Quote:
Originally Posted by gblowfish
The Royals website mentions that today is the ten year anniversary of Buck O'Neil's passing. Hard to believe it's been ten years.
I met Buck outside the Negro League's Baseball Museum by accident one Saturday morning. My good pal Vince was in KC visiting; the Cards were in town and he grew up a Cardinals fan. So we were going to the game that night. When I picked him up from the airport we had some time to kill, so we went down to 18th and Vine. We were going to do the museum, then go over to Bryant's BBQ for lunch.
When we were walking in, Buck was walking out. I recognized him, and said something like "HOLY MOLEY....Hi Buck!!!" He shook our hands, and autographed Vince's game ticket for him. He was a gentleman, and super cool.
He passed a couple years after that.
Did any of you have any Buck O'Neil stories?
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I met him at a few different things I've been at. One was a little dedication for a local baseball field named after him. I think he was probably 92 at the time. He drives up in this huge Cadillac...he's really nice to everyone, taking pictures, etc. Every time a female would approach him for a picture he'd say something like, "Oh now, look at this one...you get real close to me for this picture..."
I had him sign a ball and he asked me where I was from. I told him I grew up Omaha and he goes right into some stories about going up there to scout Bob Gibson and trying to talk him out of playing basketball (Gibson was a star at basketball player at Creighton). Awesome guy.