It Is Done!

No, not this blog, although anyone who used to read it might think so. Something keeps me from turning out the lights whenever the idea crops up in my head.

No, the thing that is done is the induction of John Jordan “Buck” O’Neil into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Those poor benighted souls who prefer other sports to baseball or who are indifferent to them altogether may be tempted to ask why that matters. Partly it’s because Buck should have been in the HOF a long time ago, especially while he was still alive. None of the recent recognition of the work of the Negro Leagues would have happened without Buck. No museum, no recognition of the Negro National and Negro American Leagues as official Major Leagues right alongside the National and American Leagues, no awareness that as great a man as he was, Jackie Robinson was not the first African-American man to play organized baseball. Absolutely none of it.

And as to why it might matter outside the foul lines and beyond the bleachers? Read Buck’s autobiography, I Was Right on Time. Read Joe Posnanski’s The Soul of Baseball. Read Vahe Gregorian’s appreciation when Buck was voted in last year (No links because the Kansas City Star has a very steep paywall). Heck, read Anne Rogers’ feature piece from MLB’s own press shop today and get a sense of why a great man with a great and gentle view of the world is finally getting his due.

As Bob Kendrick, manager of the Negro League Baseball Museum said in more than one article and as this space has put forth before: The Hall of Fame now matters once again.