Cool Papa Bell

 Cool Papa Bell. The history of baseball will always be tainted by the fact that MLB was not integrated until 1947 and slowly in the coming years. Many great baseball players of color never got the chance to compete with their white counterparts. Most of what we know about African American baseball players come from the personal observations of those who saw them in action or played against or looking at the statistics that are available. Perhaps none were better than the man they called Cool Papa Bell. Many stories about his speed. CPB was so fast he could turn out the light and be in bed before the room got dark. CPB was so fast he could hit a line drive up the middle and beat the ball to second base. He was so fast Jesse Owens refused to race him.

We will never know how fast he really was. He was once clocked at 12 seconds rounding all the bases. There was seemingly no fly ball that he couldn't chase down. Suffice it to say that he was the stuff of legends and tall tales and true tales.