Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown: Tell Me a Story

BUCK O’NEIL IN THE HALL … SORT OF

As I process these words on Saturday, July 26, a statue of Buck O’Neil is being unveiled in Cooperstown’s Hall of Fame. My newspaper tells me it will be hard to miss as you enter the Hall, a six-foot bronze Buck, wearing suit and tie, smiling hello. When Buck was not voted into the Hall in 2006, a special tribute was promised, and this is it.

Back in Notes #382 (October 18, 2006), I wrote this:

Buck had become, ever since Ken Burns featured him in his 1994 epic Baseball, the most visible spokesman for the old Negro Leaguers, and a true ambassador for Baseball, with a capital B. The case for Buck to be a Hall of Famer, however, was not that strong. Some argued he should go in as a coach, but the fact is that Buck probably got more press and support than any of the 17 inductees — because he was not voted in. Buck was already famous, he didn’t need the Hall; most of the 17 surely did. And if Buck goes in for story-telling and good humor, why not Joe Garagiola and Bob Uecker, and so many others? I mean into the Hall, not just the mythical “Wing” which is really a display in the museum that honors recipients of the Frick and Spink Awards.

But wait — it ain’t over till it’s over. Not in America, not when it comes to elections. The Hall of Fame has announced that it will honor Buck O’Neil anyway. Never mind how, leave that to the Hall, they know best anyway. I’m hoping that whatever they do, they do quickly, so I can see their decision when I’m there October 21. A mini-plaque? A regular plaque, but something less than bronze? Or a plaque just off the gallery? The best tribute would probably be an edited video of Buck telling his tales, that could play non-stop in the area devoted to the Negro Leagues.

I concluded that piece with a little satire, imagining that Buck gets a plaque, and the Hall gets phone calls, first from a guy that has more hits than anyone in the HOF, then maybe from Greenville, SC, about a guy with the third-best batting average of all time.

I was really hoping that the Hall might do that video tribute, and maybe they will, someday. I’m sure that it is much easier to commission a statue, than to get all the necessary permissions from the Burns folks — and a lot less expensive. And a bronze statue is nice, even though today (thanx to Disneyworld) we expect statues to move and talk. If Buck’s statue did that, it just might create a traffic problem for HOF visitors.

All kidding aside, I like the idea of honoring Buck O’Neil with a statue, giving him more bronze than a plaque would. I met Buck at a SABR Negro League workshop some years back, in Memphis, and had a catfish lunch with him, and came away with this impression: Buck is one of the great story-tellers of all time. If there was a Hall for story-tellers, Buck would be voted in, and honored with a plaque, while many great ballplayers would have to settle for a statue.

As a writer, I am obviously biased when it comes to story-telling. Stories are the glue that binds fans to players, and generations to generations, as statistics cannot. Baseball has spawned stories effortlessly — every game has them. So every game can be written about almost endlessly, to the dismay of editors. When the stories overflowed the pages of the daily newspapers, baseball spawned magazines and papers of its own. The story-telling did not end when the seasons wound down, it carried on all winter, in “hot stove leagues.” The Hall of Fame itself is built on a foundation not of concrete, but of stories.

Baseball’s appeal was always partly the activity of the players on the field — the game — and partly the conversation in the stands. We got to movies or plays or concerts and we sit in silence, but at the park, we talk, we cheer, we boo, and we tell stories. What we see on the diamond jogs memories of stuff we have seen elsewhere or heard about or read about. Thus all games are connected, in a way, knit together by stories. So loud music at a ballpark is offensive. Fans do not need to be told when to cheer.

Longtime readers of Notes will remember that I often write that giving credit where it is due is not at all an easy thing. So often, credit goes to the wrong folks, while the truly deserving are overlooked. With the unveiling of Buck O’Neil’s statue, Cooperstown is doing the right thing. And I, for one, would not mind if the statue was captioned simply, “The Story-Teller.”

COVERING-UP: STANDARD OPERATION PROCEDURE

In my B-Sox research I came across a number of earlier instances of bribery and game-tossing, so many that I started to think (and occasionally say or write) that covering-up these sins against the game’s integrity was practically “standard operating procedure” — SOP — for MLB, and probably for the minors, too. A couple examples, the bribe offered Boston catcher Lou Criger before the start of the first World Series in 1903 (his affidavit was made public decades later by Ban Johnson); and the case of Hal Chase, brought to a head (specifically, the head of the NL, John Heydler) in 1918; Prince Hal’s exoneration early in 1919 was a kind of green light for future fixers and bribers.

At the recent SABR convention, Steve Steinberg, no stranger to Notes readers, pointed me to the SABR book Deadball Stars of the National League (2004) for another example: Jack Taylor. Now here is a pretty good pitcher, who tossed 187 straight complete games between 6/20/1901 and 8/9/1906. Those interested can look up his biography easy enough.

What interested me was his pitching for the Cubs in the Chicago City Series after the 1903 season. After 21 regular-season wins, Taylor drew the series opener start, and won 11-0. But he lost his next three starts to the White Sox, 10-2, 9-3, and 4-2. He was traded in the off-season to the Cardinals, and when he returned with the Cards to Chicago, his three losses the previous fall were remembered and he was jeered by the fans.

“Why should I have won? I got $100 from [Cubs president Jim] Hart for winning and I got $500 for losing.” Hart charged Taylor publicly with tanking, but nothing was done. In July, he was accused of tossing a game to the Pirates, and Natl Commission Chairman Garry Herrmann responded by declaring that Taylor “was not an honest ballplayer.” Taylor finished the season 20-19, and 39 CGs. A hearing after the season was held — Taylor said he’d been out drinking before the game in question — he was acquitted but fined $300 for bad conduct. Taylor angrily refused to pay.

Then he was called before the Commission on charges that he tanked the 1903 City Series games, and Hart was armed with plenty of testimony. The Commission found the evidence insufficient. Taylor resumed pitching for the Cardinals, and went 15-21 the next season, 1905. In the St Louis City Series, he was again accused of tossing games, but no action was taken. He went on to win 20 in 1906, the last twelve after he was traded back to the Cubs! After a 7-5 1907, he left the majors.

Thanx to Dan “The Fix is In” Ginsburg for the Deadball Stars material. Surprising? Perhaps, but it reminds me that exhibition games were looked upon by at least some players, as less important that the regular season or “championship” games. And if the players felt that they were not getting a big enough cut of the post-season revenues, they just might cut a deal elsewhere. The lawyers defending the Black Sox had hinted that they might try that defense, in the 1921 trial — if the players contracts expired at the end of the season, then the players were under no obligation to do their best in the post-season. The prosecution was ready to counter that, and the argument never was central.

It seems odd to us today, because so many fans care so deeply about the post-season … it’s when many tune in, after paying scant attention from April thru September. But it was easier 90 or 100 years ago for a ballplayer to rationalize, Hey, it’s only a post-season EXHIBITION game, what’s the big deal if I make a few bucks on the side by a little tipping to the opposition? And I ought to mention that Jack Taylor — along with Hal Chase — is NOT on baseball’s ineligible list.

The above is an excerpt from Issue #453 of Gene’s Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown. To read the rest of the issue (or past issues), click here.