Cool Papas and Double Duties: The All-Time Greats of the Negro Leagues [Hardcover]

William F. McNeil (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2001

Many of the great ballplayers of the Negro League have been forgotten simply because baseball's Hall of Fame would not recognize black players until Jackie Robinson and Satchel Paige made their way into the Hall of Fame. For this book, more than 50 former Negro League players and baseball historians were asked to vote for players who they believe should have been included in the Hall of Fame, and to select an All-Time Negro League All-Star Team. In addition to presenting and discussing their choices, the book profiles the lives and careers of the players selected. Appendices include rosters of the players and historians who voted.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

These two volumes contribute a good deal to the ongoing examination of the Negro Leagues. Holway, one of the deans of black baseball history, provides the most complete statistical accounting yet of the game's segregated half. The obvious by-product of painstaking research, The Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues presents a quick overview of African American participation from 1859 to 1882 and then an annual accounting through 1948, the year after Jackie Robinson entered the major leagues. Holway's contribution is noteworthy, covering won-loss records, batting records, and pitching performances. Textual commentary is sprinkled throughout, as are useful lists of lifetime batting and pitching leaders. But the story remains incomplete because of the paucity of written accounts, incomplete box scores, and a general failure on the part of black baseball management and journalists alike to provide a historical record for the most statistically conscious of all sports. McNeil's (The Dodgers Encyclopedia) undertaking is different, as he seeks to determine which Negro League participants should be included in the National Baseball Hall of Fame; at present, 17 have been admitted. Cool Papas and Double Duties calls on both former Negro Leaguers and black baseball historians to select those candidates, then offers a final selection and biographies of those chosen. Biz Mackey, Turkey Stearnes, Dick Lundy, Mules Suttle, and Hilton Smith received the greatest number of votes; Stearnes and Smith, in fact, have subsequently been elected to the hall. McNeil's work also presents all-time Negro League all-star teams, with corresponding biographies. Enjoyable to course through, this book frequently enlightens but will in no way stop baseball fans and scholars from debating the various merits of the top performers. Both books are recommended for general libraries. R.C. Cottrell, California State Univ., Chico
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Enjoyable...recommended" -- Library Journal --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 246 pages
• Publisher: McFarland & Company (September 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786410744
• ISBN-13: 978-0786410743
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,547,747 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Informative Look at Top Negro Leaguers, February 12, 2010

By 

K.A.Goldberg (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cool Papas and Double Duties: The All-Time Greats of the Negro Leagues (Paperback)

This 2001 book combines biographies of several top Negro League players with a methodical effort to determine which of those stars deserve inclusion into Baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Author William McNeil provides brief biographical looks at several talented but slightly second-tier (or less-remembered) players, like Mules Suttles, Biz Mackey, Turkey Stearns, Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe (who lived to 103), Newt Allen, etc. He also gathers opinions from experts, historians, and former players, allowing them to rate which players deserve inclusion into the Hall of Fame. As many know, accurately rating Negro Leaguers is made somewhat more difficult due to a shortage of surviving statistical records. Still, the experts do their best, and five years after this book was published the Hall of Fame posthumously welcomed 15 additional players (including Suttles, Mackey, Cristobel Torriente and Ray Brown) plus two Negro League executives. Later in these pages, the experts offer their lists of top overall players, and here one finds many better-known favorites already in the Hall, including Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston, Satchel Page, Cool Papa Bell, etc. Somehow I'd have preferred fewer expert lists and more biographical information on the players. Still, this book is nicely informative, reminds of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (in Kansas City), and offers information on several less-remembered players.