Skip to main content

Cool Papa Bell


2004 National Baseball Hall of Fame Postcard (butchered by my stupid scanner - Grrr!).
Continuing with my National Baseball Hall of Fame collection...

A great quote from the National Baseball Hall of Fame website regarding James "Cool Papa" Bell: “One time he hit a line drive right past my ear. I turned around and saw the ball hit him sliding into second.” -Satchel Paige. Paige also said that Cool Papa was so fast he could flip the light switch and be in bed before the room got dark. I love these things about baseball.

Bell played in the Negro Leagues from 1922-46, and was elected to the National Baseball HOF in 1974. He is regarded as one of the best switch-hitters in history.

According to The Baseball Card Database, this is 1980-87 SSPC HOF Baseball Immortals Card # 141.

1986 Fritsch Negro League Baseball Stars #3. Love this photo.

1986 Fritsch Negro League Baseball Stars #90.

1987 Leaf Special Olympics #H12.

1993 Ted Williams #97.

1994 Upper Deck Ken Burns Baseball #49.

2001 Fleer Greats of the Game #64.

2001 Upper Deck Hall of Famers #40.

2017 Kreindler Postcard #23, Set 1368 of 2020.

Susan Rini postcard, Series 1, card #7.
Like so many other Negro league players, there are very few statistics because the league was not well covered in the press. He was the fifth Negro league player inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Be well,

CinciCuse Bill
Labels:

Comments

  1. FujiMay 6, 2020 at 10:51 AM

    He's one of those guys whose career spanned four decades. Very cool. The 1987 Leaf Special Olympics card is my favorite. It'd be cool if there are any signed copies of this card out there.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brett AlanMay 6, 2020 at 10:55 AM

    Buck O'Neil was frequently asked how fast Bell really was. He would invariably answer "faster than that." Which I've always taken to mean "whatever story you were thinking of, however fast you imagine him being...he was faster."

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ballplayers Turned Announcers, Actors, Writers, Etc.

  We all know of ballplayers that become announcers, actors, or writers. This post shows cards for a few notable examples, as well as a few other players with occupations that you may not be aware of. Announcers 1952 Topps card #227. Not only was Joe Garagiola a catcher for parts of nine season with four clubs, but he was also an announcer, writer, and host of numerous television shows. Joe was honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame with the Ford C. Frick Award for outstanding broadcasting accomplishments and he was named as the 2014 recipient of the Buck O'Neil Lifetime Achievement Award, presented once every three years by the Baseball Hall of Fame for positive contributions to Major League Baseball.     1965 Topps card #65. Tony Kubek played for the Yankees for nine seasons, winning the 1957 Rookie of the Year award and selected to three All-Star games. Kubek played in six World Series in the late 1950s and early 1960s, starting in 37 World Series games. U...
6 comments
Read more

Welcome to my first post!

Original, well-loved, cards from my youth. Rose: "I'd walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball." My Story: I started collecting sports cards back in 1970 when I was about 9-yrs old. If I recall correctly, the first packs I opened in 70 and 71 contained a card of Pete Rose. Rose became my favorite player because of his hustle and desire to win, and he was one of the main cogs of the Cincinnati Reds Big Red Machine, my favorite team. (I still consider Rose to be one of the best players ever, but I have no respect for what he has done outside of the white lines) I collected a lot of cards up until mid 1975 which is when my interests changed, but I never got rid of those cards (nor were they thrown away by mom or dad, thankfully). I got back into collecting, on and off, from the mid 80's up to this day, but only baseball cards. Over the years, I realized I had a fairly decent collection of player cards from those days and started to organize my co...
9 comments
Read more

Retired Numbers - Oakland Athletics

  Continuing with my posts on retired numbers, below are card scans of former MLBers whose numbers have been retired by the Oakland Athletics to forever be revered. No. 9 Reggie Jackson 2013 Topps Commemorative Patch Card #RCP-7 No. 24 Rickey Henderson 1991 Bowman #692. There are so many great, great Henderson cards that I had a hard time picking out just one for this post. Well the '91 Bowman really stood out to me. No. 27 Catfish Hunter 1976 Laughlin #7. As noted here , Hunter is one of only 6 players ever that went directly from HIGH SCHOOL to the major leagues and NEVER played in the minor leagues. No. 34 Rollie Fingers 1976 Hostess #104. No. 42     Jackie Robinson 1980-1987 SSPC HoF #89. I love how Oakland's green and gold colors stand out in the border of this card. No. 43 Dennis Eckersley 2014 Panini HoF Induction Class of 2004 Autograph #78. Who do you think will be the next former Oakland A to have their uniform number to be retired? Vida Blue? Dave Ste...
8 comments
Read more