Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip through Buck O'Neil's America
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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 WeeklyPosnanski, 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 Information
Warming Up a Riff 1Buck O'Neil's America 8WinterThey Can't Take That Away from Me 27Nicodemus 35SpringI Like to Recognize the Tune 55A Ballgame in Houston 62It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) 82Buck O'Neil Day 89SummerBlue Skies 107New York, New York 115These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You) 128Fathers and Sons 135Summertime 154Gary, Indiana 161I'd Rather Have a Memory Than a Dream 175Classrooms in Atlanta 185Isn't This a Lovely Day? 201AutumnI Got a Right to Sing the Blues 215A Funeral in Chicago 226Washington 240Winter (Take 2)Home 255Afterword 271Afterword to the Paperback Edition 275Acknowledgments 281
