The Soul of Baseball (23 page)
Read The Soul of Baseball Online
Authors: Joe Posnanski
I
’m a compulsive acknowledgments-page reader, probably because I love to see who people know. Of course, it now occurs to me you don’t have to actually know the people you acknowledge, and so I want to thank Bruce Springsteen, Nick Hornby, Jerry Seinfeld, Natalie Portman, Jon Stewart, Chris Rock, Meryl Streep, Ben Folds, and numerous other cool people who may or may not have had any actual impact on this book.
Thanks again to Mike Vaccaro, Jim Banks, Richard Bush, Ken Burger, Brian Hay, Michael MacCambridge, Ian O’Connor, Tommy Tomlinson, Adrian Wojnarowski, and Bill James for helping shape this book in different ways. The good stuff in here is theirs. Thanks to the
Kansas City Star,
and in particular my friends and bosses Mike Fannin, Mark Zieman, and Holly Lawton, who encouraged me through write the book even if it meant missing a few newspaper columns. Thanks to my literary agent and publisher. Sloan Harris made this book possible. David Highfill made it better. William Morrow & Company made it.
Thanks to my in-laws, Cecil and Judy Keller, for their babysitting and love during the book crunch. Thanks to my own parents, Frances and Steven, and my brothers Tony and David. Thanks especially to my daughters, Elizabeth and Katie, for keeping me sane by attacking me with very small dolls.
So many people helped during the year I spent with Buck, and I will undoubtedly forget some. Here’s my best effort: Thank you to the good people at Roadway and rEvolution, Annie Presley-Selanders, numerous Major League baseball teams, Bob Turnauckas, Tony Oliva, Mudcat Grant, Willie Mays, Monte Irvin, Dave Winfield, Hank Aaron, Jimmy Wynn, Ernie Banks, Lou Brock, Luis Tiant, Joe Delamielleure, Billy Williams, Minnie Minoso, J. C. Hartman, and countless former Negro Leaguers who generously shared stories and feelings. Most of all I thank Don Motley, Ray Doswell, and the people at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City. Some proceeds from this book will go to the museum, and I cannot recommend strongly enough that you see this magical place for yourself. Check it out at www.nlbm.com.
There are two acknowledgments that must be set apart. First, I want to thank my friend Bob Kendrick, who went along for most of this trip and helped make it possible. This is his book as much as it is mine. And second, I want to thank my love, my best friend, and my first editor, Margo, who said a few years ago, “You need to write a book about Buck O’Neil,” and then patiently and lovingly suffered the consequences of those words. This book is dedicated to her. I hope this entire book serves as a thank-you to Buck O’Neil.
A sports columnist for the
Kansas City Star
,
JOE POSNANSKI
is a two-time winner of the AP Sports Columnist of the Year Award—the nation’s most prestigious sports writing honor—and has been nominated fifteen times for awards by the Associated Press Sports Editors.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
RAISE
FOR
The Soul of Baseball
“Posnanski masterfully conveys O’Neil’s charisma and the rhythm of his words…. A worthy paean to an American legend.”
—
Kirkus Reviews
(starred review)
“A story that positively cried out to be told…. A treasure trove of history…. Stirring, moving, and more than a little sad.”
—
Booklist
(starred review)
“Buck O’Neil was not one of the greatest baseball players in the pre-integrated days of the Negro Leagues, but when he died last year at ninety-four, he was the most beloved…. A big-hearted memoir of a friendship. O’Neil believed the two greatest things are baseball and jazz. At its best,
The Soul of Baseball
riffs like a piece of baseball jazz.”
—
USA Today
“Posnanski is at his best when recounting O’Neil’s baseball memories of the likes of legends Satchel Paige, Willie Mays, and Josh Gibson. The author captures O’Neil’s rhythmic voice and often relays it in italicized verse, while painting an uplifting portrait of a man who was without bitterness despite long experience with racial discrimination.”
—
Publishers Weekly
“You won’t read a better baseball book this year.”
—
Newsday
“Engaging and spirit-lifting…. Much like Mitch Albom’s Morrie, O’Neil possesses a relentless, infectious optimism. He makes folks feel good…. Posnanski’s writing strikes a lovely overall tone, avoiding a descent into mawkishness. While the dark side of the Negro Leagues inevitably emerges, players being shut out of restaurants and absorbing ugly epithets, O’Neil’s positive nature always endures…. Coming from an indefatigably sunny ninety-four-year-old, it seems an instruction for how to live.”
—
Sports Illustrated
“A moving elegy for both the Negro Leagues and one of the game’s biggest personalities.”
—
Entertainment Weekly
“Go read a new book called
The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America
by
Kansas City Star
sports columnist Joe Posnanski…. I expected this book to be uplifting, because O’Neil was one of the cheeriest people on the planet…. But I had no idea it would be so moving. If your eyes don’t get moist by the end, perhaps the air is too dry in your casket.”
—Michael Rosenberg,
Detroit Free Press
“A moving portrait.”
—
Baltimore Sun
“A memorable read…. Plenty of great stories…. The games, the players, and the hijinks on and off the field that O’Neil enjoyed are presented by Mr. Posnanski with grace and style. But Mr. Posnanski’s triumph in
Soul
is presenting readers with the humanity of Buck O’Neil, a great American and a man well worth spending a few innings with…. Mr. Posnanski has twice been selected as the best sports columnist in America by the Associated Press Sports Editors. Reading
Soul
, it’s easy to see why.”
—
Washington Times
“A fascinating account of a man who outlasted the ignorance of a nation and perservered to become a beloved figure…. One of the best baseball books in years, filled with depth, style, and clarity. Even better, [Posnanski] offers readers insight into a remarkable man….
The Soul of Baseball
tracks the arc of both the Negro Leagues and Buck O’Neil. Buy it for the inspiration inside, a perfect baseball book for spring.”
—
Cleveland Plain Dealer
“In
The Soul of Baseball
, Joe Posnanski presents the most energetic and delightful ambassador baseball has ever had. But that is only the beginning of O’Neil’s story, and the achievement of Posnanski’s book is that it goes beyond what O’Neil has done for baseball to document in loving detail the story of a man who figured out early how to live every day with joy.”
—
Boston Sunday Globe
“[Posnanski] can flat-out write. How good is his book? It’s right there with Robert Creamer’s
Babe
…. It’s so good we’d carry Posnanski’s luggage through La Guardia [airport] on the travel day before Game 3 of the World Series…. A word of caution: This book should not be read on an airplane unless you want a flight attendant offering you Kleenex.”
—
Toronto Sun
“Even if you’re not a baseball fan, this is a book you should read. It is a lovely little book about a lovely man. It is
Tuesdays with Morrie
, only more believable and more affecting.”
—
Richmond Times-Dispatch
“Throw all of your self-help books into a dust bin. Want to live better, live longer, know what it’s all about? Travel with Buck O’Neil, wondrous ninety-four-year-old baseball philosopher, as he dispenses history, wisdom, and jaw-dropping stories in the last year of his life. Joe Posnanski not only writes it all down with great style but also serves us nuance and context, colors, sounds, and heaping portions of irony. This book is flat-out terrific.
Tuesdays with Morrie
? Every day with Buck. If Gandhi had played baseball, he would have been Buck O’Neil.”
—Leigh Montville, author of
The Big Bam
and
Ted Williams
“I don’t care what your troubles are: This book will make you smile. Joe Posnanski, a brilliant observer and gifted writer, has found a wonderful subject in Buck O’Neil, Negro League baseball legend and world-class philosopher—a man who always found a way, no matter what life threw at him, to have happiness in his heart. I never had the honor of meeting Buck O’Neil, but I feel as if I know him well, thanks to this poignant, very funny, and ultimately inspiring book.”
—Dave Barry
“I cherish every moment I ever spent with Buck O’Neil. I’m sure readers will cherish
The Soul of Baseball
because Buck was every bit of that, and because Joe Posnanski is a very talented and lucky man. Imagine, a year spent with Buck O’Neil…. You don’t have to imagine it, it’s all here.”
—Bob Costas
“Sadly, Buck O’Neil has passed, but happily he comes alive in page after page of this loving, lyrical effort by Joe Posnanski. One of the most original and winning baseball books in recent years.”
—Harvey Frommer
“If Joe Posnanski’s
The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America
doesn’t rank as the best baseball book I’ve read when we flip the calendar to 2008, then I can’t wait to get the book that does…. O’Neil is every bit the teacher, philosopher, and character that Mitch Albom’s now-famous Morrie was, and we’re all the richer for being able to read the story…. This book is a treasure—one of those rare reads that I didn’t want to end.”
—CBS SportsLine.com
“Do yourself a favor and buy Joe Posnanski’s
The Soul of Baseball
…. You’ll read this delightful book in a couple of days and immediately forward it to a friend. It’s that good…. Highly, highly recommended.”
—Jim Caple, ESPN.com
“Few could have written this book,
The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America
and made the language dance with grace, poetry, and humanity as
Kansas City Star
sports columnist Joe Posnanski has done. It was as if
The Soul of Baseball
was meant to be.”
—MLB.com
“A brilliant book.”
—Ian O’Connor, FOXSports.com
“If you read one baseball book this year, make it
The Soul of Baseball
by Joe Posnanski…. I read it in three days, and it kept me up too late at night. Mudcat Grant, Leon Wagner, Satchel Paige…so many great names, great stories, told by a great baseball man.”
—
Akron Beacon Journal
“Posnanski is arguably the best baseball writer in the business and O’Neil was full of charm and stories about the Negro Leagues and about life, so I shouldn’t have been surprised that
The Soul of Baseball
was a great book. I’d make a
Tuesdays with Morrie
analogy, except Leigh Montville already beat me to that comparison on the back of the book. Anyway, I enjoyed
Soul
more than
Tuesdays
. You don’t have to be a baseball fan to enjoy
Soul
, and it’s both poignant and humorous.”
—Jim Callis at
Baseball America
and ESPN
“If you’re like me, then many of your favorite books got that way because the author and subject are a perfect matchup for each other. I’ve read only a handful of books like this. They include Richard Ben Cramer on presidential candidates and campaigning (
What It Takes
), David Halberstam on the media (
The Powers That Be
), and William Manchester on Winston Churchill (
The Last Lion
). Now I have a new addition for this rarefied group: Joe Posnanski on Buck O’Neil, in a new book called
The Soul of Baseball
.”
—John Lowe,
Detroit Free Press
“When I read
The Soul of Baseball
, the fantastic new book that takes author Joe Posnanski across America for a year with Buck, I couldn’t help but miss [Buck O’Neil].”
