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I Was Right On Time My Journey From The Negro Leagues To The Majors by Buck O'Neil and Steve Wulf Fireside, 1997 | Buy the book

It was the Negro leagues that gave me an identity, but it was a lot more than just a nickname. I am proud to say it was the Negro leagues that turned me into a man. That's why this fame that's come my way so late in life is so funny to me. Thanks to Ken Burns, I became an overnight star in my eighties. But as far as I'm concerned, I felt like I was already on top of the world when I got to play with and against some of the best ballplayers who ever lived. In 1942, our Kansas City Monarchs beat the mighty Homestead Grays of Josh Gibson in the Negro World Series. I also met my wife Ora that year. That was a very good year. I never felt higher on top of the world than I did that year.

The big-leaguers might not have known who I was, but that was okay, because when I first thought of playing baseball for a living I never thought I would play major league baseball. I thought major league baseball was a white man's game. It was a thrill and a privilege to play against the big-leaguers in all-star games, and you know, we did pretty well against those boys, and it made us believe we did belong up in the bigs.

But it just meant more to a black kid from the Deep South to know that millions of my people knew who I was. Believe you me, by the time those people were calling me Buck, I knew I had it made.

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