Happy Birthday to speedy center fielder and Hall of Famer James Thomas “Cool Papa” Bell (b. May 17, 1903, in Starkville, MS), who played in the Negro leagues from 1922 to 1946. His speed-driven play exemplified a unique style of baseball played in the Negro leagues in this period, which prioritized stolen bases, bunts, and hit-and-run plays. This approach overwhelmed white major leaguers when they played all-star games against Black players during this segregated era. For example, in one of these all-star games Bell reportedly scored all the way from first base on a sacrifice bunt. As scholar William F. McNeil writes, “Bell could do it all. He was an electrifying batter, capable of hitting to all fields with decent power, or dragging bunts for base hits. A smooth left handed batter, Bell terrorized opposing pitchers in the Negro league for 25 years. During his career, he led the league in at-bats five times, runs scored once, doubles once, stolen bases five times, and batting average once.” His defense was impressive as well. McNeil adds, “He also kept the baserunners honest with a strong, accurate throwing arm.”
Citations: “Cool Papa Bell,” Seamheads Negro Leagues Database, accessed April 6, 2024, https://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/player.php?playerID=bell-01coo; Jules Tygiel, “The Negro Leagues,” OAH Magazine of History 7, no. 1 (Summer 1992): 26, https://www.jstor.org/stable/25162852; William F. McNeil, Cool Papas and Double Duties: The All-Time Greats of the Negro Leagues (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2001), https://archive.org/details/coolpapasdoubled0000mcne; National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, “Postcard of James ‘Cool Papa’ Bell Baseball Hall of Fame plaque,” postcard (Cooperstown, NY, 1974), public domain, https://www.si.edu/object/postcard-james-cool-papa-bell-baseball-hall-fame-plaque:nmaahc_2012.172.21.3.
Kommentare