For years, one could not watch a video about the history of baseball without commentary from the smiling face of baseball ambassador Buck O'Neill.  A first baseman and manager with the Memphis Red Sox and Kansas City Monarchs, O'Neill committed the crime of being born too early to be permitted to play major league baseball, not because of lack of skill but because of the color of his skin.  Despite this, he continued on in the game, winning two titles as the manager of the Monarchs before becoming a scout for the Cubs, where he signed Lou Brock to his first professional contract and becoming Major League Baseball's first African-American coach with the Cubs in 1962.  Instrumental in the establishment of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, where he served as honorary chairman until his passing in 2006.  O'Neill served on the Baseball Hall of Famer Veterans Committee for 19 years helped get six Negro Leaguers inducted between 1995 and 2001.  Posthumously, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and an award given by the Baseball Hall of Fame is named after him.

And yet inexplicably, O'Neill is not, himself, in the Hall of Fame.  This is one of baseball's greatest travesties.

Presented here is one of O'Neill's "rookie cards," from the 1946-47 Caramelo Deportivo issue, picturing him with the Almendares team of the Cuban League, where he would win the pennant in the most famous pennant race in league history.  Graded FR 1.5 by SGC, the card is quite attractive for the grade, as low-grade Cuban cards are the norm.  Though some mild creasing and surface wear is evident, with some paper loss from scrapbook removal on the reverse, the image is clear and visible, an early card of one of the game's great ambassadors.