For Immediate Release – May 8, 2008
Contact: Terry Cannon, Executive Director, The
Baseball Reliquary
Phone (626) 791-7647; e-mail:
terymar@earthlink.net
THE
BASEBALL RELIQUARY ANNOUNCES
2008 CLASS OF ELECTEES TO
THE SHRINE OF THE ETERNALS
The Board of Directors
of the Baseball Reliquary, Inc., a Southern
California-based nonprofit organization
dedicated to fostering an appreciation of
American art and culture through the context of
baseball history, is pleased to announce the
2008 class of electees to the Shrine of the
Eternals. The Shrine of the Eternals is the
national organization’s equivalent to the
Baseball Hall of Fame.
Buck O’Neil, Emmett Ashford, and
Bill Buckner were elected upon receiving the
highest number of votes in balloting conducted
in the month of April by the membership of the
Baseball Reliquary. The three electees will be
formally inducted into the Shrine of the
Eternals in a public ceremony on Sunday, July
20, 2008 at the Pasadena Central Library,
Pasadena, California.
Of the fifty eligible candidates on
the 2008 ballot, Buck O’Neil received the
highest voting percentage, being named on 53% of
the ballots returned. The 53% ties O’Neil for
the highest voting percentage since the annual
Shrine of the Eternals elections were
inaugurated in 1999. (Bill “Spaceman” Lee
received 53% of the vote in 2000.) Following
O’Neil were Emmett Ashford with 31% and Bill
Buckner with 29%. Runners-up in this year’s
election included Casey Stengel (28%), Dizzy
Dean (25%), Don Zimmer (25%), Effa Manley (24%),
Steve Dalkowski (23%), Jim Eisenreich (22%),
Eddie Feigner (22%), Pete Gray (22%), and Roger
Maris (21%).
The playing career of BUCK
O’NEIL (1911-2006) was in decline by the
time Jackie Robinson debuted with the Dodgers in
1947, and while he never had the chance to play
in the Major Leagues, he was recognized as the
slickest first baseman in the Negro Leagues.
Born John Jordan O’Neil, Buck picked up his
nickname during a short stint with the Zulu
Cannibal Giants, a novelty barnstorming act. He
found a home eventually in Kansas City in 1938
where he starred with the fabled Kansas City
Monarchs, a team he later managed as well. He
played in the Negro League All-Star Game three
times, won the Negro American League batting
title in 1946, and led the Monarchs to numerous
pennants. After the Negro Leagues dissolved
following integration, Buck was named as a coach
for the Chicago Cubs in 1962, the first black
coach in Major League Baseball. With the Cubs he
mentored players such as Ernie Banks,
sweet-swinging Billy Williams, and young Oscar
Gamble. He wrote and spoke incessantly about the
Negro Leagues and its players, doing more to
keep their memories alive than anyone. When the
idea came about for establishing a Negro Leagues
Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Buck was the
consensus choice as spokesman/organizer. He
cemented his position as the premier oral
historian of the Negro Leagues with a
captivating series of interviews in Ken Burns’
PBS documentary, Baseball, entrancing
generations of fans with his folksy narrative
style and effervescent smile. He kept a grueling
schedule of personal appearances and speaking
engagements at ballparks and in small
communities throughout the country well into his
nineties, before his passing at the age of 94 in
2006.
EMMETT ASHFORD
(1914-1980) holds the distinction of being the
first African-American umpire to officiate in
both Minor and Major League Baseball. Born in
Los Angeles, Ashford took a job with the Post
Office prior to World War II, where he became
involved in umpiring Post Office games in an
independent league. After service in the Navy
during the war, Ashford returned to a world
suddenly fraught with new possibilities for a
black man interested in umpiring: Jackie
Robinson had integrated the Major Leagues in
1947. Roles for black umpires couldn’t be far
behind. Ashford began umpiring in the Minors in
1951, eventually working his way up to the
Pacific Coast League, where he was named Umpire
in Chief. Recognizing the social changes
happening around the country, the American
League bought Ashford’s PCL contract, and
beginning in 1966, he became the most visible
and easily the best dressed umpire in the Major
Leagues. Ashford’s relatively small size (he was
roughly 5’7” and 180 pounds) and personality
caused him to develop an animated style, where
he was often described as dancing with great
agility around the plate. He indulged in extra
physicality and animation, and often made his
voice boom to gain attention. Ashford was a
tremendous showman, a styler. He was also
a very sharp dresser, a reputation that would
follow him throughout his career. Ashford worked
the 1967 All-Star Game and the 1970 World
Series. After his mandatory retirement in 1970,
Ashford kept his hand in baseball as a special
assistant to Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and also
found work as a performer in the entertainment
industry, including a role as the plate umpire
in The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor
Kings, the 1976 comedic film about a team of
enterprising Negro League ballplayers in the era
of racial segregation. This baseball pioneer
died from a heart attack in 1980.
Born in 1949, BILL BUCKNER
is living proof that history is not always
kind or just. He resides in that infamous
fraternity of former players, including the
likes of Fred Merkle, Fred Snodgrass, and Mickey
Owen, who have been stigmatized by one momentous
misplay. In the case of Buckner, the harsh
shadow cast by his notorious miscue has
prevented a fair and reasoned assessment of his
career. Despite chronic and crippling injuries,
Buckner produced impressive numbers in
twenty-two Major League seasons (1969-1990),
mostly with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago
Cubs, and Boston Red Sox. He finished with 2,715
hits, won a batting title in 1980, and is among
a select few to have recorded 200-hit seasons in
both the American and National Leagues. Yet on
October 25, 1986, the first baseman’s legacy
would be tarnished, particularly in the minds of
many Boston fans, by booting Mookie Wilson’s
grounder and enabling the New York Mets to
climax an incredible come-from-behind victory
against the Red Sox in the tenth inning of the
sixth game of the 1986 World Series. Although
Buckner has endured the brunt of the
responsibility for the Red Sox’ failure, there
were others who could easily share some of the
blame, including pitchers Calvin Schiraldi and
Bob Stanley, who failed to hold the lead in the
bottom of the tenth inning. While Buckner’s
unfortunate error continues to fascinate the
baseball public over two decades later (the ball
that rolled between his legs was purchased by
actor Charlie Sheen for $93,500 in a 1992
auction), he has now largely forgiven the media
for the anguish that they put he and his family
through. A successful businessman in Idaho,
Buckner returned to Boston this year to throw
out the ceremonial first pitch at the Red Sox
home opener, where he received a lengthy
standing ovation from the Fenway faithful.
Buck O’Neil, Emmett Ashford, and
Bill Buckner will join twenty-seven other
baseball luminaries who have been inducted into
the Shrine of the Eternals since elections began
in 1999, including, in alphabetical order, Jim
Abbott, Dick Allen, Moe Berg, Yogi Berra, Ila
Borders, Jim Bouton, Jim Brosnan, Roberto
Clemente, Rod Dedeaux, Dock Ellis, Mark Fidrych,
Curt Flood, Josh Gibson, William “Dummy” Hoy,
Shoeless Joe Jackson, Bill James, Bill
“Spaceman” Lee, Marvin Miller, Minnie Minoso,
Satchel Paige, Jimmy Piersall, Pam Postema,
Jackie Robinson, Lester Rodney, Fernando
Valenzuela, Bill Veeck Jr., and Kenichi
Zenimura.
For additional information on the
Shrine of the Eternals, visit the Baseball
Reliquary Web site at
www.baseballreliquary.org, or contact
Terry Cannon, Executive Director, by phone at
(626) 791-7647 or by e-mail at
terymar@earthlink.net. |