Cool Papa Bell was a talented athlete with exceptional speed and base running skills. He could have easily played in the big leagues, but the color line prevented him from ever proving his skill as a player.
"I remember one game I got five hits and stole five bases, but none of it was written down because they didn't bring the scorebook to the game that day." - Cool Papa Bell
Cool Papa Bell
Career Hitting Statistics |
||||||||||
| Y | T | N | G | AB | H | 2b | 3b | HR | BA | SB |
| 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 |
StL StL StL StL StL StL StL StL StL StL Det. Pitt. Pitt. Pitt. Pitt. Chic. Wash. Wash. Wash. Wash. |
Stars Stars Stars Stars Stars Stars Stars Stars Stars Stars Wolves Crawfords Crawfords Crawfords Crawfords Giants Hom. Grays Hom. Grays Hom. Grays Hom. Grays |
22 34 59 89 85 93 72 89 62 19 37 37 40 40 22 14 44 30 27 25 |
60 74 216 362 370 401 310 359 264 68 138 137 153 157 86 51 178 114 103 86 |
25 22 67 128 134 128 103 112 93 20 53 41 49 52 23 19 70 40 25 37 |
3 5 15 29 24 18 16 25 17 0 7 6 0 7 1 3 6 5 6 1 |
1 1 1 7 7 3 6 6 6 1 3 6 0 7 1 0 5 2 0 1 |
3 1 0 11 15 5 4 4 7 0 2 1 0 1 0 0 6 2 1 0 |
.417 .297 .310 .354 .362 .319 .332 .312 .352 .294 .384 .299 .320 .331 .267 .373 .393 .351 .243 .430 |
0 0 9 24 23 13 7 28 15 0 3 6 5 7 1 0 2 0 0 0 |
| 20 Seasons | 940 | 3,687 | 1,241 | 194 | 64 | 63 | .337 | 143 | ||

Cool Papa Bell once sat out a few games so Monte Irvin could out-hit his batting average and get noticed by the big league scouts, and it worked!
Cool Papa Bell personally helped Jackie Robinson by doing everything he could to assist his transition into the major leagues. When Jackie finally made it, Bell said it was the greatest moment in his life!
The statistics above are as accurate as possible, but the records for the Negro Leagues are often incomplete and lacking in their completeness!