Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip through Buck O'Neil's America
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Overview
When legendary Negro League player Buck O'Neil asked Joe Posnanski how he fell in love with baseball, the renowned sports columnist was inspired by the question. He decided to spend the 2005 baseball season touring the country with the ninety-four-year-old O'Neil in hopes of rediscovering the love that first drew them to the game.
The Soul of Baseball is as much the story of Buck O'Neil as it is the story of baseball. Driven by a relentless optimism and his two great passions—for America's pastime and for jazz, America's music—O'Neil played solely for love. In an era when greedy, steroid-enhanced athletes have come to characterize professional ball, Posnanski offers a salve for the damaged spirit: the uplifting life lessons of a truly extraordinary man who never missed an opportunity to enjoy and love life.
Synopsis
When legendary Negro League player Buck O'Neil asked Joe Posnanski how he fell in love with baseball, the renowned sports columnist was inspired by the question. He decided to spend the 2005 baseball season touring the country with the ninety-four-year-old O'Neil in hopes of rediscovering the love that first drew them to the game.
The Soul of Baseball is as much the story of Buck O'Neil as it is the story of baseball. Driven by a relentless optimism and his two great passions—for America's pastime and for jazz, America's music—O'Neil played solely for love. In an era when greedy, steroid-enhanced athletes have come to characterize professional ball, Posnanski offers a salve for the damaged spirit: the uplifting life lessons of a truly extraordinary man who never missed an opportunity to enjoy and love life.
Publishers Weekly
Posnanski, sports columnist for the Kansas City Star, spent a year on the road with the iconic Negro Leagues player and manager Buck O'Neil (1911-2006), recording the magnanimous 94-year-old's encounters with scores of fans and his vast repertoire of entertaining stories. O'Neil, the first African-American to coach in the Major Leagues, was a tireless spokesman for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City. 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. Too often, however, Posnanski bogs down in mundane details that read like a travelogue of airports and tardy drivers. Many of the chapters have the feel of lengthy newspaper articles stitched together, lacking segues and narrative. Nevertheless, the final scenes are moving tales of the funeral of 103-year-old Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe and O'Neil's dignity when he was infamously passed over by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown. (Apr.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationEditorials
From Barnes & Noble
"If I'm a Hall of Famer for you, that's all right with me." Negro League baseball star and major league coach John "Buck" O'Neil (1911-2006) took life as it came, enjoying the game he loved deep into his 90s. He was not only the scout who signed Hall of Famer Lou Brock; he was the first African American to coach in the big leagues; and at the age of 94, he actually made two plate appearances in a minor league all-star game! In The Soul of Baseball, Buck's friend Joe Posnanski recounts his trip around "baseball America" with a legendary star and a sweet man. A must for every baseball fan.Leigh Montville
"This book is flat-out terrific...If Gandhi had played baseball, he would have been Buck O’Neill."Dave Barry
"[A] poignant, very funny, and ultimately inspiring book."Bob Costas
"Imagine, a year spent with Buck O’Neil...you don’t have to imagine it, it’s all here."Harvey Frommer
"[A] loving, lyrical effort by Joe Posnanski. One of the most original and winning baseball books in recent years."Publishers Weekly
Posnanski, sports columnist for the Kansas City Star, spent a year on the road with the iconic Negro Leagues player and manager Buck O'Neil (1911–2006), recording the magnanimous 94-year-old's encounters with scores of fans and his vast repertoire of entertaining stories. O'Neil, the first African-American to coach in the Major Leagues, was a tireless spokesman for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City. 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. Too often, however, Posnanski bogs down in mundane details that read like a travelogue of airports and tardy drivers. Many of the chapters have the feel of lengthy newspaper articles stitched together, lacking segues and narrative. Nevertheless, the final scenes are moving tales of the funeral of 103-year-old Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe and O'Neil's dignity when he was infamously passed over by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown. (Apr.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationLibrary Journal
This is a recounting of Posnanski's (Kansas City Star) travels around America and across a baseball season with fellow Kansas City-ian and Negro League legend O'Neil, who died in 2006. O'Neil reminisces about his days in black baseball, his years as a scout, and his times with Jackie Robinson and Satchel Paige. There are also some helpings of jazz appreciation along the way. Poignantly, Posnanski describes the anticipation with which O'Neil waited to hear whether he was to be one of the Negro Leaguers retroactively inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2006. For all general baseball collections.
—Bob Cottrell, Margaret Heilbrun, Paul Kaplan, Gilles Renaud Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information