Negro Leaguers, John “Buck” O’Neil, John “Bud” Fowler and Minnie Miñoso are set to join the plethora of legends in Cooperstown.
On Sunday, these three men were elected to be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2022. The 2022 National Hall of Fame Class features them alongside Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat and Tony Oliva. They will all be officially inducted into the hall at Cooperstown, New York on July 24, 2022. With the selections of Fowler, O’Neil and Miñoso the total number of Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues legends chosen for the Hall of Fame is 38. The increase comes one year after MLB announced that a number of Negro Leagues will be formally recognized as major leagues in the record books.
MLB Network: Buck O’Neil
Buck O’Neil was primarily a first basemen on the field, but later in life he found even more success off the field.
He started his professional baseball career by playing in exhibition games, or barnstorming, before signing with the Memphis Red Sox in 1937. The next year he had his contract sold to the Kansas City Monarchs. This would be the team he would spend the rest of his playing career. He was a three-time All-Star with the Monarchs and a Negro World Series champion in 1942. According to the Negro League Baseball Museum, O’Neil was the Negro American League batting champion in 1946 with a .353 average.
THAT WAS THE YEAR AFTER HE RETURNED FROM WORLD WAR II.
Off the field, O’Neil took over as the Monarchs’ player-manager in 1948. His guidance helped them win two pennants. When the Monarchs were sold in 1955, due to the Negro League’s decline and of rise of the MLB, O’Neil became a scout with the Cubs, followed later by a scouting job with the Royals. As a scout he discovered legends like Ernie Banks, Lou Brock, Lee Smith, Oscar Gamble and Joe Carter. Buck O’Neil even helped in the creation of the Negro League Baseball Museum in 1990. At 94 years of age he died. This was shortly after the first time his name was put on the 2006 ballot for the National Baseball Hall of Fame selection process.
Negro League Legends: Bud Fowler
161 years after a two-year-old Bud and the Fowler family originally moved to Cooperstown, Bud Fowler will be enshrined in the town he grew up in. He became the first African-American player in professional baseball in 1878 which was part of an incredible 30-year career. He started out his playing career as pitcher and catcher, but later down the line moved to second base.
Fowler never played for only one team during his three decades as a player. He played for more Minor League clubs and in more Minor League games than any Black player before Jackie Robinson broke the professional baseball color barrier by signing with the Dodgers in the mid-1940s. It’s believed that Fowler took more than 2,000 professional at-bats and hit .308. Fowler planted one of the many seeds on how to run and create a professional Black league. One of Bud’s most prominent efforts was the creation of the Page Fence Giants, they were the first successful Black barnstorming teams. Bud Fowler died too young at the age of 54. He died to an rib injury at second base, which led to complications 11 years after the incident.
Chicago White Sox: Remembering Minnie Miñoso
Hailing from Cuba, Minnie Miñoso is the first Black Cuban to soon be inducted into the hall. The La Habana legend was a nine-time All-Star for the Chicago White Sox and a four-time All-Star within the Negro Leagues. Miñoso won the Gold Glove three times as a left-fielder during five decades of his player career, which entails from 1949 to 1980.
Talk about longevity, sheesh.
Miñoso even led the American League in triples and stolen bases three times and finished his career with 2,110 hits and a .299 batting average. He also finished second in the 1951 American League Rookie of the Year Award voting. Minnie Miñoso’s baseball greatness trailblazed a way for Latin-American players to get into the MLB and started the White Sox-Cuban pipeline of talent. The bittersweet induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame will come after his death in 2015.
If you want to learn more about the Negro League you could head to the Negro League Baseball Museum website, maybe even visit the museum in Kansas City one day. Last year, TBS made a four part docu-series to get you caught up with little tidbits on the league. Take a look below.
TBS: “Field of Dreams…Deferred”
Only 38 Negro Leaguers are in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. It took the hall 35 years since it’s inception to induct a Negro League player who wasn’t Jackie Robinson. Satchel Paige was enshrined in 1971.
Tell us in the comment section, which other ball players is the hall missing?
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