Jeter nets honor, pays tribute to O'Neil
01/14/2007 5:30 AM ET
Jeter nets honor, pays tribute to O'Neil
Legacy Award recipient basks in history of Negro Leagues
By Justice B. Hill / MLB.com
KANSAS CITY -- Derek Jeter apologized for never having been to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum before Saturday.
"I always intended to go," Jeter said. "I think as you get older, you get a little bit lazier during the daytime before the games."
On a bone-chilling day in mid-January, he had no games to fret about. No pennant race with the archrival Red Sox to distract him. No Yankee pinstripes to put on. He came to take part in the annual Legacy Awards ceremony, a tribute to the black pioneers in black baseball, to pick up the Oscar Charleston Award for his MVP-caliber play in 2006 and to bask in the history of it all.
Jeter couldn't deny the museum struck an emotional chord.
"I've heard a lot of stories from my dad growing up," he said. "But getting an opportunity to come here and see this is impressive. That's to say the least. It's something I think everybody should have an opportunity to experience."
Yet his first visit was bittersweet, too. For absent was Buck O'Neil, the museum chairman and a man who had befriended Jeter in 1996. O'Neil had died three months earlier.
"I was a rookie," Jeter recalled. "He went out of his way to introduce himself: 'You don't have to introduce yourself to me. You're Buck O'Neil.'
"He always treated me great."
But who doesn't treat Yankee royalty great? With a trophy case that might resemble a small house, Jeter picked up more hardware here for his trophy case: the Charleston and the Pop Lloyd Award for community leadership.
He wished O'Neil had been here to enjoy the moment with him.
Before the ceremony, Jeter expressed regret that O'Neil didn't get his due while alive. He called O'Neil's rejection last year for induction into the Hall of Fame an injustice, and he said he hopes the injustice doesn't push O'Neil out of people's minds. That might be a harsher blow than the first, Jeter said.
"I'm going to remember him, because I met him on a personal level," Jeter said. "But I think anytime you do something for a player, it's going to open people's eyes and they're going to want to learn more about him.
"That's the biggest tribute you can give him."
On a night of tributes, O'Neil got his moment, too. Jeter and the hundreds who attended the awards show saw a video tribuet to O'Neil. It touched the high points of O'Neil's life, which includes the legacy he left as a man too proud to have regrets or to hate.
Few people in baseball can live to such a high standard. So the best way to honor O'Neil might simply be to play baseball with excellence as the aim. As a Yankee, Jeter knows he can ill-afford to play the game any other way.
As he enjoyed the present, he knew that he'd soon have to go back to work. Spring Training starts next month, and he's eager for it to begin. He'll be welcoming back veteran left-hander Andy Pettitte, who spent the past three seasons with the Astros, and also trying to grow comfortable with a handful of new Yankees teammates.
New or old, they all know what the expectations are for any man who puts on the pinstripes: to win a championship.
"We need to win a championship," Jeter said. "That's the bottom line."
He'll be heading to Tampa with optimism in tow. It's a new beginning, he said. He can forget what happened last season -- the good and the bad.
The good led to his picking up the Charleston Award. The bad: no championship.
The Yankees play for championships -- period. He sees nothing less than that as the goal for 2007. He has plenty of reasons, aside from Pettitte's return, to be optimistic that the Yankees will add another title to their storied history.
"There's a lot of optimism," Jeter said. "But I think that's for every team."
Justice B. Hill is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
© 2001-2007 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
Jeter nets honor, pays tribute to O'Neil
Legacy Award recipient basks in history of Negro Leagues
By Justice B. Hill / MLB.com
KANSAS CITY -- Derek Jeter apologized for never having been to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum before Saturday.
"I always intended to go," Jeter said. "I think as you get older, you get a little bit lazier during the daytime before the games."
On a bone-chilling day in mid-January, he had no games to fret about. No pennant race with the archrival Red Sox to distract him. No Yankee pinstripes to put on. He came to take part in the annual Legacy Awards ceremony, a tribute to the black pioneers in black baseball, to pick up the Oscar Charleston Award for his MVP-caliber play in 2006 and to bask in the history of it all.
Jeter couldn't deny the museum struck an emotional chord.
"I've heard a lot of stories from my dad growing up," he said. "But getting an opportunity to come here and see this is impressive. That's to say the least. It's something I think everybody should have an opportunity to experience."
Yet his first visit was bittersweet, too. For absent was Buck O'Neil, the museum chairman and a man who had befriended Jeter in 1996. O'Neil had died three months earlier.
"I was a rookie," Jeter recalled. "He went out of his way to introduce himself: 'You don't have to introduce yourself to me. You're Buck O'Neil.'
"He always treated me great."
But who doesn't treat Yankee royalty great? With a trophy case that might resemble a small house, Jeter picked up more hardware here for his trophy case: the Charleston and the Pop Lloyd Award for community leadership.
He wished O'Neil had been here to enjoy the moment with him.
Before the ceremony, Jeter expressed regret that O'Neil didn't get his due while alive. He called O'Neil's rejection last year for induction into the Hall of Fame an injustice, and he said he hopes the injustice doesn't push O'Neil out of people's minds. That might be a harsher blow than the first, Jeter said.
"I'm going to remember him, because I met him on a personal level," Jeter said. "But I think anytime you do something for a player, it's going to open people's eyes and they're going to want to learn more about him.
"That's the biggest tribute you can give him."
On a night of tributes, O'Neil got his moment, too. Jeter and the hundreds who attended the awards show saw a video tribuet to O'Neil. It touched the high points of O'Neil's life, which includes the legacy he left as a man too proud to have regrets or to hate.
Few people in baseball can live to such a high standard. So the best way to honor O'Neil might simply be to play baseball with excellence as the aim. As a Yankee, Jeter knows he can ill-afford to play the game any other way.
As he enjoyed the present, he knew that he'd soon have to go back to work. Spring Training starts next month, and he's eager for it to begin. He'll be welcoming back veteran left-hander Andy Pettitte, who spent the past three seasons with the Astros, and also trying to grow comfortable with a handful of new Yankees teammates.
New or old, they all know what the expectations are for any man who puts on the pinstripes: to win a championship.
"We need to win a championship," Jeter said. "That's the bottom line."
He'll be heading to Tampa with optimism in tow. It's a new beginning, he said. He can forget what happened last season -- the good and the bad.
The good led to his picking up the Charleston Award. The bad: no championship.
The Yankees play for championships -- period. He sees nothing less than that as the goal for 2007. He has plenty of reasons, aside from Pettitte's return, to be optimistic that the Yankees will add another title to their storied history.
"There's a lot of optimism," Jeter said. "But I think that's for every team."
Justice B. Hill is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
© 2001-2007 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
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