The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America

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Is The Soul of Baseball a book about baseball? No.
Is The Soul of Baseball a biography of Buck O'Neil? No.

The Soul of Baseball is about life, the joys of living. Those little things we may do during the day that puts a smile on someone's face, that makes someone stop and - however briefly - put living back into its proper perspective.

Yes, Buck O'Neil brought joy through talking about baseball - Negro Leagues Baseball - and through his recollections from a blessed life. But, more importantly, he held a mirror up to us and made the simple request to look for our heart & soul, and then share that warmth with as many people as possible.

Author Joe Posnanski spent more than a year on the road with Buck O'Neil, chronicling the more than 200 events he attended nationwide at the ages of 93 and 94; from the largest to smallest ballparks, schools & media junkets and even to Washington, D.C. to give testimony before a Senate committee on why the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum deserved national designation.

There was poetry to many statements from Buck O'Neil, which Posnanski makes special for the reader. His recollections on a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, baseball camp run by a friend, Willie Spooner, says it best:

Nothing better
Than baseball. For kids.
Teach them all the lessons.
How to be a teammate.
How to be a man.
Nobody does it for you.
Gotta stand up.
I remember Willie
Used to tell those kids in Baton Rouge
It's better to steal second
Than to steal an apple.

You will laugh and cry and won't want the book to end. But books, like life, must have a final page.

Buck O'Neil passed away on October 6, 2006, at the age of 94. Share a smile with someone today and Buck O'Neil really isn't that far away. He still has that mirror in his hand, but this time he doesn't need any words; loving life needs no explanation.

As someone who makes their living writing about baseball, Joe Posnanski is an inspiration. This is his first full-length book and he doesn't disappoint. He's made the story and humanity of Buck O'Neill something precious and poignant. He captured the side of Buck that we didn't often get to see. He was more than a symbol or a legend, he was a man. By capturing that spirit, we all get to hold onto the gift that O'Neill left for us - a joy for life, for a game, and for friendship. If Posnanski inspires me to write, O'Neill's story inspires me to live. If there's a better combination out there, I haven't found it.

- Will Carroll, Baseball Prospectus

My son, Jeremy, always gives me good books. He doesn't just pick up the latest best-seller, but takes the time to choose something special just for me. He hit a home run with The Soul of Baseball by Joe Posnanski. It's the story of an extended road trip Posnanski took with legendary Negro League player and manager Buck O'Neil. The lessons learned along the way are great ones for sons and fathers to share.

Posnanski, an award-winning sports columnist for the Kansas City Star, chose not to write a biography of the irrepressible O'Neil, even though the story could bear to be told over and over again. Instead, he penned a moving memoir of the year he spent with the then-93-year-old O'Neil as he toured the country promoting the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City and the memory of those men who played the game in the days before whites and blacks could share the field. The trip takes them everywhere from Nicodemus, Kansas, to New York, New York, and O'Neil has a fascinating story to tell at every stop.

He talks about Satchel Paige, Willie Mays, and Josh Gibson, names that will always be enshrined in baseball's collective memory. But he also tells the tales of forgotten men like Dan Bankhead, the first black pitcher in the major leagues, who would have been a great hurler if he hadn't been afraid to pitch fastballs inside against white batters.

The key theme of the book is Buck O'Neil's spirit-lifting embrace of the best in every person he met. Despite years of back-breaking struggle, O'Neil never turned bitter, never condemned anyone for their prejudice, never had a bad word to say about the often ugly conditions the black ball players endured. Even when he failed to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Buck O'Neil refused to be angry about it. To make up for the egregious mistake, the Hall awarded him a Lifetime Achievement Award after his death.

The lessons Posnanski drew from his experiences with O'Neil are well worth telling and the book he created from them is well worth reading.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds: A Novel of Scandal, Love and Death in the Congo

"The Soul of Baseball" is the most entertaining and engaging book on sports I've read, since I discovered W.P. Kinsella's "Shoeless Joe Jackson" (which would later become "Field of Dreams") in 7th grade, 20 years ago.

The great sportswriters can interpret the events from the field and the locker room, and craft them into stories that Joe & Jill Everyman can relate to. Nobody in the country is better at this than Joe Posnanski, Kansas City Star scribe, and two-time AP Sports Columnist of the Year.

With "The Soul of Baseball," Posnanski unveils the amazing id, ego, and super-ego of Buck O'Neil, a baseball icon and civil rights pioneer, on par with Jackie Robinson and Branch Ricky. O'Neil is more than a charismatic man, who tells great stories; he is a force of nature, a hurricane of love, affecting anyone who crosses in his path.

Posnanski follows the former player, coach, and scout as O'Neil educates the world about Negro League baseball. At 93-years-old, O'Neil's adventures in a 21st century America bring him into contact with cynical New York shock jocks, Negro League pretenders, and the occasional woman in a red dress. He embraces each one with the same amount of love and joie de vivre.

"The Soul of Baseball" is a great book for baseball fans, fathers and sons, and anyone who interested in one of the most remarkable individuals to live in the past century.

You'll want to re-read "The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America" again and again, and gift it to as many friends and family members as possible.

If and when you get the opportunity of a lifetime, are you going to do it justice, or are you going to blow it?

Joe Posnanski, a gifted observer and writer, got that opportunity when he spent a year traveling with Buck O'Neil, a true American icon. It turned out to be the last year of Buck's life, but despite the fact that he was 94, it was certainly eventful as the other 93 had been.

Posnanski began with the intention of writing a book about the Negro Leagues, for which Buck was the somewhat official spokesman. In the end, it was a portrait of an amazing man and a life well lived. And in that portrait, it is, as well, a painting (not a photo, but a watercolor painting) of the Negro Leagues and the men that were a part of it.

There are no words that can do this book and this man justice. Every chapter is a beautiful story that is guaranteed to make you laugh and simultaneously cry. Just read it. Posnanski took his opportunity of a lifetime and blasted it out of the park.

When I finished the book, I told my wife that I want her to put a copy of this book in my coffin when I'm gone. Maybe it will help me have an after-life well lived. It's sure to help me here.

This is a must-read for any true baseball fan or historian. Buck O'Neil is one of my heroes, and Mr. Posnanski does a wonderful job of capturing his beautiful spirit. Great interviews with other former players, stories of how the Negro Leagues really operated, all-around a great and tremendously moving book.

Every once in a while, You witness a journalistic perfect storm, where everything comes together like magic. Start with spending a year traveling the country with Buck O'Neil, getting his insights into life, while tossing in a ton of memories, as only Buck could share them. Have it written by Joe Posnanski, one of the best baseball writers around. Then sit back and enjoy.
What a lucky man JoPo is to have spent so much time with Buck. Hopefully, enough material is left for another book. But Joe has certainly paid his dues. Growing up cheering for some terrible Indians teams, and now covering the Royals, he deserved a break, and Buck was it.
It's hard to describe this book, in that it's a baseball book that isn't about baseball. It's a civil rights book that isn't about civil rights. And it's a self improvement book that may not improve you. After all, if you already see the world like Buck did, you simply do not need improving. It is very inspiring, though not in a religious way. Buck just loved everyone and found good in everybody. Joe brings all that out to the reader and does a fantastic job. Very highly recommended.

Joe Posnanski is a Great Writer. Buck O'Neil was a Great Baseball Player&Humanitarian. the storys in this book will truly touch your Soul. O'Neil taught so many people about the Great Players that played in the Negro League. O'Neil also took us on a Journey and the messages were very up-lifting from start to finish. this Book captures so many emotions from start to finish. RIP{ to Buck O'Neil a true Trail-Blazer.

I found the book very readable and never really got bored with it. I would have liked more in depth stories from when Buck played and managed. Most of the reminisces were short and sweet versions. All and all, I did enjoy the book and consider it a good book, not a great book.

I can't help but wonder if the 22 reviews -- all giving this book 5 stars -- are some of the author's closest friends. I am not saying I didn't like the book, but the writing was drab. Through the first few chapters, I got it, Buck O'neal was a good man. So, I'm just saying that the stories were not told in a way that made me connect with Mr. O'Neal --he was just a nice guy and then he died. There are a few editing errors as well, which made it confusing. I am by no means a critic of writing, but I just don't see the amazing book everyone else here did -- anyone agree with me?

For the baseball time traveler, this sojourn through the memories of Buck O'Neil, ball player, scout, coach, manager, and erstwhile spokesman for the old Negro Leagues, is a lift-your-spirits stroll through the good and bad of America's game. The author, Joe Posnanski, endearingly takes you along for an enchanting ride with O'Neil, and their conversations on the ground and in the air are some of the best life sketches of pre and post World War II baseball that you can imagine. Through Posnanski's gentle prose, the reader is effortlessly escorted back to both sides of Twenty-seventh Street in Kansas City, the long past dividing line between blacks and whites, and you travel close by Buck's memories, sometimes how he wants it remembered and other times how it was. O'Neil recreates his best baseball day, Easter Sunday 1943, when he met his wife, Ora, and through him, you can almost hear Hoagy Carmichael play piano at the Pla-Mor, Kansas City's entertainment spot. You marvel at conversations between Tony Oliva and Buck, as they knowingly reminisce about the split-fingered fastball and its not-so-distant lineage to the spitball; and with Monte Irvin, who almost became America's first black Major Leagues player.

While the book could have benefited from an index, Posnanski's writing typically teases you as with the Nancy story, and not until nearly half way through are you finally served this hilarious morsel as Satchel Paige and Buck share their Nancy moment. Moreover, you beam with pride as Ford Frick risks the very existence of the National League to smash bigotry. Time and again the reader experiences O'Neil's generosity, as I did in May 2004, with words of wisdom and an autograph. You also enjoy pranks, such as one with Harry Truman's favorite jazz singer, Julia Lee. Yes, Buck tells us that Negro Leagues players were good, and perhaps the memories of broken down buses, rocky playing fields and racism rightly fades or at least it does in the mind of Buck O'Neil. Maybe in the end this book dissects two elixirs, hope and androsteadione, the muscle-enhancing drug of some fallen or near-fallen baseball stars. When a young lady tells Buck, "You are so filled with hope," he responds, "What else is there in the world?" O'Neil's favorite hit was the triple, and while he may not be yet in the Hall of Fame, this road trip through Buck's America is a solid triple packed with class.

Joe Poz is a great author. He is consistently funny, clever, witty, and smart. I was once a huge baseball fan, but have lost much of that passion as the game has been altered, all for the worse, over the years. But I have returned to baseball partly because of Joe's writing.

Despite the title, this book is not about baseball. It is not funny, clever or witty in the way his daily columns are. Sure, he's still a fine writer, and he still gets off a nice one here and there. But Buck O'Neil, while living his life in and around baseball for most of the Twentieth Century, was far more than a ballplayer or coach or scout. He was a man who knew how to live in a Tolstoyan sense. And a book about him is about life and the choices we make. When faced with the opportunity to choose anger and hatred, an anger that everyone in the world would have congratulated and rewarded, Buck O'Neil repeatedly chose love. Pure and simple. When offered hate, he chose love. Over and over and over.

There are lots of good reviews here. Read them. But don't stop there. Buy the book. We need to know what love is. Buck's life embodies it, manifests it, and displays it. You will know more about life, and how it should be lived, when you finish these pages. And you will start thinking, "I wonder what Buck would do in this circumstance?" A great read. About a great man.

For the past five years or so, my friend Jim Clark, who lives in the Kansas City area, has been sending me clipped newspaper columns by Joe Posnanski, a sports writer for the Kansas City Star. I've been reading sports pages for more than 50 years, and I grew up with access to much of the best sportswriting in the USA. Living halfway between NYC and Philadelphia, in my youth I was able to read the work of Red Smith and many other big city reporters. In my hometown, Trenton, N.J., one of the best baseball writers of all time toiled for our daily tabloid, The Trentonian. His name was Bus Saidt. I was never a full-time sports writer myself, but partly due to my admiration for these craftsmen I did become a reporter and editor for newspapers for 15 years. I think I bring to the genre an educated expertise. And I declare that "Joe Pos" is one of the finest sports journalists working today. In fact, a colleague of his on the Star, Jason Whitlock, is almost as good, making Kansas City a great place to live for sports fans, no matter how badly the Royals are doing. Well Joe Pos is the author of this fine book, which is not a biography of Buck O'Neil, but rather a portrait of the grace with which Buck handled old age, celebrity, earning a living in his 80's and 90's by lecturing and traveling, disappointment, and dying. Within these pages is a treatise on overcoming discrimination, perservering in the face of many obstacles, and facing each day with optimism. You will learn a lot about the history of black men playing professional baseball in the first half of the century, but even more about one man's relationship to life itself.
Buck was almost universally beloved during the last 20 years of his time on earth, as a historian, story-teller, fund-raiser, and philosopher. I recently made my first trip to Kansas City, and one of my stops was the Negro Leagues Museum downtown. It shares a historic corner with the American Jazz Museum, and both sites are well worth a visit. The baseball museum was O'Neil's crusade in the past two decades, but he loved jazz as well. I like both jazz and baseball, too, and I like Joe Posnanski's skillful prose, and I like the man named John Jordan O'Neil who is put on display in "The Soul of Baseball."

This is my first review of anything on Amazon and I am sure that it will also be my last. However, I had to share the feelings that I have right now. I finished reading this book about 15 minutes ago and I don't think I have ever wanted a book to never end more than this one. This book is a little bit baseball, and little bit stories, and a little bit wit and wisdom. It is a lot like the jazz that Buck loved so much. Even if you don't really like baseball this book will touch you like not many other books can or will. It will grab your heart because this book is about a man that we can all learn from. Mr. O'Neil's life is a wonderful testimony of what being "better not bitter" is all about. When Buck spoke at the Baseball Hall of Fame where 17 Negro Leaguers were inducted into the Hall he had everyone there hold hands and sing with him, "The greatest thing, in all my life, is loving you." Well Buck, let me just say, the greatest thing for all of us was loving you.

Joe Posnanski has blended two glorious stories into one volume. The author's year on the road with O'Neil is a glorious tale of love and forgiveness, of choosing hope and enlightenment over anger and resentment. Buck kept talking and hugging, allowing people of all ages to comprehend the Negro Leagues beyond the myths and stereotypes. With refreshing honesty, O'Neill related that he felt the main reason Negro Leaguers never used steroids was because steroids weren't available! As the world met O'Neill and Posnanski, the author saw a man who chose joy over regret. Despite all he was deprived, O'Neill loved baseball and life until the end. A standing ovation for Posnanski, who gives just enough timely detail to set the stage for O'Neil's jubilant adventures, all without hogging the spotlight. Talented authors don't have to prove themselves with literary strutting.
O'Neill's simple, profound wisdom sings like poetry. In fact, Posnanski calls some of Buck's observations haiku. He showcases these Zen-like insights in short stanzas, allowing the words to sparkle in italics. Try reading the book again, savoring only these lyrical sidelines. You'll see that O'Neill was more than a baseball legend. He was a poet!

Learn about the Negro leagues and get an inside look at Buck O'Neil. Interviews with other players who know O'Neil are included.

The Soul of Baseball illuminates what life can be. It would help anyone get past their bitterness and see that life is about what I can do today and not what happened yesterday or what will happen tomorrow.

Poz is one of the best writers in the business. Thanks for writing a really great book about a great baseball man. Buck's is a great American story and the way it's written makes you feel like you're on the road trip with them.

This book got to me, in a very good way.

Buck's stories are funny and poignant, and we as readers definitely learn some history if we pay attention. But even more than that we can learn from Buck O'Neil's outlook on life. He was patient, caring, outspoken in an articulate and positive way (something our politicians should learn how to do), and he had grace. More than anything else reading about Buck O'Neil was a lesson on how to live with grace.

I want to tell you the last words of the book, but I won't.

If you like baseball, people or life you will like this book.

Highly recommended!!

Sometimes a great author writes a 5-star book, and sometimes he must only get out of the way and let 5-star material shine through. "The Soul of Baseball" is one of the latter. This isn't a knock on Joe Posnanski. The decision to tell the story by reporting on a year in O'Neil's life, rather than interpreting O'Neil's history, was a brilliant judgment. The reader benefits from Posnanski's willingness to set his writer's ego aside.

Another good Posnanski decision was reporting O'Neil's occasional querulousness. Rather than seeing O'Neil as a mindless happy face, the reader sees O'Neil as someone who must work to maintain his positive approach. The occasional lapses serve to highlight the effort that O'Neil makes to bring the light into the lives of those around him.

But ultimately, the star of the book is Buck O'Neil. Not because he was a great ballplayer or manager. But because he was a decent, good-hearted human being whose attitude toward life is worthy of emulation.

I give few 5-star rankings, but this book deserves it several times over.

Reading this book gave me insight into the Negro Leagues and more importantly into Buck O'Neil. Buck O'Neil was a man today's player should study and revere; not only because of his courage but for his respect of the game.

The Soul of Baseball is a history lesson I encourage any fan or player to read.

This is an outstanding book by one of my favorite writers. Joe really knows how to tell a story and paint a vivid picture with his words. I loved it so much that I just couldn't put it down. A must have for any and all baseball fans.

This is an absolutely amazing book about an amazing person, I really wish I had the chance to meet Buck after reading this.

This is a beautifully written book that is a thoroughly modern history of not only one amazing man (Buck O'Neil), who tirelessly reminded the world of Negro League baseball, but of Joe Posnanski's love of the game and the man. Like all great books, I was devastated when it ended. Thank you Joe. (and Buck!)

An excellent read, not just a story about a baseball man, but a story about a truly great human being that we all can learn from.

This book wasn't really a baseball book. It wasn't a biography. It was something of a dairy. It was a candid presentation of Buck O'Neil. Through anecdotes of his travels, the book gives you a great glimpse of Buck O'Neil. He truly was an eternal optimist that found wonder and beauty in every day he lived. He befriended everyone he met.

Buck O'Neil was the sort of man that our society sorely needs more of. I couldn't help but smile and feel good as I read this book. Buck reminded me of why I loved baseball as a kid. He dulled my cynicism of modern MLB baseball. He pulled me back to the ballpark. Buck enjoyed the game at its most basic level. He enjoyed big league games. He enjoyed pickup games in small towns. He enjoyed talking about the game. But, best of all he enjoyed the humanity surrounding the game, all participants from stars to fans.

The pure simple joy he found in baseball rekindled my love for this uniquely American game. I recently took my boys to an NCAA regional tournament and watched some very talented kids playing the game because they love it. It was one of the best times my sons and I have enjoyed in recent memory. It was just the sort of day, Buck would have loved.

Like many baseball followers, my admiration for Buck O'Neil can be traced to Ken Burns' documentary on baseball. How a black man could live through the era in which Buck lived with the attitudes he has is beyond me. (I am white, not American but lived in the US in the 60s and 70s.) Mr Posnanski's book is is a little too sugary, uncritical and unprobing for my liking. I cannot but help to think that with a little probing there is probably bit more to Buck's attitudes than is presented. However, if you want a feel-good book about this topic, this is the dream book.

A splendid collection of stories, told by one of our most valuable citizens, and conveyed by a very talented listener and writer.

A great read of a great human being, and baseball man. I would see Buck several times a year in the '80s at the Detroit Tigers, Joker Marchant Stadium, when he was a scout with the Kansas City Royals. He was a pleasant a man you could ever meet. I am pleased to have known the man, even if only those brief moments I was able see and to talk to him.

Buy this book, and read a great tribute of this man and to the Negro Leagues of the past.

This is not a book about baseball.
This book provides an amazing profile of a man unafraid of any injustice in the world, a man who faced evil in as many manifestations as 20th century America could show a black man. He prevailed with hope, dignity, humor, and love which transcends any measure.

This book will inspire you to believe again in the human soul. A man, who, to his dying day, faced disappointment, rejection and indifference, managed yet to sustain composure, dignity and honor to the end.

Read this book to your kids, talk about the lessons it teaches. If a poor rural raised black man can achieve such grace, reflect on what you, an online book buying 21st century affluent consumer can accomplish.

Posnanski has done a wonderful job documenting a year he spent traveling with a remarkable man. After reading it, you'll wish (like me) that you had had the chance to spend some time yourself with Buck O'Neil, who was not only a baseball pioneer, but also a classy, truly unique man who made a difference in so many lives. Highly recommended!

Whether you follow baseball or not, this account of the late Buck O'Neil as he travels throughout the United States with the author in the last months of his life deserves to be read. O'Neil, who died in October 2006 at the age of 94, was a star player, coach, manager and scout in the old Negro Leagues and the first African-American coach in the majors, once baseball's segregation ended. His life was about much more than baseball, however. One woman he encounters for a moment in the book says "I don't know who that man is, but he's a great man." She was right. Our nation would be in a better place today if more people had a little of Buck O'Neil in them.

I couldn't put this book down! I had to force myself to not finish it all in one sitting. It is beautiful and sad to follow one of the final years of Buck O'Neil's life knowing how it recently ended and how he was spurned from the HoF. But, as the book makes clear, Buck would not want anyone to feel sorry for him. He has an amazingly optimistic outlook on life that we could all use.

I love this book! I also love Jo Po's awesome blog and his keen sense of off-beat humor. Great stuff! I also really love the turkey and swiss market fresh combo at Arby's. Man, that's good. My idea of heaven would be to spend an hour eating the aforementioned sandwich while drinking free refills of Coke and reading this book. Yes!

This is a wonderful book about remarkable man with a wonderful outlook on how to live life that happens to be focused on baseball. People of all ages can benefit from the manner in which Buck O'Neil approached life and the people that passed through his.
It is extremely well-written and is written from a very personal viewpoint-that of the author, who clearly demonstrates how fortunate he feels to have shared a year with Mr. O'Neil.
Read this book and give a copy to everyone you love.

I am one who loves the game of baseball and the history of baseball. Even I were not a baseball fan, I would love this book. I had always wanted to learn more about Buck O'Neil and this book is a tremendous opportunity to learn not so much about Mr. O'Neil's baseball career, but about Buck O'Neil the man. Joe Posnanski is the perfect author for this story as his attention to detail and the descriptive narratives give you a great feeling for what it must have been like to be there with this great man. Buck O'Neil is a true hero to me now more than ever.

I have been reading Posnanski for years and have read every word he has written about Buck. Thus, I really didn't expect to learn anything new in this book. I was wrong. It is fresh material and as is always the case with Posnanski, incredibly well written. I felt like I was along for the ride as Joe traveled the nation with O'Neil toward the end of this amazing man's life. The book really gets to O'Neil's soul and makes us all pause to think about what is truly important in life. Incredible read for anyone. Lots of great baseball stories, but so much more.