The Hall of Fame pitcher Satchel Paige, one of the legends of Negro League baseball, wielded an eclectic array of pitches. One, the “be ball,” was so named because, as Paige is often quoted as saying, “it be right where I want it.”
Kansas baseball coach Dan Fitzgerald told reporters Tuesday that, having learned about Paige’s arsenal from Negro Leagues Baseball Museum President Bob Kendrick, one Jayhawk recently called out to a teammate, “Throw him the be ball!”
Fitzgerald said it was a testament to the lasting value of what his team had learned about Negro League baseball, including on a visit to the museum last season: “There are a number of things that really, really stuck with them in a way that you could never just explain.”
“I love it. I hope they all develop themselves a be ball,” Kendrick said Tuesday evening. “Now, I’m not sure anyone will be able to do it as well as Satchel, who in my estimation is the greatest of all time. But the fact that that experience can inspire in such a way that they are now relating what they heard me share and the story that they learn at the museum, and bringing it back to the game as it’s being played today, we can’t ask for a better scenario than that.”
KU held its third annual Buck O’Neil Classic — a celebration of the former Kansas City Monarchs player, who helped create the museum honoring Black baseball — at Hoglund Ballpark Tuesday night. Kendrick threw out the first pitch, the Jayhawks came out wearing Monarchs-themed retro uniforms, and then it was time for the game.
The former conference rivals provided no shortage of entertainment, and ultimately, the Jayhawks claimed a wild 13-11 win over 20th-ranked Nebraska.
Jake English and Mike Koszewski drove in three runs apiece for KU (16-14), as every Jayhawk in the starting lineup tallied at least one hit. Cole Evans hit a grand slam and Nebraska (22-8) later added a five-run sixth inning to keep the game close, but the Jayhawks were able to turn a 4-6-3 double play to earn the victory in the ninth inning.
“We stuck to it offensively, and then for the most part made plays, and then were able to piece it together,” Fitzgerald said.
Cooper Moore was the winning pitcher for KU after tossing 2 1/3 scoreless innings, as the teams rolled out seven pitchers each for the midweek matchup.
“Coop was great and he was a really good matchup in that spot,” Fitzgerald said. “Coop really sinks the ball — tonight he had his slider too … I thought he showed a ton of moxie.”
This was the first year the Buck O’Neil Classic was held in Lawrence after previously taking place at Legends Field in Kansas City, Kansas.
“It fills my heart with so much joy, and I know Buck is somewhere in that great somewhere smiling down because this would mean a great deal to him,” Kendrick said. “It means a great deal to us at his museum, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.”
KU will still play a game there on May 7, but by holding Tuesday’s event at Hoglund Ballpark with a 6 p.m. start was able to honor the Monarchs’ first-ever night game, which also took place in Lawrence.
“Forever, in the pages of American history books, it was that the Reds gave you (major-league) night baseball in 1935,” Kendrick said. “Cincinnati Reds versus the Philadelphia Phillies. Well, it turns out that the history book is wrong. It would be our Kansas City Monarchs. James Leslie Wilkinson would pioneer night baseball five years prior to that.”
He added that Wilkinson innovated out of necessity, in an attempt to attract working-class fans, and in the end, “The Kansas City Call, which still produces a weekly African American paper, said that the Monarchs would do for baseball what talkies had done for the movies, and they were absolutely right.”
Fitzgerald was grateful his team could bring the festivities to its home crowd.
“We had a great crowd last year and Jayhawk nation shows up everywhere, but to bring it back to Lawrence and against a great opponent like Nebraska is really fun and really special,” he said.
Both teams certainly brought it early.
Nebraska opened the scoring in the first inning by bringing around Joshua Overbeek following his leadoff double. J’Briell Easley, making his second career start, allowed the Cornhuskers to load the bases in the second after Overbeek reached base on a bouncing ball in the infield, but Easley struck out Riley Silva looking to end the threat.
The Jayhawks were able to equalize soon after when a fly ball lofted to right field by first baseman Ben Hartl carried over the fence for a home run. The second-inning threat developed further with a double by Michael Brooks and a full-count walk drawn by Ty Wisdom, before Koszewski loaded the bases with a two-out bunt single.
Ty Horn seemed poised to escape his jam just as Easley had, but shortstop Dylan Carey bounced a throw to first base to allow an unearned run. That swiftly led to three more after English battled back from an 0-2 count to take three pitches and score all three runners with a single to center field, making it 5-1. Fitzgerald said postgame that he had never seen a single that cleared the bases.
That advantage was short-lived, as Gavin Brasosky relieved Easley and allowed three straight RBI hits, capped off by a two-run home run by Ben Columbus.
KU had another answer against Jackson Brockett, taking the lead with Wisdom before Collier Cranford doubled down the left-field line and Koszewski and John Nett drove in one runner each.
Koszewski executed well again with runners in scoring position his next time up, bringing home Cranford and Wisdom with a two-out single.
In the top of the sixth inning with Nebraska trailing 11-5, Overbeek was ruled to have swung at a pitch that hit him, which would have loaded the bases if he let it go. However, he was able to fight back over the course of the at-bat and draw a walk regardless against Evan Shaw, who then walked in a run and was replaced by Ethan Lanthier.
Lanthier promptly gave up a 1-0 grand slam to Evans, smacked to deep center field, that cut KU’s lead to 11-10.
In the bottom half of the inning, Brooks benefited from an error that got him two additional bases off a single, and then tagged up on a fly ball by Cranford to get the Jayhawks some insurance. Later, Lenny Ashby clubbed a solo home run to right field to extend the advantage to three runs.
Nebraska manager Will Bolt was tossed in the seventh inning for arguing a strike call on a checked swing by Carey.
The Cornhuskers weathered the storm and were able to bring the winning run to the plate with one out in the ninth after loading the bases once again, this time against Hunter Cranton, and then Carey got a dribbler through the infield to bring home one run. But Columbus’ sharply hit ball got snagged by Brooks, who got it to Cranford to set up the game-ending double play.
“It’s a whole team effort,” sophomore Kodey Shojinaga said of the double play, “and I’m glad we closed that one out.”
KU snapped a four-game losing streak and will continue its break from conference play as it hosts Pacific beginning Friday.
“I think we’ve hit a lot of bumps in the road, but I think we’re going in the right direction,” Shojinaga said. “We’re putting really good days in, and we’re working really hard, and we’re trying to come together as a team.”
Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World
