COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -Buck O’Neil can still bring out a crowd in Cooperstown. Two years after his memorable speech on behalf of African American baseball pioneers inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, hundreds of fans and media as well as 14 Hall of
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -Buck O’Neil can still bring out a crowd in Cooperstown.
Two years after his memorable speech on behalf of African American baseball pioneers inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, hundreds of fans and media, as well as 14 Hall of Famers, gathered Friday at the museum for the dedication of a statue in honor of O’Neil, who died in 2006.
A life-size statue of O’Neil was unveiled at the Hall of Fame over the weekend and represents the Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award, which honors an individual whose extraordinary efforts to enhance baseball’s positive impact on society have broadened the game’s appeal, and whose character, integrity and dignity are comparable to O’Neil’s.
O’Neil is the first recipient of the award and was recognized at Sunday’s induction ceremony.
Also honored during Hall of Fame ceremonies Sunday was the late Boston Globe sportswriter Larry Whiteside.
A former baseball writer for the Globe and one of the first Black members of the Baseball Writer’s Association of America, Whiteside, who died earlier this year, received the J.G. Taylor Spink Award.
Whiteside’s career spanned 45 years, 31 of them at the Globe. He’s known for starting the Black List, a database of qualified African American journalists, which started in 1971 with nine names and grew to more than 90. The list helped sports editors from major newspapers find qualified African American writers to hire.
Whiteside became the first African American to qualify for Hall of Fame voting in 1980 when he had put 10 years of service time as a baseball writer for a major newspaper. He started his career at the Kansas City Kansan in 1959 after graduating from Drake University. “Sides” also spent many years at the Milwaukee Journal.
Whiteside began covering the Red Sox for the Globe in 1973 and later became the paper’s national baseball writer.
“My father began his career in the late 1950s,” said his son Tony Whiteside, who accepted the award in his honor, “a time when systematic racial segregation and low expectations for African Americans were still deeply woven into the social fabric. But he overcame the odds, and he enjoyed great success over his career. And he did so with dignity and great selfrespect. And we are very proud that he chose to be a mentor and foster the progress of many African American journalists.”
AP
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