Al Antczak
SAN DIEGO (AP)–Al Antczak, a writer whose interview subjects included the future Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa and President John F. Kennedy, has died. He was 84.
The longtime editor of The Tidings, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, died Thursday at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego after becoming ill several months ago with pneumonia, said his son John Antczak.
Antczak joined The Tidings in 1947 and spent 42 years with the newspaper, including 16 years as editor, from 1973 until his retirement in 1989.
Antczak was also a correspondent for the National Catholic News Service and the U.S. Information Agency.
During his career, he interviewed Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Poland before he became Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Josef Mindszenty of Hungary, Mother Teresa and Kennedy.
He received the Benemerenti Medal from Pope John Paul II, awarded for outstanding service to the Catholic Church and society.
He also was made a Knight of St. Gregory, a papal honor, and received The Cardinal’s Award from Cardinal Mahony in 1993.
He served in India and China with the Army Air Corps during World War II as a radio operator.
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Buck O’Neil
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)–Buck O’Neil, the goodwill ambassador for the Negro Leagues who fell one vote shy of the Hall of Fame, died Friday night. He was 94.
Bob Kendrick, marketing director for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, said O’Neil died at a Kansas City hospital. A cause of death was not given.
A star in the Negro Leagues who barnstormed with Satchel Paige, O’Neil later became the first black coach in the majors. Baseball was his life–in July, he batted in a minor league All-Star game.
O’Neil rocketed into national stardom in 1994 when filmmaker Ken Burns featured him in his groundbreaking Public Broadcasting Service documentary “Baseball.”
A good-hitting, slick-fielding first baseman, O’Neil twice won a Negro Leagues batting title, then became a pennant-winning manager of the Kansas City Monarchs.
As a scout for the Chicago Cubs, he discovered and signed Hall of Famers Lou Brock and Ernie Banks. In 1962, the Cubs made him the first black coach in the major leagues.
Jackie Robinson was the first black with an opportunity to make plays in the big leagues. But as bench coach, O’Neil was the first to make decisions.
Born in 1911 in Florida, John “Buck” O’Neil began a lifetime in baseball hanging around the spring training complex of the great New York Yankee teams of the ’20s. Some of the players befriended the youngster and allowed him inside.
In February 2006, it was widely thought that a special 12-person committee commissioned to render final judgments on Negro Leagues and pre-Negro league figures would make him a shoo-in for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
But when word came from Florida that day that 16 men and one woman had been voted in, he was not among them. For reasons never fully explained, he fell one vote short of the required three-fourths.
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Dick Wagner
PHOENIX (AP)–Dick Wagner, a former president of the Cincinnati Reds and Houston Astros who later became a top executive in the commissioner’s office, died Thursday. He was 78.
Wagner died at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix from injuries sustained in a 1999 car crash, said his wife, Gloria.
Among the moves he helped engineer with the Reds were the acquisition of pitcher Tom Seaver from the New York Mets in 1977, the firing of manager Sparky Anderson in 1979 and the trade of outfielder George Foster to the Mets in 1982. Wagner also dealt Seaver back to the Mets after the 1982 season.
Wagner began his baseball career in 1946, when he left the U.S. Navy and was hired by the Detroit Tigers as general manager of their Thomasville farm team in the Georgia-Florida League. With the Tigers and Pittsburgh Pirates, he worked for teams in Flint, Mich., and Lincoln, Neb.
He became promotions director of the St. Louis Cardinals under Bob Howsam in 1964, and when Howsam moved to the Reds, Wagner followed him as his deputy in 1967.
Wagner helped build the Big Red Machine into a team that won consecutive World Series titles in 1975 and 1976, then took over from Howsam as team president in February 1978. He was fired in July 1983.
Wagner became the Astros’ president and general manager in September 1983, then resigned after the 1987 season.
Two months later, he became a special assistant in the commissioner’s office and worked closely with AL president Bobby Brown.
In February 1993, commissioner Bud Selig hired Wagner to run the staff in New York. Wagner held the position until January 1994.
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