O'Neil gets place in Hall of Fame after all

By Larry Fine

BOSTON (Reuters) - Buck O'Neil will have a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame after all, with a statue of the Negro Leagues advocate going up in the Cooperstown museum and an Award to be named in his honor.

O'Neil, a former Negro League batting champion and the first African American to coach in the major leagues, fell one vote short of election to the Hall of Fame last year and died later in 2006 at age 94.

"We have been looking for a way of honoring Buck O'Neil's enormous impact on our game," Jane Forbes Clark, chairman of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, told reporters on Wednesday before the opening game of the World Series.

"Buck was among the greatest ambassadors our game ever had. He was a giant of a man. His kindness, wisdom and generosity of spirit will live on forever."

Clark said the Hall of Fame had established a Buck O'Neil Lifetime Achievement Award to honor an individual of outstanding character, integrity and citizenship.

O'Neil will be the first recipient of the award, designated on a plaque alongside his statue, which will be given not more frequently than once every three years.

O'Neil championed the exploits of players in the Negro Leagues, where African Americans competed before Jackie Robinson broke the major league color line by joining the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

O'Neil broke a big league racial barrier in the dugout when he joined the Chicago Cubs in 1962 as a coach.