July 22, 2024 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, in 2021, former Negro Leauge Baseball player Buck O'Neil finally made it into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, years after being rejected, to the surprise of his friends, by one vote. Bob Kendrick, President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, tells the story of how Buck handled this loss, in Bob's words, "like a man".
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. Up next, a
story from Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro League's Baseball
Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. Today, Bob shares with us
a story about one of his friends, Buck O'Neil.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Take it away, Bob, Our guests walk into the Negro
League's Baseball Museum, and you literally walk through the turnstiles
into an old ball park, and the first thing that
you see is the field, the Field of Legends, And
the Field of Legends is a mock baseball diamond that
(00:47):
houses ten of twelve life sized bronze sculptures of Negro
League greats, and they are cast in position as if
they were playing a game. Now on the outside looking
in is my dear friend, the late great Buck O'Neill,
(01:08):
who was the only one of our collection of statues
that wasn't in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Well, thankfully,
on December fifth of twenty twenty one, Buck O'Neill received
enough votes to now be inducted into the National Baseball
Hall of Fame, fifteen years after he missed by one vote.
(01:31):
I'll never forget that day as long as my mother
would say. I'm in my natural mind. It was the
morning of February twenty seven, two thousand six, and bucc
O'Neill and I left home with suitcase's picked with airline
tickets that the Hall of Fame had purchased for us.
That's how sure we were that Buck was going to
(01:53):
get in. This was just a mere formality. And so
there was a group of twelve Negro League historians research
as educators. They were to gather down in Tampa, Florida,
where they were gonna make the decision on the final
group of Negro leaguers who had gone through the process
and made the final ballot. The late Great bucc O'Neill
(02:16):
and now the late Great many Meno Soo were the
only two living names on that list. And so we
were going to fly after the announcement, Buck and I
would fly down to Tampa where he would participate in
a press conference the very next day. And so at
that time I was the marketing director for the museum,
and so I had broken a deal with our partner
(02:38):
then Sprint now t Mobile, and they had provided a
spread phone for me and a Sprint phone for Buck.
And so we're gonna take the Hall of Fame call
on the Sprint phone, and then Sprint was going to
pay us a bunch of money to help build a
bucc O'Neil education and research center, and so the car
was supposed to come to me that morning at around
(02:59):
the eleven o'clock. Well, eleven o'clock rolls around. I don't
get a phone call. About noon. My colleague, doctor Ray Diswell,
who was one of the twelve people who had gathered
there in Tampa to make this decision, he calls and says, Bob,
this thing is looking really tight. We've done strong vote
(03:20):
and Buck is coming up one vote shy. Former Commissioner
Fae Vinson, who was overseeing the committee, didn't have a vote.
He was overseeing the committee, says he's reconvened us so
that we can talk specifically about Buck O'Neill and Minnie Minoso,
the only two guys that were still alive on this
list of thirty plus. Well, my good friend Joe Posnansky
(03:41):
was sitting right where you're sitting. And as Joe come
out and say, hey, man, I just got a call
from Ray, he says, this thing is looking tight. Buck
is coming up one vote shy. He's in disbelief. Finally,
around two o'clock, I get a call from Jeff Idelson.
Jeff Idelson was then the vice president of marketing for
(04:02):
the National Baseball Hall of Fame. And Jeff calls me
and he said, Bob Buck didn't get enough votes. And
I felt like someone had kicked me in my gut
because now I got to come back in this conference
room and tell my friend that he didn't get enough
(04:23):
votes when I know in his heart he thought he
was in. Why wouldn't he? And so I come back in.
I excuse a few folks. Buck was seated right there
at the head of the table, and I sit down
and I am literally trying to collect my thoughts. I
don't know how I'm going to tell him, and so
(04:43):
I finally look up at Buck and I said, well, Buck,
we didn't get enough votes. And he looks up at
me and he smiles. He said, well, that's how the
cookie crumbles. And in the next voice, he asked me
how many had gotten in. I said seventeen. Now, I'll
(05:04):
be honest, I was furious because in my mind, you
couldn't put seventeen in and leave Buck out. He hits
the table. In other jubilation. He is excited that seventeen
of his colleagues had gotten their rightful place in the
National Baseball Hall of Fame. Now, as a steward of
(05:26):
this story, I should have had that same kind of feeling,
But I was upset because my guy didn't get in
and he asked me who they were, and at that
point in time, I didn't have that information. And the
next words that came out of his mouth, I wonder
if the Hall of Fame will invite me to speak. Now,
my friend Joe Possnawski, my brother, he's turned beat red,
(05:49):
and he looks at Buck and he says, Buck, you
wouldn't do that with you? And Buck says, Joe, of
course I would. What has my life been about? And
I said, well, Buck, I need to go downstairs because
downstairs we had well over three hundred plus people who
had gathered for what we all thought was going to
be a Hall of Fame celebration announcement. Well, as I
(06:13):
oftentimes tell the story, from this conference room to the
Field of Legends, where we had the podium set up
at second base was the longest walk of my life.
I was literally coaching myself. Bob, you can't cry. Whatever
you do, you can't cry. You got to suck it up. Now.
(06:34):
The boy I'm telling myself not to cry tears a
steady building in my eyes. I get to the podium
and this is the honest, to God's truth. I have
no idea what I said. I've never gone back to
watch the video. I don't know if I ever will.
Whatever it was that I said, there wasn't a dry
(06:55):
eye in the room. People were openly emotional, and it
was in disappointment. This was outrage, this was how dare they?
And Buck walks in through our gift shop, and the
room erupts into a thunderous ovation, and Buck O'Neill walks
(07:16):
up to the podium and delivers one of the most
amazing concession speeches that I'd ever heard. What he did
that day was he literally implored all of us not
to be angry, not to be bitter, not to express
any ill will toward anyone who had anything to do
(07:37):
with this decision. He said, I had an opportunity, and
in this great country of ours, that's all you could
ever ask. They didn't think old Buck was good enough.
We got to live with that. But if I'm a
Hall of Famer in your eyes, that's all that matters
to me. Just keep on loving old Buck. Now I'm
over in the corner at this point in time, I'm
(07:58):
a wreck, you know, tears streaming down my face and uncontrollably.
But what Buck O'Neil did that day was he literally
reached out his arms and wrapped them around all of
us and said, it's okay. Instead of us consoling him,
he's consoling us. And what I still say to this
(08:21):
day to be one of the most amazing displays of
strength of character that I had ever witnessed. He would
push aside his disappointment, go to Cooperstown deliver this incredible
speech on behalf of seventeen dead folks when the world
was saying this should be your induction speech. And what
(08:43):
I still say today was the most selfless act in
American sports history. What Buck O'Neill did that day was
he literally gave us a lesson on how to handle disappointment,
because he handled it so graciously that people thought he
wasn't disappointed, but of course he was. The Hall of
(09:04):
Fame represents the pinnacle for any athlete, and Buck knew
he was sick at that time. Just over two months later,
my friend Buck O'Neill passed away himself at age ninety four,
a month shy of his ninety fifth birthday. This was
going to be his swan song, even though he never complained,
even though he understood what his health situation was like
(09:28):
and what the doctors had already prepared him for. And
so yeah, he handled the disappointment well, he handled it
like a man. And so he was never going to
be so sullen about his rejection that he couldn't be
genuinely joyous for those who had gotten their place in
the National Baseball Hall of Fame. And so I'm trying
(09:54):
to be more Buck like.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
And a terrific job on the storytelling by Monty Montgomery,
and a special thanks to Bob Kendrick. What a terrific voice,
and he was telling this story of Buck O'Neill, who
if you watched Ken Burns documentary on Baseball, buck O'Neill
stole the show. He chewed up all the scenery. And
by the way, if you want to hear the remarkable
(10:18):
speech he gave in Cooperstown, New York, you'll see a
man that you'd want to emulate and be and by
the end of his speech he had athletes, famous ballplayers,
announcers and family members of Jackie Robinson, and ordinary fans
holding hands and singing and praising the idea of love
(10:39):
and of God. The story of Buck O'Neill here on
our American Stories
And we continue with our American stories. Up next, a
story from Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro League's Baseball
Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. Today, Bob shares with us
a story about one of his friends, Buck O'Neil.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Take it away, Bob, Our guests walk into the Negro
League's Baseball Museum, and you literally walk through the turnstiles
into an old ball park, and the first thing that
you see is the field, the Field of Legends, And
the Field of Legends is a mock baseball diamond that
(00:47):
houses ten of twelve life sized bronze sculptures of Negro
League greats, and they are cast in position as if
they were playing a game. Now on the outside looking
in is my dear friend, the late great Buck O'Neill,
(01:08):
who was the only one of our collection of statues
that wasn't in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Well, thankfully,
on December fifth of twenty twenty one, Buck O'Neill received
enough votes to now be inducted into the National Baseball
Hall of Fame, fifteen years after he missed by one vote.
(01:31):
I'll never forget that day as long as my mother
would say. I'm in my natural mind. It was the
morning of February twenty seven, two thousand six, and bucc
O'Neill and I left home with suitcase's picked with airline
tickets that the Hall of Fame had purchased for us.
That's how sure we were that Buck was going to
(01:53):
get in. This was just a mere formality. And so
there was a group of twelve Negro League historians research
as educators. They were to gather down in Tampa, Florida,
where they were gonna make the decision on the final
group of Negro leaguers who had gone through the process
and made the final ballot. The late Great bucc O'Neill
(02:16):
and now the late Great many Meno Soo were the
only two living names on that list. And so we
were going to fly after the announcement, Buck and I
would fly down to Tampa where he would participate in
a press conference the very next day. And so at
that time I was the marketing director for the museum,
and so I had broken a deal with our partner
(02:38):
then Sprint now t Mobile, and they had provided a
spread phone for me and a Sprint phone for Buck.
And so we're gonna take the Hall of Fame call
on the Sprint phone, and then Sprint was going to
pay us a bunch of money to help build a
bucc O'Neil education and research center, and so the car
was supposed to come to me that morning at around
(02:59):
the eleven o'clock. Well, eleven o'clock rolls around. I don't
get a phone call. About noon. My colleague, doctor Ray Diswell,
who was one of the twelve people who had gathered
there in Tampa to make this decision, he calls and says, Bob,
this thing is looking really tight. We've done strong vote
(03:20):
and Buck is coming up one vote shy. Former Commissioner
Fae Vinson, who was overseeing the committee, didn't have a vote.
He was overseeing the committee, says he's reconvened us so
that we can talk specifically about Buck O'Neill and Minnie Minoso,
the only two guys that were still alive on this
list of thirty plus. Well, my good friend Joe Posnansky
(03:41):
was sitting right where you're sitting. And as Joe come
out and say, hey, man, I just got a call
from Ray, he says, this thing is looking tight. Buck
is coming up one vote shy. He's in disbelief. Finally,
around two o'clock, I get a call from Jeff Idelson.
Jeff Idelson was then the vice president of marketing for
(04:02):
the National Baseball Hall of Fame. And Jeff calls me
and he said, Bob Buck didn't get enough votes. And
I felt like someone had kicked me in my gut
because now I got to come back in this conference
room and tell my friend that he didn't get enough
(04:23):
votes when I know in his heart he thought he
was in. Why wouldn't he? And so I come back in.
I excuse a few folks. Buck was seated right there
at the head of the table, and I sit down
and I am literally trying to collect my thoughts. I
don't know how I'm going to tell him, and so
(04:43):
I finally look up at Buck and I said, well, Buck,
we didn't get enough votes. And he looks up at
me and he smiles. He said, well, that's how the
cookie crumbles. And in the next voice, he asked me
how many had gotten in. I said seventeen. Now, I'll
(05:04):
be honest, I was furious because in my mind, you
couldn't put seventeen in and leave Buck out. He hits
the table. In other jubilation. He is excited that seventeen
of his colleagues had gotten their rightful place in the
National Baseball Hall of Fame. Now, as a steward of
(05:26):
this story, I should have had that same kind of feeling,
But I was upset because my guy didn't get in
and he asked me who they were, and at that
point in time, I didn't have that information. And the
next words that came out of his mouth, I wonder
if the Hall of Fame will invite me to speak. Now,
my friend Joe Possnawski, my brother, he's turned beat red,
(05:49):
and he looks at Buck and he says, Buck, you
wouldn't do that with you? And Buck says, Joe, of
course I would. What has my life been about? And
I said, well, Buck, I need to go downstairs because
downstairs we had well over three hundred plus people who
had gathered for what we all thought was going to
be a Hall of Fame celebration announcement. Well, as I
(06:13):
oftentimes tell the story, from this conference room to the
Field of Legends, where we had the podium set up
at second base was the longest walk of my life.
I was literally coaching myself. Bob, you can't cry. Whatever
you do, you can't cry. You got to suck it up. Now.
(06:34):
The boy I'm telling myself not to cry tears a
steady building in my eyes. I get to the podium
and this is the honest, to God's truth. I have
no idea what I said. I've never gone back to
watch the video. I don't know if I ever will.
Whatever it was that I said, there wasn't a dry
(06:55):
eye in the room. People were openly emotional, and it
was in disappointment. This was outrage, this was how dare they?
And Buck walks in through our gift shop, and the
room erupts into a thunderous ovation, and Buck O'Neill walks
(07:16):
up to the podium and delivers one of the most
amazing concession speeches that I'd ever heard. What he did
that day was he literally implored all of us not
to be angry, not to be bitter, not to express
any ill will toward anyone who had anything to do
(07:37):
with this decision. He said, I had an opportunity, and
in this great country of ours, that's all you could
ever ask. They didn't think old Buck was good enough.
We got to live with that. But if I'm a
Hall of Famer in your eyes, that's all that matters
to me. Just keep on loving old Buck. Now I'm
over in the corner at this point in time, I'm
(07:58):
a wreck, you know, tears streaming down my face and uncontrollably.
But what Buck O'Neil did that day was he literally
reached out his arms and wrapped them around all of
us and said, it's okay. Instead of us consoling him,
he's consoling us. And what I still say to this
(08:21):
day to be one of the most amazing displays of
strength of character that I had ever witnessed. He would
push aside his disappointment, go to Cooperstown deliver this incredible
speech on behalf of seventeen dead folks when the world
was saying this should be your induction speech. And what
(08:43):
I still say today was the most selfless act in
American sports history. What Buck O'Neill did that day was
he literally gave us a lesson on how to handle disappointment,
because he handled it so graciously that people thought he
wasn't disappointed, but of course he was. The Hall of
(09:04):
Fame represents the pinnacle for any athlete, and Buck knew
he was sick at that time. Just over two months later,
my friend Buck O'Neill passed away himself at age ninety four,
a month shy of his ninety fifth birthday. This was
going to be his swan song, even though he never complained,
even though he understood what his health situation was like
(09:28):
and what the doctors had already prepared him for. And
so yeah, he handled the disappointment well, he handled it
like a man. And so he was never going to
be so sullen about his rejection that he couldn't be
genuinely joyous for those who had gotten their place in
the National Baseball Hall of Fame. And so I'm trying
(09:54):
to be more Buck like.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
And a terrific job on the storytelling by Monty Montgomery,
and a special thanks to Bob Kendrick. What a terrific voice,
and he was telling this story of Buck O'Neill, who
if you watched Ken Burns documentary on Baseball, buck O'Neill
stole the show. He chewed up all the scenery. And
by the way, if you want to hear the remarkable
(10:18):
speech he gave in Cooperstown, New York, you'll see a
man that you'd want to emulate and be and by
the end of his speech he had athletes, famous ballplayers,
announcers and family members of Jackie Robinson, and ordinary fans
holding hands and singing and praising the idea of love
(10:39):
and of God. The story of Buck O'Neill here on
our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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