Buck O'Neil biography

 Buck O'Neil biography

Buck O’Neil, byname of John Jordan O’Neil, Jr., (born Nov. 13, 1911, Carrabelle, Fla., U.S.—died Oct. 6, 2006, Kansas City, Mo.), American baseball participant who was a participant and supervisor within the Negro leagues.

O’Neil was raised in Sarasota, Fla., and commenced taking part in baseball on a semiprofessional degree at age 12. He attended Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, Fla., after being turned away from a segregated highschool. There he earned a highschool diploma and accomplished two years of faculty.

In 1937 O’Neil was signed to the Memphis Red Sox within the Negro American League. He debuted as a primary baseman for the Kansas City Monarchs in 1938. During his tenure with the Monarchs, O’Neil twice led the Negro American League in batting common, batting .345 in 1940 and .350 in 1946. In 1942 the Red Sox took the Negro American League title and superior to win the Negro World Series towards the Homestead Grays. O’Neil left the workforce to serve within the navy from 1944 to 1945. He was the workforce’s supervisor from 1948 to 1955, throughout which period the workforce gained 4 league titles.

In 1956 he was employed as a scout for the Chicago Cubs and helped the workforce signal future Baseball Hall of Fame gamers Ernie Banks and Lou Brock. In 1962 the Cubs made O’Neil the primary African American coach in main league baseball. His main function in Ken Burns’s 1994 tv documentary Baseball introduced him to the eye of recent generations of baseball followers. O’Neil served as chairman of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City from its creation in 1990 till his loss of life. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.