Buck Leonard - WikiHQ

Walter Fenner "Buck" Leonard (September 8, 1907 – November 27, 1997) was an American first baseman in Negro league baseball and in the Mexican League. After growing up in North Carolina, he played for the Homestead Grays between 1934 and 1950, batting fourth behind Josh Gibson for many years. The Grays teams of the 1930s and 1940s were considered some of the best teams in Negro league history. Leonard and Gibson are two of only nine players in league history to win multiple batting titles.

In 1940-1941, he batted .390 for the Puerto Rican team Indios de Mayagüez, connecting 8 home runs and impulsing 45 runs, leading the league in home runs, doubles and slugging (.754).

Leonard never played in Major League Baseball (MLB); he declined a 1952 offer of an MLB contract because he felt he was too old. Late in life, Leonard worked as a physical education instructor and was the vice-president of a minor league baseball team. He and Gibson were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in . In 1999, he was ranked number 47 on the 100 Greatest Baseball Players list by The Sporting News.

Early life

Born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Leonard was the brother of fellow Negro leaguer Charlie Leonard. His father worked as a railroad fireman while his mother was a homemaker who cared for the six Leonard children. Leonard's parents called him "Buddy", but his younger brother began mispronouncing it "Bucky". Family members began calling him "Buck", a name which stuck with him throughout his life. When Leonard was about seven years old, he would sneak over to the baseball field of the local white team and watch games through the fence. Local police even once arrested Leonard and his friends when they were caught peeking through the fence at the segregated field.

Leonard's father died when he was eleven and Leonard picked up jobs after school to help his family. There was no black high school in Rocky Mount, so Leonard finished the eighth grade and went to work shining shoes for a rail station. He also worked in a hosiery mill and for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. He later earned a GED by correspondence. He began playing semi-professional baseball while working for the railroad, then decided to pursue his living with the sport.

Leonard batted fourth in their lineup behind Josh Gibson. He led the Negro leagues in batting average in 1948 with a mark of .395, and usually either led the league in home runs or finished second in homers to teammate Gibson. Since Gibson was known as the "Black Babe Ruth" and Leonard was a first baseman, Buck Leonard was inevitably called the "Black Lou Gehrig." Together, the pair was colloquially known as the "Thunder Twins" or "Dynamite Twins". In fact, Negro league star Monte Irvin said that if Leonard had been allowed in the major leagues, baseball fans "might have called Lou Gehrig the white Buck Leonard. He was that good." Leonard said that he got sick from the water every year that he returned to Mexico, but he otherwise enjoyed the league. For much of his time in Mexico, he was managed by Cuban baseball star Martín Dihigo. Leonard was impressed by Dihigo's baseball knowledge. In 1952, Leonard was offered a major league contract, but he believed that at age 45 he was too old and might embarrass himself and hurt the cause of integration. He stayed in Mexico through 1955, playing for teams in Torreón, Xalapa, Durango and Obregón.

Minor league career

In 1953, Leonard made his only appearances in "organized" ball, playing for the unaffiliated Portsmouth Merrimacs of the class B Piedmont League, hitting .333 in 10 games and 46 at bats.

Later life

thumb|upright|Leonard following his playing career

After retiring as a player, Leonard worked as a truant officer, served as a physical education instructor and started a realty company. From 1962 to 1972, he was vice president of the Rocky Mount Leafs and then, from 1973 to 1975, of the Rocky Mount Phillies.

Leonard was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in along with Gibson. At his induction ceremony on August 7 of that year, Leonard said, "We in the Negro leagues felt like we were contributing something to baseball, too, when we were playing. We played with a round ball and we played with a round bat. And we wore baseball shoes and wore baseball uniforms and we thought we were making a contribution to baseball. We loved the game and we liked to play it. If we didn't, we wouldn't have played because there wasn't any money in it."

Leonard was also inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 1974.

Legacy

thumb|[[Baseball Hall of Fame induction plaque]]

In , he ranked Number 47 on The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, one of five players so honored who played all or most of their careers in the Negro leagues, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

Leonard's contemporaries, including catcher Roy Campanella and pitcher Dave Barnhill, cited his quick bat as one of his greatest strengths. "You could put a fastball in a shotgun and you couldn't shoot it by him," Barnhill said. The first results from this study were the statistics for Negro league Hall of Famers elected prior to 2006, which were published in Shades of Glory by Lawrence D. Hogan. These statistics included the official Negro league statistics for Buck Leonard as of 2006.

{| cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" style="border: 1px black solid;"

|- style="background-color:black; color:white; text-align:center;"

|width="40"|Year

|width="100"|Team

|width="40"|G

|width="40"|AB

|width="50"|R

|width="40"|H

|width="40"|2B

|width="40"|3B

|width="40"|HR

|width="40"|RBI

|width="40"|SB

|width="40"|BB

|width="50"|BA

|width="50"|SLG

|- style="text-align:center;"

| 1934

| Homestead

| 20

| 79

| 16

| 28

| 4

| 0

| 5

| 14

| 0

| 3

| .354

| .595

|- style="background-color:silver; text-align:center;"

| 1935

| Homestead

| 36

| 147

| 26

| 50

| 10

| 1

| 3

| 10

| 3

| 15

| .340

| .483

|- style="text-align:center;"

| 1936

| Homestead

| 17

| 62

| 15

| 1

| 2

| 3

| 1

| 12

| .242

| .387

|- style="background-color:silver; text-align:center;"

| 1937

| Homestead p

| 28

| 105

| 39

| 8

| 1

| 7

| 17

| 1

| 20

| .371

| .667

|- style="text-align:center;"

| 1938

| Homestead p

| 27

| 99

| 21

| 33

| 0

| 3

| 8

| 0

| 11

| .333

| .424

|- style="background-color:silver; text-align:center;"

| 1939

| Homestead

| 22

| 72

| 23

| 30

| 5

| 0

| 5

| 23

| 2

| 17

| .417

| .694

|- style="text-align:center;"

| 1940

| Homestead p

| 44

| 152

| 40

| 60

| 12

| 3

| 8

| 44

| 4

| 32

| .395

| .671

|- style="background-color:silver; text-align:center;"

| 1941

| Homestead p

| 36

| 123

| 40

| 36

| 4

| 5

| 8

| 29

| 6

| 30

| .293

| .602

|- style="text-align:center;"

| 1942

| Homestead p

| 26

| 87

| 10

| 18

| 3

| 0

| 10

| 1

| 14

| .207

| .241

|- style="background-color:silver; text-align:center;"

| 1943

| Homestead c

| 55

| 200

| 55

| 59

| 11

| 7

| 4

| 41

| 2

| 38

| .295

| .480

|- style="text-align:center;"

| 1944

| Homestead c

| 34

| 121

| 30

| 34

| 8

| 5

| 27

| 1

| 18

| .281

| .554

|- style="background-color:silver; text-align:center;"

| 1945

| Homestead p

| 16

| 59

| 7

| 17

| 1

| 2

| 0

| 7

| 0

| 7

| .288

| .373

|- style="text-align:center;"

| 1946

| Homestead

| 30

| 102

| 18

| 27

| 3

| 1

| 3

| 26

| 3

| 24

| .265

| .402

|- style="background-color:silver; text-align:center;"

| 1947

| Homestead

| 11

| 30

| 7

| 16

| 0

| 4

| 8

| 1

| 8

| .533

| .933

|- style="text-align:center;"

| 1948

| Homestead c

| 10

| 34

| 5

| 9

| 3

| 0

| 3

| 8

| 0

| 8

| .265

| .618

|- style="background-color:black; color:white; text-align:center;"

|Total

|15 seasons

| 412

| 1472

| 352

| 471

| 73

| 26

| 60

| 275

| 25

| 257

| .320

| .527

|colspan="14"|   p = pennant; c = pennant and Negro World Series championship.

After seven Negro leagues were declared major leagues in December 2020, Baseball Reference added Negro League statistics compiled by the Seamheads Negro Leagues Database to its website.

Link including Negro Leagues statistics officially entered into Major League Baseball’s official records: https://www.mlb.com/player/buck-leonard-818520

These statistics include the official Negro major league statistics (which differ from Major League Baseball's own record book) for Buck Leonard as of 2021.

{| cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" style="border: 1px black solid;"

|- style="background-color:black; color:white; text-align:center;"

|width="40"|Year

|width="100"|Team

|width="40"|G

|width="40"|AB

|width="50"|R

|width="40"|H

|width="40"|2B

|width="40"|3B

|width="40"|HR

|width="40"|RBI

|width="40"|SB

|width="40"|BB

|width="33"|BA

|width="33"|SLG

|width="33"|OBP

|- style="text-align:center;"

| 1935

| Homestead

| 40

| 157

| 30

| 61

| 18

| 3

| 4

| 36

| 5

| 17

| .389

| .618

| .451

|- style="background-color:silver; text-align:center;"

| 1936

| Homestead

| 35

| 124

| 35

| 43

| 3

| 4

| 6

| 34

| 2

| 29

| .347

| .581

| .471

|- style="text-align:center;"

| 1937

| Homestead p

| 42

| 170

| 54

| 64

| 15

| 3

| 13

| 55

| 2

| 25

| .376

| .729

| .462

|- style="background-color:silver; text-align:center;"

| 1938

| Homestead p

| 42

| 150

| 41

| 63

| 11

| 5

| 9

| 53

| 1

| 24

| .420

| .740

| .500

|- style="text-align:center;"

| 1939

| Homestead

| 30

| 109

| 35

| 42

| 10

| 0

| 11

| 48

| 2

| 21

| .385

| .780

| .485

|- style="background-color:silver; text-align:center;"

| 1940

| Homestead p

| 49

| 168

| 44

| 62

| 12

| 3

| 8

| 48

| 2

| 34

| .369

| .619

| .475

|- style="text-align:center;"

| 1941

| Homestead p

| 47

| 161

| 54

| 56

| 9

| 6

| 11

| 40

| 6

| 38

| .348

| .683

| .472

|- style="background-color:silver; text-align:center;"

| 1942

| Homestead p

| 30

| 100

| 16

| 22

| 5

| 0

| 12

| 3

| 19

| .220

| .270

| .345

|- style="text-align:center;"

| 1943

| Homestead c

| 67

| 254

| 71

| 84

| 16

| 8

| 4

| 63

| 2

| 47

| .331

| .504

| .439

|- style="background-color:silver; text-align:center;"

| 1944

| Homestead c

| 49

| 179

| 47

| 60

| 14

| 6

| 7

| 43

| 1

| 29

| .335

| .598

| .428

|- style="text-align:center;"

| 1945

| Homestead p

| 36

| 138

| 30

| 47

| 5

| 3

| 5

| 30

| 0

| 20

| .341

| .529

| .431

|- style="background-color:silver; text-align:center;"

| 1946

| Homestead

| 50

| 169

| 37

| 57

| 7

| 4

| 7

| 47

| 3

| 38

| .337

| .550

| .459

|- style="text-align:center;"

| 1947

| Homestead

| 35

| 109

| 20

| 33

| 5

| 1

| 6

| 24

| 4

| 26

| .303

| .532

| .441

|- style="background-color:silver; text-align:center;"

| 1948

| Homestead c

| 35

| 113

| 20

| 30

| 7

| 0

| 4

| 17

| 1

| 27

| .265

| .434

| .415

|- style="background-color:black; color:white; text-align:center;"

|Total

|14 seasons

| 587

| 2101

| 534

| 724

| 137

| 46

| 95

| 550

| 34

| 394

| .345

| .589

| .450

|colspan="14"|   p = pennant; c = pennant and Negro World Series championship.

Mexican League

{| cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" style="border: 1px black solid;"

|- style="background-color:black; color:white; text-align:center;"

|width="40"|Year

|width="100"|Team

|width="40"|G

|width="40"|AB

|width="50"|R

|width="40"|H

|width="40"|2B

|width="40"|3B

|width="40"|HR

|width="40"|RBI

|width="40"|SB

|width="40"|BB

|width="50"|BA

|width="50"|SLG

|- style="text-align:center;"

| 1951

| Torreón

| 83

| 273

| 64

| 88

| 19

| 1

| 14

| 64

| 5

| 87

| .322

| .553

|- style="background-color:silver; text-align:center;"

| 1952

| Torreón

| 86

| 295

| 50

| 96

| 15

| 1

| 8

| 71

| 12

| 90

| .325

| .464

|- style="text-align:center;"

| 1953

| Torreón

| 58

| 190

| 39

| 63

| 20

| 2

| 5

| 38

| 4

| 58

| .332

| .537

|- style="background-color:black; color:white; text-align:center;"

|Total

|3 seasons

| 227

| 758

| 153

| 247

| 54

| 4

| 27

| 173

| 21

| 235

| .326

| .515

Source:

Notes

References

External links

and Baseball-Reference Black Baseball stats and Seamheads
Buck Leonard Oral History Interview (1 of 3) - National Baseball Hall of Fame Digital Collection
Buck Leonard Oral History Interview (2 of 3) - National Baseball Hall of Fame Digital Collection
Buck Leonard Oral History Interview (3 of 3) - National Baseball Hall of Fame Digital Collection