R.I.P. Buck O'Neil

By tfk on October 8, 2006.

Buck O'Neil, Negro League baseball great, dies at 94:

Buck O'Neil, a batting champion in the Negro Leagues before becoming the first black to serve as a major league coach, has died. He was 94.

The beloved national figure as the unofficial goodwill spokesman for the Negro Leagues died Friday night in a Kansas City hospital, eight months after he fell one vote short of the Hall of Fame.

As a Cubs fan, I have to point out that he was the first black coach in the major leagues, a bench coach for the Cubs. It remains obscure why the Hall of Fame didn't select him, a barrier breaker, a pennant winning manager, and winner of two Negro League batting titles. He was a giant in KC, and will be missed.

As a side note, the Cubs fan in me is glad to see the Tigers whup the Yanks. If there's hope for the Tigers, there must be hope for my Cubbies.

More like this

Paying Forward My Debt to Mr. Preda.

When I was a kid, baseball was very important to me. It was very important to most of the boys growing up in my neighborhood. Almost all of the boys (and a handful of the girls) at my school signed up for Little League most years. The season started with a parade - and what kid doesn't like to be…

Celebrating African American History Month with Role Models in Science & Engineering Achievement: Ed Dwight, Jr.

Ed Dwight, Jr. – Test Pilot, Aerospace Engineer and America's First Black Astronaut Candidate Chosen in 1962 by President Kennedy as America's first black astronaut candidate; due to racism in the astronaut program, he resigned; now is a world-class sculptor, specializing in sculptures depicting…

Sports Break: Duke-Carolina

I don't often write about sports, but since last night was one of the high holy days for a college basketball fan, I have to. For those who don't know, I am a Duke fan. No, I'm not a bandwagon fan who jumped on when they became the New York Yankees of collge basketball, I've been a Duke fan since…

Reflections on the End of an Era

A few days ago, the New York Mets clinched the National League East title, becoming the first team to win a division with the Atlanta Braves in it, other than the Braves, since 1990 (excluding the strike-shortened 1994 season, of course). This marked the end of the longest streak of consecutive…

It is a disgrace that he never made the Hall.

I'm not up on Hall of Fame regulations, but is he still eligible after his death?

Advertisment

Donate

ScienceBlogs is where scientists communicate directly with the public. We are part of Science 2.0, a science education nonprofit operating under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Please make a tax-deductible donation if you value independent science communication, collaboration, participation, and open access.

You can also shop using Amazon Smile and though you pay nothing more we get a tiny something.

Science 2.0

Science Codex

More by this author

ID and the age of the earth

April 12, 2013

Disco. 'tute "research" director Casey Luskin is sad. Congressional Quarterly wrote about creationism and didn't say nice things about "intelligent design" creationism. Casey insists that ID shouldn't be lumped in with young earth creationism or geocentrism, asserting: the vast majority of leaders…

Polls and the line between truth and conspiracy theory

April 5, 2013

In the poll on conspiracy theories I mentioned a few days ago, I mostly focused on the item about vaccines, mentioning in passing the fact that Democrats (and liberals) bought into far fewer conspiracy theories than Republicans (or conservatives). I didn't point out that, of the "conspiracy…

Vaccines and the Republican War on Science

April 3, 2013

Ever since Chris Mooney's Republican War on Science was published in 2005, folks have been looking for a way to argue that Democrats are just as bad. The standard example for this counternarrative, one which Mooney even offered in his book, was vaccine denial – the claim that vaccines cause autism…

An evolution the GOP likes

April 2, 2013

"The president says that the jury's out on evolution. Here in New Jersey, we're counting on it." –Bruce Springsteen, May 21, 2005 "Folks in Dover [PA] aren't sure about evolution. Here in New Jersey, we're counting on it." –Bruce Springsteen, August, 2005 "This issue [marriage equality] is in a…

Social movements and science denial

April 1, 2013

The University of Notre Dame's Center for the Study of Social Movements is hosting a dialogue on science and politics, and I'm rather pleased with my contribution: "Will Climate Change Denial Inherit the Wind?" Do check out the other essays in the dialogue, especially Jeffrey Guhin's discussion of…