Westminster Teachers and Father-Son Team are Recognized for Children’s Nonfiction Book on Buck O’Neil

Westminster Christian Academy teachers and father-son team, Jeff Gall and son Micah Gall, were recently selected as honorees in the Children’s Nonfiction category of the Society of Midland Authors Annual Literacy Award competition for their co-authored book Buck O’Neil: Baseball’s Ambassador.

“[My father and I] are from Kansas City, and we both love baseball history,” said Micah, upper school English teacher at Westminster. “Buck O’Neil has been a hero to our family as long as I can remember. During my childhood, we spent a lot of summer nights at Kauffman Stadium, where we’d always see Buck sitting in a seat behind home plate at Royals’ games. My father would often encourage my sister and me to go say hello in-between innings, and Buck always greeted us with a gracious smile.”

The idea for the book came at Jeff’s suggestion that Buck O’Neil be featured in a series of books for fourth graders on famous Missourians that Truman State University Press planned to publish. Jeff Gall was a professor at Truman State at the time of the book’s publication. He currently teaches United States history in the upper school at Westminster.

“I was on the steering committee for this series,” said Jeff. When he was approached to write a book on Buck O’Neil, he agreed, as long as his son Micah could be co-author. “Buck has always been one of Micah’s life heroes,” said Jeff. “I knew he would be the ideal collaborator.”

The process of writing the book involved several months of reading any material they could find on Buck O’Neil’s life. “To tell the truth, we both had been reading about Buck for many years, so really, it felt like we knew our subject well,” said Jeff. “We also traveled to Kansas City to meet with people at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum to get their thoughts and support.”

Both Jeff and Micah agree that co-authoring the book was a fun and rewarding experience. “It was a joy to work with my father on this project,” said Micah. “To have an opportunity to work together on something we’re both passionate about was something we couldn’t pass up. I was honored that my dad asked me to help. It was also an honor to have an opportunity to tell Buck O’Neil’s story to a young audience.”

Jeff and Micah will be honored by the Society of Midland Authors at a banquet on May 9, at the Cliff Dwellers Club in Chicago.