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Buck O'Neil is congratulated after he was walked during a minor league all-star baseball game in Kansas City, Kan., in this July 18, 2006, file photo. The appearance made the 94-year-old O'Neil the oldest player to ever play in a professional baseball game. O'Neil was one of the great players during the days of the Negro Leagues, but his health has been declining lately. He was admitted to a hospital in Kansas City on Sept. 17. A spokesman for the Negro Leagues Museum, the creation of which O'Neil was behind, said O'Neil took a turn for the worse Thursday night. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File) |
O'Neil's health takes turn for the worse
KANSAS CITY, Mo. --Negro leagues great Buck O'Neil took a turn for the worse late Thursday but was resting comfortably in a Kansas City hospital Friday, friends said.
The 94-year-old O'Neil was admitted to the hospital Sept. 17 with extreme fatigue. O'Neil, one of the driving forces in the creation of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, has lost his voice and can only whisper.
Bob Kendrick, marketing director for the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City, said Friday that since O'Neil took a turn for the worse Thursday night there had been no change in his condition.
"The last report I got was that he was still very much aware of what's going on around him," Kendrick said. "We hope that remains the same and the outlook will be good."
A former Negro leagues batting champion and player-manager with the Kansas City Monarchs, O'Neil holds many distinctions in his long career. In February, he fell one vote short of induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
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