I Was Right On Time
Author: Buck O’Neil
With
Steve Wulf &
David Conrads
Published: 1996
Pages: 254
If you call yourself a baseball
fan and you’ve never heard of Buck O’Neil—or know very little about him—you
need to do yourself two favours. The first, read this book as it covers his
journey from the celery fields of Carrabelle, Florida to the Kansas City
Monarchs of the Negro Leagues to his time as a coach in the Majors. I’ll give
you a quick review but first, let’s get to your second favour.
Watch the Ken Burns’ documentary,
“Baseball”, released in 1994. In it, you’ll find all kinds of baseball stories
and anecdotes from O’Neil, who Burns interviewed extensively throughout the
nine-part production. Buck is as witty and charming as he is knowledgeable.
From his stories about the great Negro Leagues players to his singing of “Take
Me Out to the Ballgame”, he is probably the most entertaining interviewee in
the entire documentary.
As for the book, it was
published in 1996 when he was 84 years old. By that time, he had seen everyone
from Babe Ruth and Cool Papa Bell, to Mickey Mantle and Satchel Paige, to Pete
Rose and Bo Jackson.
He tells the story of how, as a
seventeen-year old and working in the celery fields, hot and sweating, tired
and miserable, he said to himself—but out loud—“Damn, there’s got be something
better than this.” Later in the day his father, who was a foreman, told Buck he
had heard him in the fields and told him, “You’re right. There is something
better than this. But you can’t find it here. You’re going to have to go out
and get it.”
And that’s exactly what Buck
O’Neil did. He became one of the best ball players to ever play in the Negro
Leagues, and after his playing days were over, he became a manager. Throughout
the book, the reader keeps waiting for him to either complain about, or regret
never being able to play in the Majors because of segregation. But he never
does. He didn’t hold a grudge about being kept out of MLB, nor did he hold
ill-will towards those who tried to keep him out.
He does mention that he was
looking for a way out of the celery fields and baseball got him out.
Thankfulness and graciousness are the best qualities in him as he writes about
his experiences.
The best part about reading this
book is that you feel as if you are sitting across from him in his living room,
while he gets caught up in another of his wonderful stories about life in the
Negro Leagues. Everything he says holds interest and excitement and sometimes
you have to wonder if he’s exaggerating just a little bit, but at the same time
know he’s telling it from his truthful perspective.
All-in-all, this is a must read,
even if the book is 20 years old. It’s full of everything that’s good about
baseball and will make you feel like you’re enveloped in your childhood again.
It has almost been ten years
since Buck O’Neil passed (October 2006) just one month shy of his 95th
birthday. For a man born in racially-divided American, with him being on the
wrong side (or to say it better, being on the wronged side), he never presents
any dissatisfaction with his life, his career or America.
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