Buck O'Neil

As a boy near Sarasota, Florida, Buck O'Neil hung around the New York Yankees spring training camps, and occasionally would be allowed inside to see them play. However, as a young black boy in 1920s America, O'Neil had no chance to play baseball in the major leagues. Nevertheless, he started out as a first baseman with the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues, soon becoming known for his solid performance with the bat and his dazzling glove work in the field. He labored in the Negro Leagues well after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the major leagues, and was soon considered too old to ever play for any of the major league teams. He became known as a manager and led the Monarchs to several pennants.

Baseball player in the Negro American League. With the Memphis Red Sox in 1937; remainder of career with the Kansas City Monarchs.

However, a lifetime in baseball had provided O'Neil with the strategic and tactical know-how needed in a good coach, so in 1962, O'Neil became the first black appointed as a coach in the major leagues, filling that position for the Chicago Cubs. Although Robinson was the first black to play in the modern major leagues, O'Neil was the first black to make decisions affecting the play on the field.

In later years, particularly after his appearance in Ken Burns' epic Baseball (1994), the engaging and eternally affable O'Neil was in great demand as a motivational speaker.

His cheerful optimism sustained him even when, in 2006, he missed induction - by one vote - into the Baseball Hall of Fame as part of a group of Negro League players and executives.

On 24 October 2007, before the first game of the World Series between the Colorado Rockies and Boston Red Sox, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig announced that O'Neil will be honored with a statue at the Hall of Fame and by the establishment of the the Buck O'Neil Lifetime Achievement Award. O'Neil will be the first recipient of the award at the 2008 Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. The award's purpose is to honor an individual "whose extraordinary efforts enhanced baseball's positive impact on society, has broadened the game's appeal, and whose character, integrity and dignity are comparable to the qualities exhibited by O'Neil".