James Thomas, “Cool Papa Bell,” not only was one of the greatest players in the Negro League history but he’s also considered to be one the fastest baseball players ever to play in general.

Career (1922-1937) (1942-1946):

.325 BA, 1,548 HITS, 57 HR, 596 RBI, .394 OBP, 1,152 RUNS

  • 8x All-Star
  • 2x World Series with St. Louis Stars

Bell was a Switch Hitting, Centerfielder, and his speed made him a perfect leadoff hitter. Bell had a reputation for being a guy who could score from first to home on a single. Bell led the league in Stolen Bases eight times and in Runs five times. Let’s not forget that players in the Negro Leagues didn’t get to play 154 games a year as major leaguers did. The fact that he scored 107 Runs in 97 games in 1926 is impressive. Overall, he scored 1,152 Runs throughout just 1,202 games. Had he been allowed to play in the Majors, he would’ve been able to play a 154-game season. He would hold the career Runs record rather than Rickey Henderson at the rate he scored. Over a 162-game average pace…

.325 BA, 209 HITS, 8 HR, 80 RBI, .394 OBP, 155 RUNS

References:

  1. Cool Papa Bell Career Statistics via Baseball-Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bellco99.shtml
  2. Cool Papa Bell via Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_Papa_Bell