Here’s how Kansas City is celebrating Buck O’Neil’s 109th birthday with special events

Kansas City is commemorating what would have been baseball legend Buck O’Neil’s 109th birthday Friday with special events.

At 11 a.m., RideKC will unveil a O’Neil-inspired Kansas City Monarchs Streetcar at the Union Station stop. The event will be live-streamed.

RideKC will also roll out a roll out a Barnstorming RideKC Bus and a fleet of Negro Leagues Baseball bicycles.

At 12:30 p.m., the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is live-streaming a conversation with several figures who knew O’Neil best: award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns, whose documentary “Baseball” showcased O’Neil’s storytelling of the Negro Leagues; Bob Kendrick, the museum’s president who has carried on O’Neil’s legacy; Joe Posnanski, former Kansas City Star sports columnist and senior writer for The Athletic; and broadcaster Bob Costas.

The conversation will be streamed on the museum’s YouTube and Facebook pages.

This year is also the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Negro Leagues at the Paseo YMCA in Kansas City.

O’Neil, who played for and managed the Monarchs, became one of the first Black scouts in the major leagues and served as the Negro Leagues museum’s first chairman, died in 2006 at the age of 94.

This story was originally published November 13, 2020 at 8:22 AM.