<table> </table> COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. | The Hall of Famer stops in his tracks. He cuts off the conversation he&#8217;s having with his friend, turns to the right and sticks his hand out for a shake.</p><p>&#8220;Orlando Cepeda,&#8221; he says. &#8220;Just wanted to say I love what you guys are doing.&#8221;</p><p>Bob Kendrick takes his hat off. His smile is huge. A Hall of Famer just came up to introduce himself. Wow.</p><p>&#8220;Of course I know who you are,&#8221; says Kendrick, marketing director for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. &#8220;I know your schedule is busy, but we&#8217;ve got to get you out to Kansas City to see the museum.&#8221;</p><p>On Sunday, in front of 14,000 fans &#8212; and many more in a live television audience &#8212; Hall of Famer Joe Morgan stood and accepted the first Buck O&#8217;Neil Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of O&#8217;Neil&#8217;s family.</p><p>He mentioned the Negro Leagues museum, which was Buck&#8217;s passion and will hopefully enjoy a bump from all the attention of this weekend. Museum officials hope it translates into commitments for the research and learning center that will be named in Buck&#8217;s honor &#8212; they&#8217;re only about a third of the way to their $15 million fundraising goal.</p><p>Morgan said O&#8217;Neil&#8217;s &#8220;influence was among the greatest baseball has ever known.&#8221; He told Buck&#8217;s story one more time, to another new audience. His words lacked the magic of Buck&#8217;s, but whose don&#8217;t?</p><p>For some, the creation of this award &#8212; to be given no more than once every three years &#8212; is a bit of closure to the controversy of two years ago, when O&#8217;Neil was left out of a special induction of Negro Leaguers.</p><p>But the challenge for Morgan and everyone else who loved O&#8217;Neil is to make this a beginning, not an end. The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is doing its part with the life-sized statue unveiled on Friday and the award that will keep O&#8217;Neil&#8217;s name circulating.</p><p>&#8220;This is something that&#8217;s going to be here long after I&#8217;m gone, you&#8217;re gone, we&#8217;re all gone,&#8221; Morgan says. &#8220;It&#8217;s still going to be Buck O&#8217;Neil. You have to go in the Hall and look for my plaque to know Joe Morgan was here. You&#8217;re not going to have to do that to know that Buck O&#8217;Neil was here.&#8221;</p><p>Morgan grew up with a guilty conscience. He heard stories of the Negro Leagues and felt guilty that he had the opportunity to play in the major leagues and those who came before him didn&#8217;t. Morgan even did a thesis paper in college on the Negro Leagues.</p><p>Then he met O&#8217;Neil, who told him to shed the guilt, to be happy because the Negro Leaguers loved their game and took it as seriously as Babe Ruth took his. The only reason they wanted to play in the majors was to prove they could.</p><p>And just like that, Buck took away that guilt. Morgan still smiles when he thinks of that. It&#8217;s his favorite memory of Buck.</p><p>&#8220;You know,&#8221; he says, &#8220;we&#8217;re going to have a hard time finding people who live up to his standard.&#8221;</p><p>Morgan is on the board that will decide future winners. There isn&#8217;t much structure or guideline about where the recipients will come from. Could be scouts, could be baseball officials, could be people outside the game who make significant contributions. Like maybe Ken Burns, or others in the movie industry.</p><p>That will all get taken care of, eventually. In the meantime, Negro Leagues museum officials are trying to make sure they make the most of their weekend in the spotlight.