buck leonard
September 8, 1907 – November 27, 1997
buck leonard
Buck Leonard declined his opportunity to play in the Majors Leagues because he felt by that time in his career he was too old. He and fellow bash brother, Josh Gibson were both officially elected to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972.
career
Walter "Buck" Leonard was an American professional baseball player, playing primarily first base in both the Negro National League II and Mexican League.
Born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Buck also had a younger brother and professional baseball player Charlie Leonard.
The boy's father worked as a railroad fireman, while their mother was a homemaker, caring for their four other children, six in all.
Leonard's parents called him “Buddy”. His younger brother though soon began mispronouncing it as “Bucky”, and soon the entire family began calling him "Buck", a name which stuck with him throughout his life.
When he was about seven years old, he snuck out of his home, journeying over to the baseball field of a local white team. He would watch the games through the fence, no small risk as it turns out.
Things were always tense for Leonard due primarily to his racial identity - local police even once arrested Leonard and his friends for peeking through the fence to catch a game at a local segregated field. [4]
Leonard's father passed when he was just 11 years old and the Leonard family was left to grieve and pick up the slack to make ends meet.
Buck worked picked up jobs and various other odd jobs after his schooling to contribute to the family.
He also took up additional work in a hosiery mill working for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, later earning his GED by correspondence.
Soon he began his baseball career as a semi-professional player playing part time, while also working for the Atlantic Coast Railroad Company.
However, soon after accepting the job, Leonard quit to purse his dream of playing professional black baseball, and it paid off for Buck. [6]
He began his Negro League career in 1933 with the Brooklyn Royal Giants, though he never made recorded an appearance with the team.
His tremendous athletic talent was obvious to Gray’s owner Cum Posey, who quickly signed Buck to his team, the Homestead Grays.
He is one of the few player professional black baseball players who played his entire career with just one team. Buck played his entire career for the Homestead Grays, spending a majority of his time at first base from 1934 until 1950.
The Homestead Grays of the late 1930s, mid-1940s are considered one of the greatest teams ever assembled, drawing comparisons to the 1927 New York Yankees, a lineup that included Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
Together with Negro Leagues legend Josh Gibson, the two formed the most formidable 3-4 combination in the history of the Negro Leagues. Another comparison that comes to mind would be David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez.
With Buck in the three hole, and Josh Gibson batting fourth, the Homestead Grays of the 1930s and 1940s went on to be considered to be some of the most talented teams in Negro Leagues history.
Buck Leonard and Josh Gibson are two of only nine players in the history of the Negro Leagues to win multiple batting titles.
However, Leonard was never able to appear in a Major Leagues. he declined a late contract offer to play in the summer of 1952 because he felt he was too old.
Success in the Majors was important to Buck and the players fighting for full integration.
Therefore, any poor play attributed to age was simply unacceptable, as it would have appeared to the white baseball fan as a reflection on the Negro Leagues talent as a whole.
For 1951 and 1952, Buck served as the player manager of Algodoneros de Union Laguna, though he appeared in no games in a playing capacity.
In 1953, Buck took the role of player / manager with more enthusiasm, playing and managing from the 1953 Portsmouth Merrimacs, a professional Major League Minor League franchise.
He hit .333 in 33 at bats for Portsmouth ripe old age of 45.
During the winter of 1953, he went back to managing the Algodoneros de Union Laguna, and would then take a year off in 1954.
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He would see his last action in professional baseball in 1955, as Leonard came out of retirement to manager the Alacranes de Durango of the Mexican League.
As his professional baseball career came to a close, he found enjoyment working as a physical education teacher at his local high school, while also serving as the truant officer. Buck wuld later go on to found a real estate company.
From 1962 to 1972, he served as the vice president of the Rocky Mount Leafs, then the Rocky Mount Phillies from 1973 - 1975. [7]
The Leafs were a Class A Carolina League farm team for Major League Baseball’s Detroit Tigers from 1965 to 1972.
In 1962 and 1963. the Leafs were transferred to the Cincinnati Reds and in 1964, the Leafs were again transferred and operating as an official Minor League (MiLB) farm club of the Washington Senators.
The potent combination of Buck Leonard and Josh Gibson were both elected to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in the same class of 1972.
At his induction ceremony on August 7 of that year, Leonard said, "We in the Negro leagues felt like we were contributing something to baseball, too, when we were playing. We played with a round ball and we played with a round bat. And we wore baseball shoes and wore baseball uniforms and we thought we were making a contribution to baseball. We loved the game and we liked to play it. If we didn't, we wouldn't have played because there wasn't any money in it." [10]
Buck was also inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 1974. [7]
In 1994, the 88 year old, Buck Leonard was named honary captain at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game held in Pittsburgh, hometown of the Homestead Grays, Pittsburgh Crawfords, serving as a spark that lit the candle for professional black baseball.
He appeared wearing a replica Homestead Grays uniform much to the fans delight.
Shortly before his passing in 1997, Leonard was the honored by the North Carolina General Assembly recognizing his contributions to the cultural history of the state and to the game of baseball.
His death later that year stemmed from complications from an on going epileptic condition he had been suffered from since the 1980’s. [7]
In 1999, he was ranked number 47 on the 100 Greatest Baseball Players list by The Sporting News.
There was no black high school in Rocky Mount, so Leonard finished the eighth grade and began working as a shoe shine at a railroad station. [5]
With the strength of the duo of Leonard and Gibson, the Grays would go on to win 9 league pennants in a row.
Leonard hit fourth in for Homestead, starting behind Josh Gibson. The two played together in some of the greatest lineups ever assembled in the Negro Leagues. At times Leonard played with Cool Papa Bell and Satchel Paige.
He led the Negro National League II in batting average in 1948 with a mark of .395, nearly claiming the .400 mark on the season.
The Homestead Grays could count on Buck either to lead the league in home runs or finish second to his teammate, Josh Gibson.
Since Gibson was known as the "Black Babe Ruth" and Leonard was a first baseman, Buck Leonard was inevitably called the "Black Lou Gehrig."
Together, the pair were colloquially known as the "Thunder Twins" or "Dynamite Twins". [8]
In fact, Negro Leagues star Monte Irvin said that if Leonard had been allowed to play in the major leagues, baseball fans "might have called Lou Gehrig the white Buck Leonard.
"He was that good.”, Irvin recounted.
The Homestead Grays Franchise was later dissolved in 1950, after full integration with Major League Baseball had already take place.
Beginning in 1951, Leonard left the United States and played ball in the Mexican League, with teams playing an average of three games per week.
It was a pace that worked well for the league and also for the aging first basemen.
Leonard had a running joke that he got sick from the water every year he returned to Mexico, he otherwise he really enjoyed playing in the league.
For much of his time playing professional baseball in Mexico, he was managed by Cuban and Negro Leagues baseball star, Martín Dihigo.
Dihigo's knowledge of the game impressed Leonard, and left him with a lasting mutual respect.
In 1952, Leonard was offered a major league contract, but he believed that at the age of 45, he was ultimately too old to play MLB and contemplated that he might even embarrass himself, ultimately hurting the cause of integration.
So he stayed in Mexico through 1955, playing for various teams in the Mexican Leagues including for teams in Torreón, Xalapa, Durango and Obregón.
In 1953, Leonard made his last appearance in "organized" ball, playing for the unaffiliated Portsmouth Merrimacs of the class B Piedmont League, hitting .333 in 10 games and 46 at bats.
Some of Buck's career achievements include:
- 13× All-Star (1935, 1937–1941, 1943–1946, 1948²)
- 3× Negro World Series champion (1943, 1944, 1948)
- 2× Negro National League batting champion (1935, 1938)
Oscar Charelston
Oscar Charelston
Oscar Charelston
Oscar Charleston played and managed in the Negro Leagues as an outfielder, first baseman and pitcher. Charleston would later become manager of the Indianapolis Clowns.
Cool Papa Bell
Oscar Charelston
Oscar Charelston
Cool Papa Bell played centerfield in the Negro Leagues from 1922 to 1946. played for the powerhouse Kansas City. Monarchs, Pittsburgh Crawfords, and Homestead Grays.
Buck Leonard
Oscar Charelston
Satchel Paige
Buck Leonard, along side Josh Gibson formed the best three-four, hitting tandem in the History of the Negro Leagues, leading the Homestead Grays to dominance.
Satchel Paige
Cumberland Posey
Satchel Paige
Satchel Paige began his 20 year career in the Negro Leagues pitching for the Chattanooga Lookouts. He would later make his MLB debut at age 42 for the Cleveland Indians.
Cumberland Posey
Cumberland Posey
Cumberland Posey
Cum Posey was a veteran Negro Leagues team owner, player, and league executive. He is the founding member of two leagues, and a Hall of Fame Basketball player.
Jackie Robinson
Cumberland Posey
Cumberland Posey
Jackie Robinson is the first African American to play Major League Baseball. He broke baseball's color barrier in 1945, by signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Roy Campanella
Roy Campanella
Roy Campanella
Roy Campanella played one season in the Negro Leagues, signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers just one season after Jackie Robinson’s debut in Major League Baseball.
Gus Greenlee
Roy Campanella
Roy Campanella
Gus Greenlee was a driving force behind the organization of the Negro National League I. During his time involved with Negro Leagues he owned several profitable side businesses.
Henry Aaron
Roy Campanella
Candy Jim Taylor
Major League Baseball’s all-time leader in home runs with 755, few know Aaron began his baseball career in the Negro Leagues as a shortstop for the Indianapolis Clowns.
Candy Jim Taylor
Cristóbal Torriente
Candy Jim Taylor
Candy Jim Taylor was a professional third baseman, manager, and brother of four professional playing Negro Leaguers. His career in baseball spanned over 40 years.
Cristóbal Torriente
Cristóbal Torriente
Cristóbal Torriente
Cristóbal Torriente, often called the Babe Ruth of Cuba, played as an outfielder in the Negro Leagues from 1912-1932. He was most known for his incredible power to all fields.
Rube Foster
Cristóbal Torriente
Cristóbal Torriente
Considered one of the best pitchers of the early 1900s, and perhaps the most influential figure in Negro Leagues history, Rube Foster founded the NNLI and managed the Chicago American Giants.
Larry Doby
Josh Gibson
Josh Gibson
Larry Doby was the second African-American baseball player to break baseball's color barrier and the first black player to play in the American League.
Josh Gibson
Josh Gibson
Josh Gibson
Even from the catcher position, Josh Gibson's display of power during his career for the Homestead Grays is legendary. However, Gibson would never play Major League Baseball.
Sol White
Josh Gibson
Ben Taylor
King Solomon "Sol" White played baseball professionally as an infielder, manager and league executive. White is considered to be one of the pioneers of the Negro Leagues.
Ben Taylor
Ben Taylor
Ben Taylor
Born in July 1888, Ben Taylor was the youngest of 4 professional Negro Leaguers, including Candy Jim Taylor, C.I. Taylor, and Johnny Steel Arm Taylor.
Biz Mackey
Ben Taylor
Biz Mackey
Biz Mackey was regarded as one of the Negro Leagues premier offensive and defensive catchers, playing across several leagues from late 1920s and early 1930s.
Nat Strong
Ben Taylor
Biz Mackey
Nathaniel Strong was a Negro Leagues sports executive, businessman, team owner and founding member of the Negro National League I,
Monte Irvin
Turkey Stearnes
Turkey Stearnes
Monte Irvin flourished as one of the early African-American players in MLB, making 2 World Series appearances for the New York Giants, playing along side Willie Mays.
Turkey Stearnes
Turkey Stearnes
Turkey Stearnes
Norman Turkey Stearnes played professionally in the Negro Leagues, and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000.
Willie Mays
Turkey Stearnes
Steel Arm Taylor
A can’t miss five-tool player, Mays began his professional baseball career with the Black Barons, spending the rest of his career playing MLB for the Giants and Mets.
Steel Arm Taylor
Steel Arm Taylor
Steel Arm Taylor
John Boyce Taylor was the second-oldest of 4 baseball-playing brothers, the others being Charles, Ben and James. For the 1899-1900 seasons, Taylor won 90% of his games starting pitcher for the Giants.
Buck O'Neil
Steel Arm Taylor
Martín Dihigo
Buck O’Neil joined the Memphis Red Sox for their inaugural season in the newly formed Negro American League. However, his contract was purchased by the Kansas City Monarchs the next season.
players
