\"COOL PAPA BELL\" 1989 Perez Steele PSA/DNA CERTIFIED (HALL OF FAME BASEBALL) . For Sale


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\"COOL PAPA BELL\" 1989 Perez Steele PSA/DNA CERTIFIED (HALL OF FAME BASEBALL) .:
$65.00

Cool Papa Bell is considered to be the fastest man ever to play professional baseball. His achievements, in the Negro Leagues and in Latin America, earned his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, in 1974. His Hall of Fame plaque reads in part, “… Contemporaries rated him fastest man on the base paths.”Bell got his mature sounding nickname, “Cool Papa,” as a 19-year-old rookie. The legendary switch-hitting centerfielder had started his career as a left-handed pitcher. On a road trip, his teammates awakened him in a train berth to tell him that a newspaper story reported that the teenager unexpectedly would be the starting pitcher in the upcoming game. That news did not make Bell nervous, and after winning the ballgame by one run (contributing a home run in the process) and striking out Oscar Charleston, the best hitter at the time, his teammates called him “Cool.” Bell told baseball writer John Holway, “They said that ‘he’s so cool he don’t get excited.’” St. Louis Stars Manager Bill Gatewood said, “We’ve got to add something to it. We’ll call him Cool Papa.” Thus was born the legendary name.
Major league competition

While segregation prevented Cool Papa Bell from starring in major league baseball, he did have a number of opportunities to play against major leaguers. In the 1930s and 1940s, black all-star teams would play white all-star teams while barnstorming across the country. In fifty-four exhibition games, against competition such as future Hall-of-Famers Dizzy Dean, Bob Feller, and Bob Lemon, Bell hit .391. He averaged one stolen base for every two games.

In Bell’s recollection to Holway, Earl Mack, son of the Hall of Famer and baseball manager Connie Mack, told Bell, “If the door was open, you’d be the first guy I’d hire.” Years later, Bill Veeck, legendary promoter and owner of the Cleveland Indians, ranked Cool Papa Bell alongside Willie Mays and Joe DiMaggio as the greatest centerfielders of all time.


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