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photo courtesy Negro League Museum
Buck O'Neil
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The charismatic Buck O'Neil is truly an American hero. His eloquence, grace and genuine love for people have captured the hearts and imaginations of kindred spirits worldwide. His illustrious baseball career spans seven decades and has helped make him a foremost authority and the game's greatest ambassador. O'Neil was born November 13, 1911 in Carrabelle, Florida. His father, who played for local teams, introduced him to baseball at an early age. He was nicknamed "Buck" after the co-owner of the Miami Giants, Buck O'Neil. A segregated America denied O'Neil the chance to play Major League baseball so he showcased his skills with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues. He joined the Monarchs in 1938, was named player/manager for the club in 1948 and continued his association with the team through the end of the 1955 season. O'Neil had a career batting average of .288 including four .300-plus seasons at the plate. In 1946 the talented first baseman led the league in hitting with a 353 average and followed that in 1947 with a career best .358 mark. He posted averages of .345 and .330 in 1940 and '49 respectively. He played in three Negro American League All-Star games and in two Negro American League World Series. In addition to his career with the Monarchs, O'Neil teamed with the legendary Satchel Paige during the height of Negro League barnstorming in 1930's and 40's to play countless exhibition games. Following his Monarch career, O'Neil moved on to Major League Baseball as a scout with the Chicago Cubs. He was named the Major's first black coach by the Cubs in 1962 and is credited with signing Hall of Fame baseball players Ernie Banks and Lou Brock to their first pro contracts. He has worked as Kansas City Royals scout since 1988 and was named "Midwest Scout of the Year" in 1998. O'Neil rose to national prominence with his compelling narration of the Negro Leagues as part of Ken Burns' PBS baseball documentary. Since then, he has been the source of countless national interviews including appearances on "Late Night with David Letterman," and "Late, Late Show with Tom Snyder." Today, O'Neil serves as Board Chairman of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) in Kansas City, Missouri. He is a member of the 18-person Baseball Hall of Fame Veterans Committee (Cooperstown, New York) and continues to lead the charge for deserving Negro Leaguers to be inducted. Through his tireless crusade, America is awakening to the incredible story of the Negro Leagues and the NLBM as the world's only museum dedicated to preserving Negro Leagues history.* We are honored by Mr. O'Neil's participation in a January, 2003 Jerry Jazz Musician interview, conducted by Paul Hallaman.
The Kansas City Monarchs, 1945 *
Duke Ellington plays
Black and Tan Fantasy ____________________________________________
BO'N I played with the Miami Giants, a semi pro team. At the time I played with them we had five guys who could have played with the Kansas City Monarchs, but they wanted a first baseman. Since that was my position, that is why I got the job. JJM The Miami Giants were a traveling team? BO'N Yes, semi-pro. JJM At the time of your leaving Edward Waters College to play for the Miami Giants, black baseball was quite a bit different than white baseball. Could you talk a little about that? BO'N We played a different style of baseball in the Negro Leagues than the major leaguers did. In the majors, Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx and those guys would come in and hit the home run. It was the type of baseball where you could go out and get a bottle of pop or peanuts until the big guys came to the plate. You couldn't do that if you were watching a Negro League baseball game. Negro League baseball was so fast and quick, if you go out for something to eat you might miss something you had never seen before. It was actually that quick. A good way to explain it is that Jackie Robinson brought Negro League baseball to the majors. JJM It was a lot faster brand of baseball, where runs were not just the result of the three run home run? BO'N Yes, it was very quick. These players would routinely take the extra base, stretch a single into a double, a double into a triple, and if you weren't smart they would steal home too.
JJM Paige was pitching for an integrated team from Bismarck, North Dakota. BO'N Yes, and they won the tournament. They were an outstanding ball club. Paige pitched in every ball game, and set a record for strikeouts down there. JJM Tell us a little about how you came to join the Kansas City Monarchs, probably the greatest of all Negro League teams. BO'N I was playing with the Shreveport Acme Giants in 1936, during which time we played all over the country, even up into the Dakotas. When we came back to Shreveport, I decided to stay there during the winter. We were like a farm club for the Monarchs, and when they came to Shreveport to train that spring I trained right along with them. The manager of the Monarchs, Andy Cooper, and the owner, J.L Wilkinson, liked the way I played, and told me they would like me to play on their team. The one catch there was that Mayweather, their first baseman from the year before, broke his leg and they said they had to give him a chance to keep his job. So, because of this circumstance and since they felt I was too good to be playing semi pro ball, they sent me to Memphis to play with the Memphis Red Sox of the Negro Leagues. I played with the Red Sox for one season, 1937. In 1938, they traded Mayweather to St. Louis and I came to Kansas City to replace him. I have been here ever since.
JJM Satchel Paige left the Pittsburgh Crawfords in the early thirties for the Bismarck team, then he went down to the Dominican Republic to pitch. He subsequently signed with the Monarchs, but his arm was hurt… BO'N Yes, he hurt his arm and was looking for a job. J.L.Wilkinson recognized Pagie's appeal, and brought him to Kansas City in 1939. He didn't put him on the Monarchs, but he formed a team for him, and called it the Satchel Paige All Stars, also known as the Little Monarchs. The team included Cool Papa Bell and some other players from the Monarchs, and was managed by Newt Joseph. They played exhibition games with Satchel pitching where they would carry Satchel. Nobody would hit the ball out of the ballpark and they would let Satchel strike them out with nothing. They would do this for three innings. During this time, Wilkerson sent our trainer, Jewbaby Floyd, out to work on Satchel's arm, and after about three months Satchel told Winfield Welch, the Acme Giants manager, to turn him loose. As soon as he was turned loose, he struck out 17 and they felt Satchel was ready to join the Monarchs. That was history, really, because his arm was back, and, oh man, he could really pitch! JJM You have talked quite a bit about J.L. Wilkinson, or "Wilkie" as you call him. He was the owner of the Monarchs and quite an influential person in the history of Negro League baseball, but he was not a Negro himself. BO'N No. When the Negro Leagues started in 1920, he was the only white owner. The League wanted all black owners, but he had a franchise with the baseball park here, and he had a good club who called themselves the All Nations Team at the time. That is why they put Wilkie in. He had quite an influence on the Negro Leagues. When the depression came, Wilkie started night baseball. JJM Yes, and the Monarchs traveled on a bus and trailers and they had their own generator, so wherever they went, throughout the continental United States and Canada, they had the ability to play games in any small town, day or night. They were not confined to the railroad lines. BO'N That's right.
JJM Buck, can you tell us about some of the players you scouted and signed in your capacity as scout with the Chicago Cubs? BO'N While I was here with the Monarchs, I signed Ernie Banks to a contract in 1950. Following the signing, he went into the service for two years. When he returned in 1953, he played with the Monarchs, which is when the Cubs saw Ernie. We had our East/West game in Chicago, when the Cubs saw Banks play in it. Tom Baird, the owner of the Monarchs at the time, called me at the hotel after the game and told me to bring Ernie out to the Cubs' ballpark, Wrigley Field, because they wanted to sign him to a major league contract. He sent Wendell Smith to pick Ernie and me up to come out to Wrigley the very next day. The general manager of the Cubs told me that Negro League baseball is just about over, and said that when Baird sells the Monarchs he wanted me to come and work for them, to scout for the Cubs. I told him that sounded good to me. He told me that since I signed Banks to a contract with the Monarchs, he wanted me to sign Banks to the contract with the Cubs. That was my first duty as a member of the Cubs. So, I signed Ernie Banks twice. Later, I signed Lou Brock. I also signed the relief pitcher Lee Smith and outfielder Joe Carter, both of whom I believe will one day go into the Hall of Fame. So, I had some success with it.
JJM Speaking of Rube Foster and black ownership, is that a change we are likely to see on the horizon in major league baseball? BO'N I don't know. The first thing about it is that it takes a lot of money to be the owner of a baseball team -- a lot of money. All of the men who own baseball teams now, made their money someplace else. Sure, they are millionaires, but they made their money somewhere other than baseball. I remember the days when the whole family of the owner earned a living in baseball. That doesn't happen anymore. To answer your question, I don't know if we might one day have a black owner in baseball, but it has to be somebody with a whole lot of money, who is also willing to invest it in the team. There are certainly wealthy blacks who can afford a baseball team, but they aren't necessarily going to invest their money in baseball. It has got to be somebody in the corporate structure that is black with a whole lot of money.
JJM Buck, can tell us a little about the Negro League Museum in Kansas City?
BO'N We are very proud of the Museum. In
1990, Horace Peterson, who was the head of the black archives in Kansas City,
asked me to meet with him. He brought up the idea of starting a Negro League
Hall of Fame. I told him I didn't think we needed a Negro League Hall of
Fame, because the people who are qualified to be in the Negro League Hall
of Fame should go into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. I felt that instead
of having a Hall of Fame, we should create a Negro League Museum. That is
where it started. We had a very small office in the vacant building right
across the street from this building now. I paid the rent on it one month,
Connie Johnson paid the rent another month, Jesse Rodgers paid it a month, Alfred "Slick" Surratt paid it another,
and this is the way we survived. All these guys were former Monarch ballplayers.
Reverend Cleaver, who was on the city council at the time, helped the city
make the decision to allocate twenty million dollars for the 18th and Vine
street area, and that is why they built this building for us here. It is
nice, you should see it. Everybody should come and see the Negro League Museum
because it is really the history of black baseball in this country, and it
is a history of this country during the segregation era.
by Buck O'Neil
_______________________________ This interview took place on January 22, 2003 * If you enjoyed this interview, you may want to read our interview with Jackie Robinson biographer Scott Simon.
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