Remembering Buck O'Neill and the Kansas City Monarchs

 1/18

Buck O'Neill and the Kansas City Monarchs

I wanted to have this week’s theme for hats on(off)  to reflect Martin Luther King Jr’s commemoration theme.  I first looked at how the NFL teams in last weekend’s playoffs wore pullover hats declaring JUSTICE EQUITY OPPORTUNITY. 

Steelers Cap

(I had tried to get a Steelers one but they were sold out…). I then related how MLK day has long been a special day for the NBA  with special day games and uniforms.  The Memphis Grizzlies, e.g. had a jersey with a font inspired by the 1968 sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis whee King delivers his last speech. 

Grizzlies "I am a man" jersey

And the Atlanta Hawks have a jersey bearing Kings’ MLK initials. 

Hawks MLK jersey

Having none of these  available, I decided to honor Buck O’Neil and the Kansas City Monarchs of Negro League baseball fame. The Monarchs were the longest lasting Negro league team stretching from 1920-1965. They rosters included such legendary players as Satchel Paige snd Ernie Banks.  They were Jackie Robinson’s last team before the Dodgers and the Yankees’ first Black player, Elston Howard, had been a Monarch. In fact, following integration, the Monarchs were the  single greatest conduit from the Negro Leagues to Major League Baseball. And of course, the Monarchs were Buck O’ Neil’s team.

O’Neil spent his entire playing career with the Monarchs from  1938-1955. He would then go on to be baseball’s first Black coach with the Chicago Cubs and later serve the Cubs as  the first MLB Black scout. He was responsible for bringing Ernie (Let’s play two, Mr.Cub) Banks to the team from the Monarchs.

 On July 17, 2006, At age 94, Buck signed a one day contract with the independent American Association Kansas City (Kansas) T-Bones in an effort to be the oldest player to appear in a professional baseball game. He led off, drew an intentional walk and then “retired.” Later that year, following  his death, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  And in 2021, finally elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was instrumental in  the creation of Kansas City’s Negro  League Museum .

The T-Bones have now been renamed the Kansas City Monarchs in honor of the original Monarchs, 

Today’s hat’s off to the Kansas City Monarchs. The hat (on) is a 1945 Monarch hat (Jackie Robinson’s year) paired with a Buck O’Neill number 22 Monarch jersey.