Breaking A Barrier

On Sunday in Cooperstown, N.Y., the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will induct by special election 17 stars and team owners who predate modern professional baseball’s integration in the mid-1940’s. One man who didn't get elected was 94 year old Buck O'Neil. It's a shame, he truly deserves it. A quote from Ric Burns:"For this series, Baseball, I had the great good fortune to meet Buck O'Neil, who ended up becoming my mentor on much more than the national sport. Buck appears throughout this documentary — as he does in this episode — sometimes telling his own personal story, sometimes giving insights into broader aspects of baseball from a series of interviews — one of them conducted in my home in Walpole, New Hampshire. Over the course of several years, we got to know one another very well, and his boundless generosity of spirit — so evident, I think, even through the television screen — ended up transforming me, my daughters, and everyone else who worked on this project. We also learned a lot about baseball. After the documentary was first broadcast in 1994, and Buck had become known to a national television audience, he told me he felt lucky to get the attention because, he said, "I've been sayin' these things for 60 years — and now people are listening." I told him we were the lucky ones, for having the chance to listen to him. The Times ran an article about the induction and included pics of the inductees. I strung them together in a slide show with an interview I found with Buck O'Neil as a soundtrack