Buck O'Neill Story - Part 1

Buck O'Neill, featured in Ken Burns' "Baseball" series was a great story teller. Plus, he was class act. One of his favorite stories involved the great Satchell Paige and Josh Gibson. O'Neill played 3B on Satchell's team in the Negro League's equivalent of the World Series. That day, Satchell was mowing down the opposing team with K after K. Their team was leading 1-0 going into the bottom of the 9th inning. Satchell had retired the first two batters. The 3rd batter tagged one into the gap and legged out a triple.


Before going into his stretch, Satch called Buck over and said "Buck, do you know what I'm gonna do?" To which Buck replied "Well, Satch, I'm thinking that you're gonna strike this last guy out and we'll head into the clubhouse for beer and cold cuts". Satch said "Nope, I'm gonna walk the next 2 batters". An incredulous Buck responded "Why, Satch, why do you wanna go and do that?"

Satch rubbed his chin and with mischevious look said "everyone says that Josh Gibson is the best hitter in baseball. We all know I'm the best pitcher. Let me load 'em up to get to Gibson and let's see what happens". Buck shook his head knowing that there was no talking Satch out of this crazy idea, went back to 3rd base, and watched as Satch walked the next 2 hitters intentionally to face Josh Gibson.

According to Buck, Satch struck Gibson out on 3 straight fastballs, 90, 95, and 100 mph respectively. They all ran out to Satch, shook hands, and headed into the club house. Incidentally, Buck did not mention that radar guns were not in existence in those days. A great story nontheless though a bit embellished I suspect.