Imagine this on a rainy day.

Could you?

On a bad day, conjure a better one.

Buck O’Neil did.

Do you know of Buck?

You ought to.

As an introduction, I suggest Joe Posnanski’s The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America.

It’s about much more than baseball or a baseball player.

Buck died at 96 almost twenty years ago. He was a Negro League player, manager, and the first African-American coach on an American Major League Baseball team.

He was a Black baseball player beyond his prime before Jackie Robinson opened the door.

Buck had too many reasons to be bitter to count.

It rained every day on him.

When Posnanski asked how he kept bitterness at bay, Buck said

Where does bitterness take you?

To a broken heart?

To an early grave?

When I die

I want to die from natural causes.

Not from hate

Eating me up from the inside.

One last Buck O’Neil story.

Toward the end of his life, Buck was one of 39 Negro League players, managers, and owners considered by a special committee for induction into American baseball’s Hall of Fame.

17 of the 39 were selected for an honor Buck yearned for and deserved.

But didn’t get.

In July 2006, 16 Black men and one Black woman were inducted into the Hall of Fame.

The guest speaker was

Buck O’Neil.