Books

  1. Buck O'Neil and I
    Buck O'Neil and I

  2. Okalitana
    Okalitana

  3. Black Prison Movements USA: The Nobo Journal of Africanamerican Dialogue (Nobo Journal of Africanamerican Dialogue)
    Black Prison Movements USA: The Nobo Journal of Africanamerican Dialogue (Nobo Journal of Africanamerican Dialogue)

  4. African American Autobiographers: A Sourcebook
    African American Autobiographers: A Sourcebook

  5. A Woman's Odyssey: Journals, 1976-1992
    A Woman's Odyssey: Journals, 1976-1992

  6. Famous Firsts of Black Women
    Famous Firsts of Black Women

  7. From Africa, With Love : An Autobiography of Herman X
    From Africa, With Love : An Autobiography of Herman X

  8. Journey to Africa
    Journey to Africa

  9. Outside Looking in: The Long Journey
    Outside Looking in: The Long Journey

  10. My Long Journey Home
    My Long Journey Home

  11. Nenny-Woman an African Woman's Journey in Life
    Nenny-Woman an African Woman's Journey in Life

  12. Black Southern Belle
    Black Southern Belle

  13. Being Black'': At the Sharp Point
    Being Black'': At the Sharp Point

  14. Bigmama Didn't Shop at Woolworth's (Wardlaw Book)
    Bigmama Didn't Shop at Woolworth's (Wardlaw Book)

  15. Remembering Malcolm
    Remembering Malcolm

  16. Harriet, the Moses of Her People
    Harriet, the Moses of Her People

  17. Black Flight: Breaking Barriers to Blacks in Aviation
    Black Flight: Breaking Barriers to Blacks in Aviation

  18. On the Road to Mandalay: Tales of Ordinary People
    On the Road to Mandalay: Tales of Ordinary People

  19. North Perry
    North Perry

  20. Only a Girl: Remembering My Syrian-Jewish World
    Only a Girl: Remembering My Syrian-Jewish World

  21. Saffron Sky: A Life Between Iran and America
    Saffron Sky: A Life Between Iran and America

  22. Carver: A Great Soul
    Carver: A Great Soul

  23. Setbacks . . . a Memoir
    Setbacks . . . a Memoir

  24. Joining the Navy
    Joining the Navy

  25. Luis Leal: An Auto/Biography
    Luis Leal: An Auto/Biography

I Was Right On Time
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • A Great, Fun, Read
  • BUCK!
  • An incredible human being...
  • Got To Give It Up
  • Charming and Informative
I Was Right On Time
Buck O'neil , David Conrads , and Steve Wulf
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

African-American & BlackAfrican-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
GeneralGeneral | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
GeneralGeneral | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
BaseballBaseball | Biographies | Sports | Subjects | Books
GeneralGeneral | Baseball | Sports | Subjects | Books
History of SportsHistory of Sports | Miscellaneous | Sports | Subjects | Books
GeneralGeneral | Sports | Subjects | Books
Social HistorySocial History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
Look Inside BiographiesLook Inside Biographies | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Look Inside History BooksLook Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Look Inside Sports BooksLook Inside Sports Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:
  1. The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America
  2. Maybe I'll Pitch Forever
  3. The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues
  4. Beyond the Shadow of the Senators : The Untold Story of the Homestead Grays and the Integration of Baseball
  5. Don't Look Back : Satchel Paige in the Shadows of Baseball

ASIN: 068483247X

Amazon.com

The beauty of former Negro League star Buck O'Neil's autobiography is its tone: it's filled with thankfulness for the life he's had. Born into an era of racial segregation, O'Neil--truly an inspirational presence in the Ken Burns documentary Baseball--has a right to be bitter for the opportunities denied him; instead, he is at peace with the opportunities he took. A man of unmistakable dignity, O'Neil is a marvelous storyteller, and I Was Right On Time reads like a fireside chat. He spins tales of baseball's barnstorming era, offers memories of his all-time Negro League all-star team, and weaves deft portraits of the stars he played with (and against), most affectionately his good friend and long-time teammate Satchel Paige. Still, O'Neil doesn't whitewash the past. He has stared down injustice and confronted insult, yet instead of lecturing, he opts to inform. Now in his 80s, O'Neil, as chairman of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, remains a living part of baseball memory. I Was Right On Time gives that memory a rich, resonant voice.

Book Description

From Babe Ruth to Bo Jackson, from Cool Papa Bell to Lou Brock, Buck O'Neil has seen it all. As a first baseman and then manager of the legendary Kansas City Monarchs, O'Neil witnessed the heyday of the Negro leagues and their ultimate demise.

In I Was Right on Time, he charmingly recalls his days as a ballplayer and as an African-American in a racially divided country. Whether he's telling of his barnstorming days with the likes of Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson or the day in 1962 when he became the first African-American coach in the major leagues, O'Neil takes us on a trip not only through baseball's past but through America's as well.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars A Great, Fun, Read.......2007-06-08

This book wasn't really a baseball book. It wasn't a biography. It was something of a dairy. It was a candid presentation of Buck O'Neil. Through anecdotes of his travels, the book gives you a great glimpse of Buck O'Neil. He truly was an eternal optimist that found wonder and beauty in every day he lived. He befriended everyone he met.

Buck O'Neil was the sort of man that our society sorely needs more of. I couldn't help but smile and feel good as I read this book. Buck reminded me of why I loved baseball as a kid. He dulled my cynicism of modern MLB baseball. He pulled me back to the ballpark. Buck enjoyed the game at its most basic level. He enjoyed big league games. He enjoyed pickup games in small towns. He enjoyed talking about the game. But, best of all he enjoyed the humanity surrounding the game, all participants from stars to fans.

The pure simple joy he found in baseball rekindled my love for this uniquely American game. I recently took my boys to an NCAA regional tournament and watched some very talented kids playing the game because they love it. It was one of the best times my sons and I have enjoyed in recent memory. It was just the sort of day, Buck would have loved.

5 out of 5 stars BUCK!.......2007-02-24

Just what I needed to learn more about Buck. Horribly over-looked by the Hall of Fame. Very informative book, just in time for baseball season.

5 out of 5 stars An incredible human being..........2007-01-10

Back in the early 90's, before Ken Burns, I ran into Buck in the lobby of the Otesaga hotel in Cooperstown. It was the year that Willie McCovey was going in and we "snuck" our way into the building. Buck entertained me for over an hour with stories of guys I never had heard about. When I asked about his career, he really downplayed his greatness. I was mostly struck by the fact that this man did not have a single ounce of remorse or spite. Quite the opposite, he felt he was blessed to have played.

The book is written in a conversational style that goes quickly. I felt I could hear Buck's voice in my head has the pages turned. It was a fantastic book and Buck will be sorely missed.

5 out of 5 stars Got To Give It Up.......2006-11-29

This is not simply an autobiography, but an oral-history on where we have been and where we are going. It was written from the heart, and - if you read closely - it will open yours to live life in a different, better way.

I read the book when it was initially published and recently purchased the soft-cover edition. Rarely do I re-read a book, but I felt the need after hearing Buck O'Neil's moving and uplifting speech this summer at the Baseball Hall of Fame and listening to a rebroadcast of an interview conducted several years ago by radio sports-talker Jim Rome.

The road to racial equality remains long and steep, but by gazing upward you may view what appears to be a finish-line tape rippling in the breeze at the top of the mountain. But look ahead and you see the harsh reality that the road remains unfortunately rugged, with many twists & turns.

Buck O'Neil is an American hero and if your eyes are dry after reading the last page of I Was Right On Time (no matter how many times you read the book), then your heart may not have opened up wide enough to tackle the journey ahead.

5 out of 5 stars Charming and Informative.......2005-12-27

This easy-going autobiography combines sunny optimism, seriousness, and rich baseball history. John J. "Buck" O'Neil was a first baseman in the Negro Leagues during the 1930-1940's, and he then spent another half decade in baseball, both in the Negro Leagues and in the majors. Here he recounts his upbringing in Florida during segregation (where he was denied entry to high school) and his long career in baseball. O'Neil details life in the Negro leagues, including barnstorming and low pay, playing for the famed Kansas City Monarchs and his friendship with stars like Satchel Paige and Hilton Smith. He also describes managing in the Negro Leagues, coaching for the Chicago Cubs (the first black coach in the majors) and spending decades as a baseball scout. O'Neil is an intelligent man gifted with great charm, and he's often described as the "ambassador to baseball." That charm shines in the prose of co-writers Steve Wolf and David Conrads, and lets O'Neil attack injustice without losing effectiveness via stridency.

Buck O'Neil gained fame from the "Baseball" documentary by Ken Burns, and at this writing remains a board member for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City well into his 90's. This is a readable look at the Negro leagues by one of its most charming members.
I Was Right On Time
Average customer rating: Not rated
    I Was Right On Time
    Buck O'Neil
    Manufacturer: Easton Press
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Leather Bound
    ASIN: B000IN3268
    Buck O'Neil and I
    Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    • Buck O'Neil and I
    • Why is Buck O'Neil bucking
    • salute to the lady
    • Welcome to book writing
    • To the INCOGNITO reader
    Buck O'Neil and I
    L. Denise Carr Hurtt
    Manufacturer: L.D.H. & Associates
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

    African-American & BlackAfrican-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
    GeneralGeneral | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
    GeneralGeneral | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
    WomenWomen | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
    MemoirsMemoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
    BasketballBasketball | Biographies | Sports | Subjects | Books
    GeneralGeneral | Baseball | Sports | Subjects | Books
    GeneralGeneral | Basketball | Sports | Subjects | Books
    Love & RomanceLove & Romance | Relationships | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
    ASIN: 0970022409

    Book Description

    "BUCK O'NEIL AND I"...Focuses on my relationship with the Negro League Baseball Great and the difficulties that erupted after individuals began to take note of age difference. It provides my personal experiences of dating the former KC Monarchs Baseball Player Buck O'Neil, and discuses the ups and downs of our time together, from the joyous meeting to the final goodbye. (A true and valid story)

    Customer Reviews:

    1 out of 5 stars Buck O'Neil and I.......2004-01-20

    I was sorely disappointed. It was very poorly written to the point that as I read, I began to wonder if Ms. Hurtt had an editor. I expected more on how one deals with a May - December relationship; but instead what I got was a clothesline full of her dirty laundry.

    It is pretty evident that Ms. Hurtt orchestrated/plotted/schemed to take advantage of a financially secure old man who had just loss his wife after a long illness. And when things did not go as Ms. Hurtt had planned (get pregnant; he will marry me; then I will have his child and secure an inheritance for myself) she chose to air her dirty laundry in public with the hopes, I believe, of making money by attempting to muddy Mr. O'Neil's good name. If indeed Ms. Hurtt was 4 1/2 months pregnant when O'Neil was given the Fatherhood Award June 17, 1999 as she writes in the text, it certainly did not take her long after Mrs. O'Neil's death on November 2, 1997 to jump Mr. O'Neil "bones." I even wonder if her ploy was not begun long before Mrs. O'Neil's death.

    I came away with the distinct impression that this girl had nothing but "ill intentions" to begin with - all related to money. I am disappointed. Shame on her.
    I rate her text (it does not quality as a book) at Zero Stars.

    4 out of 5 stars Why is Buck O'Neil bucking.......2000-08-11

    Why is Buck O'Neil bucking the truth. This only makes him look very foolish. Why would he give this young ladies book his blessings and turn around and say to the public that some of the things in the book a not true? he would be better off saying to the public/press he has no comment! rather than trying to make her look like a liar. It's almost as though he apprently still can not own up to the truth!! are he is trying to hide something? this young lady wrote her story and continued to have respect for Buck O'Neil by even allowing him to read her manuscript after all he subjected her two, before it was published. I beleave her story, and wish her much success and for her to remember that the TRUTH always prevails. She wrote the book to bring closure of him and all she went through in their time together and he does not even have the decency to give closure to her. Buck O'Neil really needs to come out of denial. his presnt behavoir really holds a familiar similarity upon which she had already described in her book of him (DOUBLE MINDED).

    5 out of 5 stars salute to the lady.......2000-05-29

    I salute her. An dependent woman with her own, who cared for another twice her age. She faced much adversity simply because this man was a well know Icon in the history of black sports. I think there is a message that she was trying to deliver. You can love and live without being a "gold digger". Her first book, not bad. I am a black woman, "I feel her" My salute to the lady. I am loking forward to reading her next book.

    4 out of 5 stars Welcome to book writing.......2000-05-11

    Denise, I happen to be a writer and I read your book, and I thought it was special. I was in a relationship much like yours, so I can identify with some of the issues you had to deal with. People are much like computer viruses, a piece of computer language written in the same language as all the other codes but with harmful intent. Once the code is introduced it gets everything all mixed up and the computer stops producing good results. When situations seem so personal, even if others insult you directly, It has nothing to do with you. People are going to have their own opinion according to their belief system, so nothing they think or say is really about you, but it is about themselves. Their opinion is nothing but a point of view. As children we gossip and intentionally spread rumours to make a person feel bad and we did it quite thoughtlessly, but as grown-ups we become much more calculated in our efforts to bring other people down. Never mind your first review, only the truth will set you free. Good luck on your future material, I will be looking for it. I am leaving you with my e-mail so you can read my novel.

    5 out of 5 stars To the INCOGNITO reader.......2000-05-11

    If the reader had read the review without a jaundice eye they would have read in black and white where Mr. O'neil sat with the writer and read the book in its entirety, and gave the writer his blessings and said, it was written just as it happened. The reader obviously has a lot of personal problems and has had some kiss and tell stories of their own and they just dont have the intellegence to put it in writing. It also read like a person who may have possibly had something to do with the demise of Ms. Hurtt and Mr. O'neil's relationship. I hardly think Mr O'neil would agree with the readers opinion. If Mr. O'neil, had'nt cared for this young lady I dont beleive he would have had such a love filled relationship with her. For the reader to say that Ms. Hurtt was fulfilling her so called "trashy and stupid fantasies", truly appears to me that the reader had nothing better to write. Seems to me that the relationship was mutual. Im sure if Mr. O'neil felt this book was trashy he would not have given it his blessings. I think it was well written and It clearly lets us see that even upright, well loved people, (even our President) live very normal and human lives. To me there is no discredit to Mr. O'neil or to this young lady. I'm sure Mr. O'neil was proud to have had been graced by this beautiful,and very attractive young lady, who probably added, some much needed spice to Mr. O'neil's life. This was the anonymous readers opinion and everybody has one. To the Arthur of this book keep putting your mind to positive use, and ignore people and their meddeling ways. I personally think this reader should tend to their (DONT KISS AND TELL) business. I gave this book a 5 star cause it was well written for a first time writer.

    Books:

    1. Contemporary Black Biography: Profiles from the International Black Community (Contemporary Black Biography, Vol 36)
    2. W.E.B. Dubois: Black Radical Democrat (Twayne's Twentieth-Century American Biography Series, No 3)
    3. Night Bloom: An Italian-American Life (Bluestreak)
    4. African-American Writers: A Dictionary
    5. Mulu: Rain of Gold
    6. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
    7. An American Dilemma Revisited: Race Relations in a Changing World
    8. Genesis: A Latvian Childhood
    9. George Washington Carver
    10. Buck O'Neil and I

    Books