Bill Veeck

Bill Veeck the great baseball owner was a “System” man, his own man actually.  He invented the word positive in my mind. They amputated parts of his leg sixteen times. His leg got so bad that I heard he could not use the metal prosthetic; he had to use a wood leg like a pirate. He made an ash tray in it so he could put out his cigarettes.

One day he was running through an airport, actually hobbling, when he stumbled and fell down. A young man said “Mr. Veeck do you want me to call an ambulance?”

Veeck replied, “No, I’ve broken my wooden leg, call a carpenter.” A classic story about a classic man. He was so much more then that though, he was active in the civil rights movement in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Marching in Martin Luther King Jr.’s funeral procession, he walked without a cane out of respect. Click here to read more.