Buck O'Neil in the Hospital

[trainwreck]

O'Neil hospitalized with exhaustion, friends worried
Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Buck O'Neil has been hospitalized because of extreme fatigue, and friends are becoming increasingly worried about the 94-year-old former Negro Leagues player.

O'Neil spent about three days in the hospital in August, then was readmitted about 10 days ago. An official of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City said he visited Buck on Tuesday and that he was still very weak.

"He's very fatigued and he's lost his voice," Bob Kendrick, the museum's marketing director, said Tuesday. "Buck can only talk at a whisper. It's my understanding that doctors are continuing to do tests and they still are not sure what the problem is.

"Everybody is very concerned. He's almost 95 years old, and he's been on an exhausting schedule since last February."

O'Neil barely missed being voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in February when a special committee considered several dozen Negro League and pre-Negro League figures.

His many noteworthy accomplishments during an eventful lifetime of baseball include being a star player and manager for the Kansas City Monarchs in the 1940s and '50s and becoming the first African-American to serve as a coach in the major leagues.

For many years, he has traveled the country keeping alive the legacy of the Negro Leagues and its unique niche in American history. He has become one of the most-sought speakers in all of sports.

"Since February, he has not had the schedule that one would ever think that a 94-year old man would have," Kendrick said. "The wide array of emotion, and the mental and physical drain of not getting voted into the Hall of Fame I'm sure took its toll.

"He was honored by San Diego State University and he was honored in Cleveland.

"He did a million television and radio interviews, he was the grand marshal of the St. Patrick's Day parade in Kansas City. Then he was at spring training with the Royals, appeared on the field for opening day and spoke at the Hall of Fame induction in Cooperstown."

O'Neil first was hospitalized shortly after he batted in the first inning of the Northern League All-Star game and was intentionally walked, becoming the oldest man to appear in a professional baseball game. The temperature that afternoon when he stood at the plate and swung at a pitch was in the 90s.

In the meantime, friends are planning a huge party in November marking O'Neil's 95th birthday. A host of baseball stars and other sports figures, along with politicians, entertainers and community leaders, are expected among the roughly 750 guests.

And, in a special recognition of the playful and endearing personality of the man being honored, the women at the party will be asked to wear red.

As Kendrick explained, he and O'Neil and another friend were in New York about a year ago walking back to their hotel after a long day of personal appearances.

"A woman who appeared to be in her 30s walked by in a red dress. We kept going, and then we looked back and noticed that Buck had gone back and was engaged in an animated conversation with her," Kendrick said.

When O'Neil rejoined his friends a few minutes later, they asked if he knew the woman.

"No," he told them with a wink. "But one thing in this life, son, you never pass up an opportunity to talk to a woman in a red dress."

Kendrick said when he visited him in the hospital on Tuesday, O'Neil motioned for him to come near so he could make himself understood.

"He asked me, 'Are the women really going to wear red?' I told him yes.

"Then he just smiled and said, 'Man, I've got to be there.'"

Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press


I hope for the best for Buck.