I won't write too much now as I am still very much in shock. Maybe I'll come back and write a fuller eulogy for this truly great man. He truly was like a kindly grandfather to baseball and always seemed to have such tremendous lust for life and an almost child like joy for the sport that helped him make his reputation despite the persecution he had to endure because of it during his playing days.
This is a man who never complained about the inequities of his situation and never bore a grudge because of it. This is a man who rose above all the ignorant bigotry and chose to simply embrace what he had.
In this age of college kids holding out for lucrative deals and players jumping from one team to another looking for the next contract it lends great poignancy to the lives of those who played simply because they just loved to do so. Buck O'Neil loved baseball and, while during his life it may not have loved him back so much, I'm sure in death baseball should love him equally as much in return and I just hope wherever he is, he's on some diamond shagging flies to Babe Ruth and rubbing shoulders with John McGraw because he deserves no less than to be amongst legends.
I wish I could better express just how special a man has passed from this world but I just don't know how my words could fully express it. The world is a poorer place without him in it.
My prayers go out to his family and friends for this is a truly sad day.
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