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JAMES “COOL PAPA” BELL 455
James “Cool Papa” Bell
1 In 1946 one of the greatest baseball players of all time retired after almost twenty-five
years as a pro. No, it wasn’t Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, or any other star you’ve probably heard of.
The man was James “Cool Papa” Bell, star of the Pittsburgh Crawfords of the Negro League.
2 The Negro League was the name of the league where black players were forced to play
until 1947, when major league baseball became integrated. The Negro League had some of the
best players never to be appreciated, and Cool Papa Bell headed that list.
3 Many say that Bell was the fastest player ever to play the game. This could very well be
true. He led the league in stolen bases almost every year he played until he retired at age forty-
one. Satchel Paige, a former teammate of his, said Cool Papa was so fast he could flip the switch
and be in bed before the lights went out.
4 In fact, Jesse Owens, the Olympic sprinter who was known as the fastest man in the
world, said he would race and beat anyone around the bases as long as that person wasn’t Cool
Papa Bell. At five feet, eleven inches tall and only 135 pounds, Bell was thin as a rail. But no one
made fun of his slender size as he swiftly and smoothly stole second or scored from first on a
single.
5 And Cool Papa was smooth. In his first game as a pro, the seventeen-year-old, then
known as James, came into the game in the bottom of the ninth inning and struck out one of the
league’s best hitters on three straight pitches. Pretty smooth for a guy who wasn’t even a pitcher.
For playing with the savvy of a seasoned veteran even though he was only a kid, his manager
called him “Cool Papa.”
6 But to say that Cool Papa had style would be an injustice to him. Cool Papa was style.
Whether in his baseball uniform or his Sunday best, Cool Papa had a flair all his own. Some of you
may have seen flip-down sunglasses, a necessity and fashion statement for many major league
players today. Flip-down sunglasses weren’t unknown to Cool Papa. After all, he invented them.
7 But despite all of Cool Papa’s baseball feats and the style with which he accomplished
them, his greatest achievement was that he played at all. You see, James “Cool Papa” Bell was
the victim of a disease known as racism—racism that kept him from playing in the same league
as white players, racism that kept him from being in the same record books as white players, rac-
ism that kept him from earning the same money as white players. In fact, to make ends meet,
Cool Papa would race home after each game just so he could change clothes and get to his second
job as a nighttime security guard. This kind of thing would be unheard of for players today.
456 COMMEMORATIVE SPEECHES FOR ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
JAMES “COOL PAPA” BELL 457
