Monarchs #22

Because I am so lame every time I talk to Alex about sports I always have to work in that clichéd nonsense about how it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you played the game. Yesterday I saw Buck O’Neil’s speech to fans telling them not to be upset w/ the 12 member special selection committee for baseball’s Hall of Fame. This special committee overlooked one of the great ambassadors of baseball when they decided not to induct O’Neil - and Minnie M (not mouse) – the only two living members on a special slate of candidates from the Negro Leagues etc…for induction to C-town (not C Note).

I’m no expert on the history of race in America or in baseball etc…but everything interesting I know about the Negro Leagues comes from interviews I seen over the years with Buck O’Neil. The game he loved shit on him during the prime of his career. He took it in stride and now speaks proudly of the brand of baseball played in the Negro Leagues. Sure he would tell stories of the treatment he and other players endured – but you’d walk away from an interview thinking this man celebrated what he and his fellow players accomplished…and it wasn’t ‘what we accomplished in the face of adversity’…it was a celebration of accomplishment as such.

He exuded the same dignity yesterday when he said he would speak on behalf of the players who were inducted – INSTEAD OF HIM!!!! (by the way – Olberman is so mad he’s rattling his SABR…and threatening to resign from one of America’s nerdiest organizations because of this injustice). Near the end of his speech he said: “Don’t be upset for me and be disappointed that I was not inducted in the hall of fame. I’m already in a Hall of Fame.” – alluding to the Negro Leagues Hall of Fame, drawing applause and tears from the audience.

Someday I’m going to take my son to the Negro Leagues Hall of Fame in KC. I’m going to show him a picture of Buck O’Neil and say: “Alex this is Buck O’Neil. He knew how to play the game.”