KANSAS CITY, Mo.—The Kansas City Royals have announced in partnership with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and the Kansas City Negro Leagues Baseball Museum that Buck O’Neil’s Hall of Fame plaque will be brought from Cooperstown to Kansas City to the public on Friday, August 12 at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and at Kauffman Stadium on Saturday, August 13.
The visit to Kansas City will begin on Friday, August 12 when the plaque will be on display at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum located at 1616 E 18th Street, in Kansas City, Mo. from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m
The Kansas City Royals will host the plaque visit at Kauffman Stadium in conjunction with the ball club’s annual Salute to the Negro Leagues event on Saturday, August 13, when the Royals host the Los Angeles Dodgers at 6:10 pm CT. The plaque will be on the field for a pregame ceremony and then moved to the Royals Hall of Fame inside Kauffman Stadium, where all fans will be able to see it during the game.
O’Neil is considered one of the greatest ambassadors the game of baseball and the Kansas City community has ever had. He was born Nov. 13, 1911, in Carrabelle, Fla. and began his professional baseball career with the 1937 Memphis Red Sox of the American Negro League. Buck first came to Kansas City to play for the Monarchs in 1938 and remained a Kansas citizen for the rest of his long and eventful life. He was a member of the 1942 Negro World Series champion Kansas City Monarchs and later served as clubhouse manager. O’Neil made baseball history with the 1962 Chicago Cubs when he became the first African-American manager in the National or American League. He was also a noted baseball scout, responsible for signing three other members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame: Ernie Banks, Lou Brock and Lee Smith. Buck O’Neil passed away at the age of 94 on October 6, 2006.
O’Neil was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the Hall’s Early Baseball Era (pre-1950s) Committee on December 5, 2021, receiving 13 of 16 votes cast. He was inducted into baseball’s holiest shrine on July 24, 2022, in Cooperstown, NY
ABOUT THE NEGRO LEAGUE BASEBALL MUSEUM:
The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) is the only museum in the world dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich history of African-American baseball and its impact on America’s social progress. The privately funded, 501 c3, non-profit organization was founded in 1990 and is in the heart of Kansas City’s Historic District 18 and Missouri’s Jazz Vine. The NLBM operates two blocks from the Paseo YMCA where Andrew “Rube” Foster founded the Negro National League in 1920. To learn more about the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, please visit www.nlbm.com.
