Buck O'Neil: Carrabelle's gift to baseball

During the first half of the 20^th century, baseball was an important part of Franklin County culture.

Announcement of games and rundowns afterwards regularly made the front page of the Times.

Joe Barber, 89, remembers when Apalachicola had a half dozen teams sponsored by local businesses and matches between Apalachicola teams and teams from Carrabelle and Port St Joe were commonplace.

He never made the Baseball Hall of Fame, but John Jordan “Buck” O’Neil is generally recognized as the greatest ballplayer to come out of Franklin County and his career was characterized by integrity and service to the game he loved and the African American community.

Born in Carrabelle on Nov. 13, 1911, he moved to Jacksonville as a teenager to attend high school. At the time, Florida had only four high schools specifically for African Americans.

O’Neil attended Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, where he completed high school and two years of college courses. He left Florida in 1934 and joined a semi-professional "barnstorming" baseball team playing interracial exhibition games. 

In 1937, O'Neil signed with the Memphis Red Sox for their first year of play in the newly-formed Negro American League. His contract was sold to the Kansas City Monarchs the following year. He was first baseman for the Monarchs and became its manager in 1948.

The only break in his sports career came when he joined the Navy and served in 1944 and 1945. He continued to play at least through 1951 and remained on the roster as a part-timer until 1955.

O'Neil had a career batting average of .288 between 1937 and 1950, including five .300-plus seasons at the plate.

In 1946, he led the Negro American League with a .350 batting average. He also posted averages of .344 in 1940 and .330 in 1949. He played in four East-West All-Star Games in three different seasons and two Negro League World Series.

In 1955 the Monarchs changed hands and O’Neil resigned and became a scout for the Chicago Cubs and in 1962 was named to the coaching staff, the first African American coach of a major league team.

After 33 years with the Cubs he returned to Kansas City in 1988 and became a scout for the Royals. He was named Midwest Scout of the Year in 1998.

O'Neil gained national prominence with his compelling descriptions of the Negro leagues as part of a 1994 PBS documentary by Ken Burns..

After retiring, O’Neil received numerous honorary degrees and other honors. He also led the effort to establish the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, and served as its honorary board chairman until his death in Oct. 2006.

He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2006. On October 24, 2007, a Lifetime Achievement Award was named after him by the Baseball Hall of Fame.

He was a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame Veterans Committee from 1981 to 2000 and played an important role in the induction of six Negro League players.  O'Neil was nominated to a special Hall ballot for Negro League players, managers, and executives in 2006, but received fewer than the necessary nine votes to gain admission.