Buck Leonard

Walter Fenner "Buck" Leonard (September 8, 1907 – November 27, 1997) was an American first baseman in Negro league baseball and in the Mexican League.

The Grays teams of the 1930s and 1940s were considered some of the best teams in Negro league history.

Leonard and Gibson are two of only nine players in league history to win multiple batting titles.

The Grays of the late 1930s through the mid-1940s are considered one of the greatest teams of any race ever assembled.

The team won nine league pennants in a row during that time.

Leonard batted fourth in their lineup behind Josh Gibson.

He began his Negro league career in 1933 with the Brooklyn Royal Giants, then moved to the legendary Homestead Grays in 1934, the team he played for until his retirement in 1950.

After growing up in North Carolina, he played for the Homestead Grays between 1934 and 1950, batting fourth behind Josh Gibson for many years.

He led the Negro leagues in batting average in 1948 with a mark of .395, and usually either led the league in home runs or finished second in homers to teammate Gibson.

Since Gibson was known as the "Black Babe Ruth" and Leonard was a first baseman, Buck Leonard was inevitably called the "Black Lou Gehrig."

Together, the pair was colloquially known as the "Thunder Twins" or "Dynamite Twins".

In fact, Negro league star Monte Irvin said that if Leonard had been allowed in the major leagues, baseball fans "might have called Lou Gehrig the white Buck Leonard. He was that good."

The Grays disbanded after 1950.

Beginning in 1951, Leonard went to the Mexican League.

Teams played three games per week in this league, a pace that worked well for the aging player.

Leonard said that he got sick from the water every year that he returned to Mexico, but he otherwise enjoyed the league.

For much of his time in Mexico, he was managed by Cuban baseball star Martín Dihigo.

Leonard was impressed by Dihigo's baseball knowledge.

Leonard never played in Major League Baseball (MLB); he declined a 1952 offer of an MLB contract because he felt he was too old.

Late in life, Leonard worked as a physical education instructor and was the vice-president of a minor league baseball team.

In 1952, Leonard was offered a major league contract, but he believed that at age 45 he was too old and might embarrass himself and hurt the cause of integration.

In 1953, Leonard made his only appearances in "organized" ball, playing for the unaffiliated Portsmouth Merrimacs of the class B Piedmont League, hitting .333 in 10 games and 46 at bats.

After retiring as a player, Leonard worked as a truant officer, served as a physical education instructor and started a realty company.

He stayed in Mexico through 1955, playing for teams in Torreón, Xalapa, Durango and Obregón.

From 1962 to 1972, he was vice president of the Rocky Mount Leafs and then, from 1973 to 1975, of the Rocky Mount Phillies.

In 1962 and 1963.

The Leafs were a Class A Carolina League farm team for the Detroit Tigers from 1965 to 1972.

He and Gibson were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972.

In 1999, he was ranked number 47 on the 100 Greatest Baseball Players list by The Sporting News.

Born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Leonard was the brother of fellow Negro leaguer Charlie Leonard.

His father worked as a railroad fireman while his mother was a homemaker who cared for the six Leonard children.

Leonard's parents called him "Buddy", but his younger brother began mispronouncing it "Bucky".

Family members began calling him "Buck", a name which stuck with him throughout his life.

When Leonard was about seven years old, he would sneak over to the baseball field of the local white team and watch games through the fence.

Local police even once arrested Leonard and his friends when they were caught peeking through the fence at the segregated field.

Leonard's father died when he was eleven and Leonard picked up jobs after school to help his family.

There was no black high school in Rocky Mount, so Leonard finished the eighth grade and went to work shining shoes for a rail station.

He also worked in a hosiery mill and for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad.

He later earned a GED by correspondence.

He began playing semiprofessional baseball while working for the railroad, then decided to pursue his living with the sport.