‘’Finding Buck McHenry is a 2001 Made-for-TV Movie based on the 1993 novel by Alfred Slote. Avid 11-year-old baseball player Jason deals with trying to start his own team after being cut from the town's main little league team. In the process he learns about the historical Negotiation League segregated baseball teams from Mac Henry, the schools custodian and grandfather of one of his potential new teammates. Jason becomes convinced that Mac is really Buck McHenry a legendary Negro League player and sets out to prove it despite Mac's denials.
Tropes:
- Cassandra Truth: Not many people believe Jason’s theories about Buck/Mac until the very end.
- Cool Old Guy: Mac, especially if you’re a baseball fan wanting stories.
- Dark Secret: Buck/Mac changed his name and his due to breaking the jaw of a white player who deliberately scarred him with cleats.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: the film isn’t shy on noting how so many of the Negro League players were denied hall of fame membership even though some were even better than white players of the time.
- Fixing the Game: Buck and his team were occasionally allowed to play white teams but would never be invited back unless they deliberately lost.
- Super-Speed: An ordinary human version but Buck talks about how one of his old teammates was so fast he was knocked out by the very ball he’d just hit due to beating it to the middle of the field.
- That Man Is Dead: How Mac feels about his days as Buck, refusing to admit that he is him for a long time.
