Sliding, Squeeze Plays and Stealing Home: The Legacy of Negro Leagues Baseball

Feb. 15, 2006 — -- John Jordan "Buck" O'Neil, former first baseman with the Negro Leagues' Kansas City Monarchs, is working the room like a pro. Men get a firm handshake and a "lookin' good." But the ladies -- all the ladies -- are greeted with a huge smile and equally big hug.

And why not? How many people can claim his baseball credentials? Four seasons hitting .300-plus, a league-leading .353 average in 1946, followed by a career-best .358 the next season. The first black coach in the major leagues, leading the Chicago Cubs starting in 1962. Credited with signing Hall of Famers Ernie Banks and Lou Brock. A scout with the Kansas City Royals who was named Midwest Scout of the Year in 1998. Current chairman of the board of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and unofficial ambassador of the leagues' history.

O'Neil is excited to be in New York promoting a new line of Negro Leagues shoes and apparel by Nike, available this month. He's equally enthusiastic about playing golf back home in Kansas City, Mo., during a fluke 60-degree January day.

And one other thing -- he's 94.

Ask the energetic nonagenarian what the best memory of his long career in baseball is and he doesn't hesitate to answer.

"That's easy for me -- 1943, Memphis, Tenn., Easter Sunday," he said. "The first time up, I double. Next time, single. Next time, I hit the ball over the left-field fence. The next time I hit to left-center. It looked like it was going over. It hit the top of the fence and bounced back. I got to third base and the coach was calling me for an inside-the-park home run. But I stopped at third -- I wanted that triple. I hit the cycle."

At the hotel that night, he received a call to come downstairs. The wife of the man who ran the hotel's restaurant was a teacher. "They had invited some young schoolteachers over to meet the ballplayers," he said. "I walked straight up to a young lady and said: 'My name is Buck O'Neil.' We were married for 51 years. I hit for the cycle and met my future wife."

It's a big year for O'Neil and the Negro Leagues, the baseball league formed in 1920 by Andrew "Rube" Foster, a former player, manager and owner of the Chicago American Giants. With blacks barred from playing in the majors because of racism and segregation, the league thrived for decades as an alternative, with fast-paced, action-packed games full of squeeze plays, sliding and stolen bases.

Unlike in major league games at the time, where black fans and white fans were separated in the stands by chicken wire, fans of all races sat side-by-side at Negro Leagues games. The Negro Leagues' annual East-West All-Star game drew 50,000 fans, black and white.