That's how residents of Rocky Mount knew Walter "Buck" Leonard, the big man with the big stick whose heart was larger than his fame in the city that straddles Nash and Edgecombe counties.

If there was one thing the baseball Hall of Famer loved, it was the sport he played. After his Negro League days, he avidly supported local Little League baseball and was vice president of a now-defunct minor league team, the Rocky Mount Leafs. He was also a local truant officer and real estate broker.

Leonard, who died in 1997 at age 90, felt he was needed at home more than in the baseball commissioner's office in New York City. He was offered a job there after his election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972. Leonard is one of 18 Negro Leaguers enshrined in Cooperstown, N.Y., who never played with their white counterparts. The left-handed first baseman spent 17 years with the Homestead Grays, played in 11 all-star games, was a member of nine straight Negro National League pennant teams and, along with Josh Gibson, formed the most feared batting duo in black baseball.

Leonard was known as "the black Lou Gehrig," and Gibson was "the black Babe Ruth."

There was talk of the pair becoming the first black players in the major leagues, but segregation was too strong a deterrent in those days. Given the opportunity, Leonard would have had much success, said Bob Kendrick, director of marketing for the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo.

"Baseball fans really missed a great opportunity to see how the game is played at levels only our imaginations can take us," Kendrick said.

After baseball, Leonard's first job was delivering tobacco products. One of his stops was a drugstore where a woman named Lugenia worked. He was married, but their friendship grew after Leonard's first wife died in 1963. Neither wanted to remarry. But after he suffered a stroke and she began taking care of him, Lugenia said, Leonard figured, "Why not?" They tied the knot during a home ceremony in 1986.

At the Atlantic Avenue residence in Rocky Mount where Lugenia, 89, still lives, Leonard was proud to show off his baseball mementos. All the local kids knew him, including Antonio Lawrence. He walked by Leonard's home en route to the swimming pool, located in a community center that housed the truancy office. That's how Lawrence met the "hero within the black community."

"We were all afraid of Mr. Leonard," said Lawrence, 56, a Rocky Mount lawyer. "He was a towering figure, and we had so much respect for him. We had heard about Lou Gehrig, but not about Mr. Leonard. So when they compared [Gehrig] with Mr. Leonard, we were in awe. That was the kind of fear that made him larger than life for us."

In Rocky Mount, there's a park in Leonard's name on the corner of Raleigh Road and Grace Street. A historical marker detailing his acclaim sits about a block from the park, near his birth home. Motorists entering the city from Raleigh on U.S. 64 pass the street bearing his name, Rocky Mount mayor Fred Turnage said. Hundreds turned out for his 90th birthday celebration. The local chamber of commerce honored Leonard as one of the city's notables in 2004.

But that's not enough recognition for the religious man, who as a truant officer "would run you down" with his gray Jeep, Lawrence said.

"He could be a miniature tourist attraction, given his history and accomplishments," said Lawrence, who thinks there should be a city monument in Leonard's honor.

It's no surprise that the lawyer has such respect for Leonard, who preached academics more than athletics. After Lawrence completed his undergraduate studies at Johnson C. Smith University and earned a law degree from N.C. Central University, he remembered Leonard's telling him that "you did exactly what I thought you would do, and I'm proud of you."

"His affirmation meant a big deal to me," he said. "Because he's Buck Leonard, and you wanted to please him. You wanted to make him proud of you."