'At long last,' Kansas City legend Buck O'Neil will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame

Absolutely about time that this man is in his rightful place in Cooperstown, NY!

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."In the 18th and Vine District, at the Paseo YMCA where the Negro Leagues were founded in 1920, work is under way to create the Buck O’Neil Education and Research Center. Once completed, fans, students, and researchers will be able to study every aspect of the Negro Leagues and social history, according to the center’s webpage.

O’Neil’s likeness was even applied in sticker form to a KC Streetcar stop at Union Station.

Beginning this weekend, O’Neil will also have his rightful place in Cooperstown.

Meanwhile, more people are flocking to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, where a life-size statue of O’Neil watches over an open area called the Field of Legends.

Museum President Bob Kendrick said attendance has spiked since last December, when the Hall of Fame announced O’Neil and six others would be inducted.

“I do think a lot of that coincided with the jubilation that people had that Buck was, at long last, being inducted into the National Baseball of Hall of Fame,” said Kendrick.

That long-awaited ceremony is set for Sunday afternoon, and will be broadcast live on MLB network and at MLB.com.

Kendrick plans to seize the opportunity with a new fundraising effort called, “Thanks a Million, Buck.”

He’s asking O’Neil’s fans to donate “one buck” each, with the goal of raising $1 million for the education and research center in his name.

“We have to do exactly what Buck O’Neil would have wanted us to do,” said Kendrick."