Buck O’Neil’s back on the ballot? Good. The story of baseball can’t be told without him
In the conference room adjacent to his office on Wednesday, Negro Leagues Baseball Museum president Bob Kendrick sat before a backdrop of Buck O’Neil-oriented portraits.
The snapshot, though, was an embodiment of a broader truth.
“He’s always looming over my shoulder,” said Kendrick, a Buck disciple who exudes much the same brilliant energy within his own distinct style.
Most of all, Kendrick reckons, his presence is as an angel perpetually perched there.
The spirit guides him in hard times — like reminding him to look for the ray of sunshine during the harsh early months of the pandemic.
Or it makes him appreciate the good all the more — like later Wednesday with the unveiling of three U.S. Mint commemorative coin designs on behalf of the museum to be issued in 2022 that ultimately could generate up to $6 million for the NLBM.
Almost inevitably, though, his thoughts of Buck circle back to that day in 2006 when he was snubbed from the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
While that would lead to what Kendrick called his favorite baseball memory for the recent #MyBaseballMemory campaign on social media, (because of Buck’s “class, grace and dignity” in the midst of such heartbreak), the anguish of that day still churns within Kendrick.
No lesson in his life taught him “you never know” like that one did.
As he looked across the table and pictured Buck sitting at the other end 15 years ago, a part of him still shudders at the memory of having to walk back in that room to give Buck and other friends the news after getting the phone call from the Hall of Fame’s Jeff Idelson.
The despair and devastation of the moment, after a process that had felt set up for Buck but fell one measly vote short, still feel familiar for one reason above all others.
“Honestly,” Kendrick said, “I know in his heart he thought he was in. ”
So you’ll pardon him if he’s conflicted about just how optimistic to let himself be about the news last week that Buck’s back in contention for the Hall of Fame among those on the 10-name Early Baseball Era (pre-1950) ballot to be voted on Dec. 5 at MLB’s Winter Meetings in Orlando, Florida. Ten more will be considered from the Golden Days Era (1950 to 1969). Candidates who receive votes on 75 percent of the ballots cast by the 16-member committee will be inducted in Cooperstown on July 24, 2022.
So the emotional pendulum, he said, is swinging both ways as he tries to be prepared for both the joy of Buck’s election and what a Kansas City to Cooperstown event would look like and the “mental and emotional strain” of another excruciating denial.
No wonder, then, that when he first saw the press release from the Hall of Fame announcing the candidates his eyes moved so fast over the text that he missed Buck the first time.
“My heart just kind of stopped,” he said.
It soon resumed when he saw Buck’s name, among several other Negro Leagues greats like Minnie Minoso and John Donaldson that he hopes will be recognized.
Since then, he’s figured it would be beneficial for anyone invested in Buck’s cause in particular to cross their fingers, arms, legs and toes.
“And if you can cross your eyes,” he said, laughing, “cross those, too.”
Just the same, he has determined that it’s not right to pressure any members of the committee. He wants all to do their job and vote their conviction, a stance he takes both because it feels like the right thing to do but also because of his own conviction about Buck’s case — which certainly is a case like no other.
From the Negro Leagues as a player and manager. To the Major Leagues as the first African-American coach and a pioneering scout. To the impetus and inspiration for what we still know as his museum …
All tethered together as the poet laureate of the Negro Leagues, perhaps even baseball itself, most visibly via Ken Burns’ 1994 PBS documentary, “Baseball.”
All of which, from the 1930s until his death in 2006, transcend statistics or other conventional criteria. This is about “The Soul of Baseball,” the title of my friend Joe Posnanski’s 2008 book about Buck.
Citing what he believes the prime directive of the Hall of Fame to be, Kendrick said: “Can the story of baseball be told without him? No. No. No. What Buck O’Neil did for the Negro Leagues alone, in being the voice and a tremendous ambassador. For building this shrine. For seven decades of meaningful and impactful contributions across the spectrum … And his ability to help us never get sullen about this game.
“No matter what happened within this game, … he would not let you not love baseball. So I think when you look at the complete body of work, I’m not sure there’s anybody more worthy of being a Hall of Famer under the definition of what the Hall says a Hall of Famer is: A picture (of Buck) should be right there by it.”
In fact, O’Neil already is prominently represented at the Hall, where his likeness in the form of a life-sized statue greets visitors.
“You could argue that it may be even more meaningful than (getting a) plaque on the wall,” said Kendrick, who likewise is grateful that the Hall of Fame created the Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award.
Each, he said, “has perpetuity to it.”
Meanwhile, it’s also undeniably true that having Buck elected now just can’t have the same resonance it would have in 2006.
“We all wanted to celebrate with our guy,” Kendrick said, “and we didn’t get the chance to do that.”
So as much as he was buoyed by the statue and lifetime achievement award being set up in 2008, even the ever-effervescent and resilient Kendrick had come to “kind of wave the white flag” over this ever being made good and right.
But even if he has had to try to mute the feelings at times over the years, the notion of the Hall of Fame and ol’ Buck has always loomed there over Kendrick’s shoulder.
Now he’s daring to dream again that this can turn full circle.
Or at least semi-circle with Buck not tangibly here to share in it.
Still, for the sake of the legions who love Buck and his living legacies in the form of his museum and his delightful protege, Kendrick, there would be much to celebrate if the moment comes at last … even if we know by now to gird ourselves for any result.
This story was originally published November 11, 2021 at 5:00 AM.