O'Neil's exclusion an injustice
The 94-year-old man traveling from Kansas City to San Diego Thursday had trouble boarding and disembarking from his flight, but it had nothing to do with any of the physical infirmities associated with age. No, John Jordan ''Buck" O'Neil had trouble getting to his seat because so many of his fellow travelers wanted his autograph, and he couldn't leave the plane until the pilot and flight crew had enough pictures.
Now, granted, winning a place in baseball's Hall of Fame is not a popularity contest. But baseball commissioner Bud Selig cannot let stand the decision by a special committee -- appointed to right a wrong, the absence of deserving Negro leaguers from the Hall -- to choose 17 new members, all deceased, but not O'Neil.
''For the whole of my life, I always believed that amateur baseball historians could do a better job than the baseball writers or a Veterans Committee of picking Hall of Famers, but this committee has made the worst mistake in Hall of Fame history," said MSNBC anchorman and baseball scholar Keith Olbermann, who has used his nightly news program, ''Countdown," to express his outrage. Outrage, because the 11 committee members have refused to discuss their reasons for not selecting O'Neil.
The passion with which he makes his case, Olbermann said, comes from this: ''What man better represents baseball in every elemental component of what makes a Hall of Famer: playing ability, managing, scouting, trail-blazing, color-line breaking, ambassadorship?"
Joe Posnanski, the brilliant Kansas City Star columnist, is writing a book about O'Neil. Posnanski notes that until last week, there were only 18 Negro leaguers in the Hall, and that they might not be there had it not been for O'Neil.
''He was an All-Star player in the Negro Leagues," Posnanski wrote. ''He was a successful manager for the Kansas City Monarchs. He sent more Negro Leagues players to the major leagues than anyone. He was the first black coach in the major leagues. For the past 50 years, he has been, as author Jules Tygiel calls him in 'Shades of Glory,' the Negro Leagues book commissioned by the Hall of Fame 'the primary spokesperson for the legacy of the Negro Leagues.' "
Hall of Famer Ernie Banks, who played for O'Neil on the Monarchs, said he owed his career to O'Neil. Lou Brock, another Hall of Famer, was signed by O'Neil, who integrated the major league coaching ranks with the Cubs. Four times, Olbermann notes, he hit over .300, and won a batting title in 1946, ''the last full year of segregation, presumably the apex year of the Negro leagues."
Many of you probably were introduced to O'Neil in Ken Burns's seminal documentary, ''Baseball," in which O'Neil was an unforgettable presence telling the story of the Negro leagues. Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, another key participant in the project, said she met O'Neil at a screening of ''Baseball" in Washington.
''He struck me instantly as an extraordinary man," Goodwin wrote in an e-mail. ''His integrity and dignity seemed etched on his face and bearing, yet he was so open and so warm that I felt completely comfortable hugging him the first time we met.
''I cannot comprehend leaving him out of the Hall. He was the inspiration for getting so many members from the Negro league into the Hall.
''The only positive note from this is the hope that the popular outcry shows him how much he is loved and that in the eyes of all who love baseball he is already in the Hall of Fame."
George Mitrovich is a San Diego civic leader, close friend of Sox CEO Larry Lucchino, and originator of the Great Writers Series at Fenway Park. It was because of Mitrovich that I was able to spend time over dinner with O'Neil three years ago. It remains one of the highlights of my life.
''I've known some extraordinary people -- Bobby Kennedy, Malcolm Muggeridge, George Plimpton, Alan Simpson, Gloria Steinem," Mitrovich said in an e-mail, ''but no one has impressed me more than Buck O'Neil."
Mitrovich was in San Diego to meet O'Neil and take him to a fund-raiser at San Diego State University, where O'Neil was presented Friday night with the university's first ''Decades of Diversity" award. O'Neil was extraordinarily gracious in the face of his rejection. Here is Posnanski:
''All his life, Buck O'Neil has had doors slammed in his face. He played baseball at a time when the major leagues did not allow black players. He was a gifted manager at a time when major league owners would not even think of having an African-American lead their teams. For more than 30 years, he told stories about Negro Leagues players and nobody wanted to listen.
''Now, after everything, he was being told that the life he had spent in baseball was not worthy of the Hall of Fame. It was enough to make those around him cry. But Buck laughed. 'I'm still Buck,' he said. 'Look at me. I've lived a good life. I'm still living a good life. Nothing has changed for me.'
''A few minutes later, when he was told that 17 persons had made it, he shouted: 'Wonderful.' "
But the story must not end with O'Neil's amazing grace. The committee did admirable work to bring proper due to people who belong in Cooperstown.
But Olbermann, among others, raised eyebrows at a couple of the choices, including Effa Manley, the first woman electee, who co-owned the Newark Eagles with her husband, Abe, for 14 seasons. Olbermann notes that her biographer, Jim Overmyer, was on the committee. Another dubious choice, in Olbermann's view, was Alex Pompez, ''a member of the Dutch Schultz gang, an organized crime figure, but someone upholding the standards of the Hall of Fame?"
This was supposed to be a one-time balancing of history's books, but it does not have to be.
''We're not talking about the Electoral College here, or voting on a pope," said Olbermann. ''Baseball can stretch the rules any way it wants. Bud Selig has in his pocket something called 'in the best interests of baseball' clause.
''If Selig wants to put a spin on his legacy, he should step in on this. Buck O'Neil is, by himself, a baseball Hall of Fame."
His image got a dressing up
A cynic might suggest that Barry Bonds was just warming up for his new reality TV show when he showed up in drag at Giants camp last week, doing his best Paula Abdul impression for a training camp version of ''American Idol."
But whatever his motive, Giants teammates appreciated the gesture.
''That's one of the best things I've seen this spring," said catcher Mike Matheny. ''Just the level that it brings him to. He's one of us.
''To see him do what he did, going out there and having a good time and he didn't care who saw that, spoke a lot to me, and I know that did a lot for a lot of guys in this room who felt very intimidated by him and maybe kind of separated."
Red Sox outfielder Dustan Mohr, who was with the Giants in 2004, on playing with Bonds: ''I know I might be in the minority. I don't speak for other people, but I enjoyed playing with Barry. Barry taught me a lot about playing the game.
''For whatever reason, Barry took to me from Day 1. He'd go into the cage with me a lot. We talked baseball a lot. I thought it would be kind of silly for me not to learn as much baseball from him as I could, with him being willing to talk to me, and he did. Barry's a very dynamic person."
Mohr, on whether Bonds, who has bad knees and will be 42 this summer, would play long enough to break Henry Aaron's home run record (he's 48 short): ''I think he will. I know it doesn't seem like it, but when you walk as many times as he does and you're always on base, that can be hard. And he's old.
''When I was there, he played in more games than anyone else. But I think [the knees] will hold up.
''A lot of people talk about how he may go to the American League to finish out his career as a DH, but I think he still likes playing defense. When the game's on the line, he can still make the play."
Sizing up the market in Cleveland
They're still selling Coco Crisp items at Indians camp in Winter Haven, Fla., but they're marked down 25 percent. The Tribe's big marketing push now revolves around Grady Sizemore, the outfielder whose arrival last season prompted the Indians to shift Crisp from center field to left.
''Our female market demographic research showed there were 200 percent more women watching Indians games last season," said Indians vice president Bob DiBiasio. ''Grady is the big reason. It's manifested in the 'Mrs. Sizemore' T-shirts."
When the Indians introduced the ''Mrs. Sizemore" T-shirts last season, they sold 600 in six days. The Cleveland Plain Dealer asked manager Eric Wedge if ''Mrs. Eric Wedge" T-shirts surfaced when he was a player. ''No," Wedge said. ''In fact, not even Mrs. Eric Wedge would wear a 'Mrs. Eric Wedge' T-shirt."
Indians general manager Mark Shapiro acknowledged that the trading of Crisp for top prospect Andy Marte and reliever Guillermo Mota has been received better nationally than among Tribe followers.
''Local fans are always more emotional," he said in an e-mail, ''and national analysts seem to step back, look at a deal rationally. It was not, and is not, an easy deal to understand for fans because the combination of moves attempts to balance an opportunity to fortify our future and not compromise the present.
''Fans live in the minute, and the only moves that are easy to understand and approve of in that context are for familiar names and proven commodities. In this market, with our challenges, those are not usually the kind of moves we get to make. We just need to be right in the end. In this case, being right in the end would surely make this a deal that works great for both teams because we still feel very strongly about Coco's ability."
Etc.
Material from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report. 