The Bona Fide Legend of Cool Papa Bell
Speed, Grace, and the Negro Leagues
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
The Bona Fide Legend of Cool Papa Bell
Buy Now for $20.15
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
David Sadzin
-
Written by:
-
Lonnie Wheeler
About this listen
The first full biography of the star Negro Leaguer and Hall of Famer
James “Cool Papa” Bell (1903-1991) was a legend in Black baseball, a lightning-fast switch hitter elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. Bell’s speed was extraordinary; as Satchel Paige famously quipped, he was so fast he could flip a light switch and be in bed before the room got dark.
In The Bona Fide Legend of Cool Papa Bell, experienced baseball writer and historian Lonnie Wheeler recounts the life of this extraordinary player, a key member of some of the greatest Negro League teams in history.
Born to sharecroppers in Mississippi, Bell was part of the Great Migration, the movement of African Americans from the southern states to the northern states from 1910 through 1930. In St. Louis, baseball saved Bell from a life working in slaughterhouses. Wheeler charts Bell’s ups and downs in life and in baseball, in the United States, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico, where he went to escape American racism and major league baseball’s color line.
Rich in context and suffused in myth, this is a treat for fans of baseball history.
©2021 Lonnie Wheeler. Published in 2021 by The Overlook Press, an imprint of ABRAMS, New York. All rights reserved. (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing