Whirty: RIP Walter McCoy, ‘San Diego’s Buck O’Neil’
From SABR member Ryan Whirty at Home Plate Don’t Move on November 19, 2015:
Yesterday, family and friends of Walter McCoy gathered at Mananatha Seventh-Day Adventist Church on Skyline Drive in San Diego to not only mourn his passing, but to also celebrate his life and contributions to the world around him.
Because indeed, there were many contributions.
And when San Diego baseball historian and long-time friend Bill Swank gave his remarks about Walter’s life at the service, one sentence he said in particular perhaps summed it up the best.
“Walter McCoy was San Diego’s Buck O’Neil,” Swank told the gathered flock, “a beloved ambassador for baseball.”
That is certainly no overstatement. McCoy, a right-handed pitcher with a wicked fastball, blazed trails in multiple leagues in co-called “organized” baseball,” becoming one of the first former Negro Leaguers to integrate Pacific Coast League’s Sacramento Solons in 1950, and also helped integrate the California League — as well as the entire Chicago Cubs’ organization — when he joined the roster of the Visalia Cubs in 1949.
Read the full article here: https://homeplatedontmove.wordpress.com/2015/11/19/the-most-amazing-dad-walter-mccoy/
Originally published: November 19, 2015. Last Updated: November 19, 2015.