previous programs online at kut.org. Until we have the opportunity again for technical producer David Alvarez,

I'm John L. Hanson, Jr. Thank you for joining us today. Please join us again next week. CD copies of this program are available and may be purchased by writing in black America CDs, one university station, Austin, Texas, 787-12. That's in black America CDs, one university station, Austin, Texas, 787-12. From the University of Texas at Austin, this is the Longhorn Radio Network.