Comfortably Zoned with Ralph Zig Tyko

Buck O’ Neil, The Soul Of Baseball.

March 25, 2007 at 4:06 pm (Baseball, Fantasy Baseball)

As you know gentle/gentile readers, I’m always looking for the baseball’s MVR [Most Valuable Read]. As a fantasy baseball participant looking for sleepers, I highly [no pun] recommend Baseball America’s fine publication, “Prospect Handbook.” Whether a player fulfills his potential in any given year, more often than not, is determined by his place in the organization he signed with. This book is a freakin’ gem.

Next to arrive is Buck O’Neil’s “Soul of Baseball.” I miss his storytelling. Jim Rome had him on his great syndicated show and Buck told the tale about the Great Confrontation. Satchel Paige pitching to Josh Gibson, both men in their prime in a game that meant something. Buck, the manager, asking Satch [the legend] what he planned to dish up to, arguably, the greatest hitter of all time. “I’ll throw a pea to his knee and smoke to his yoke.”

It’s been months. I’ve written about it on these pages and expressed my opinion every chance I get. I’m still enraged so allow me to reiterate, once again, this horrible injustice: the members of the committee who chose to exclude John Buck O’Neil from the Hall of Fame are either ignorant or stupid.