Was Cool Papa Bell a pitcher?

Both. Cool Papa Bell pitched in 49 games, going 20-15 with a 4.64 ERA, but spent most of his career as a Center Fielder.

How many home runs did Cool Papa Bell hit?

Cool Papa Bell hit 60 career home runs with 1592 hits.

Is Cool Papa Bell in the Hall of Fame?

Yes. Cool Papa Bell was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.

Cool Papa Bell

Center Fielder · Career Stats, Hall of Fame Bio & Records (Final season: 1948)

⭐ Hall of Fame 1974

AVG .325

HR 60

RBI 606

H 1,592

OPS .847

PIV 14,515

Position: Center Fielder
Bats / Throws: B / L
Height / Weight: 6'0" / 155 lb
Born: 5/17/1903 in Starkville, MS, USA
Died: 3/7/1991 in St. Louis, MO, USA
Last Game: 1948-11-07
Hall of Fame: Inducted 1974 (Negro League)
Awards: 8× All-Star

Full name: James Thomas Bell

📊 Compare This Player 📈 View Career Timeline

Negro Leagues Career Statistics

Batting

PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
1920.0	1683.0	367.0	561.0	72.0	24.0	10.0	124.0	213.0	26.0	72.0	.333	.408	.422	.830

Negro Leagues (season totals). Additive Retrosheet-digitized totals for seasons not already in the logs above; they are not summed into the career line. No team/league breakdown is available, and coverage may be partial.

Negro Leagues Season-by-Season Batting

Season	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
1948	15.0	12.0	3.0	5.0	1.0	0	0	1.0	3.0	0	2.0	.417	.533	.500	1.033
Listed seasons · 1	15	12	3	5	1	0	0	1	3	0	2	.417	—	—	—

Career Batting Statistics

G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	PIV
1,237	4,893	1,188	1,592	270	82	60	606	302	559	21	.325	.397	.451	.847	14,515

Career AVG .325 vs. league average .276 across their career seasons — +17.7% above league average.

Career OBP .397 vs. league average .340 across their career seasons — +16.6% above league average.

Career SLG .451 vs. league average .388 across their career seasons — +16.3% above league average.

Career OPS .847 vs. league average .728 across their career seasons — +16.4% above league average.

Season-by-Season Batting

Career Arc

Click a stat to plot it across every season.

Year	Team	Lg	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	AVG	Lg AVG	Lg OBP	Lg SLG	Lg OPS	PIV
1922	SLS	NNL	18	40	6	15	3	1	1	5	0	0	1	.375	—	—	—	—	0.0
1923	SLS	NNL	49	108	24	26	5	1	2	17	1	7	0	.241	.282 (-15%)	.344 (-17%)	.390 (-7%)	.734 (-12%)	-228.5
1924	SLS	NNL	65	242	52	73	12	3	1	33	12	20	1	.302	.283 (+6%)	.345 (+3%)	.389 (avg)	.734 (+1%)	51.4
1925	SLS	NNL	87	380	94	132	33	6	10	58	30	30	0	.347	.288 (+21%)	.349 (+13%)	.407 (+34%)	.756 (+24%)	1688.4
1926	SLS	NNL	91	386	107	129	27	7	12	58	36	48	4	.334	.279 (+20%)	.345 (+20%)	.390 (+37%)	.735 (+29%)	2151.2
1927	SLS	NNL	97	419	89	131	23	5	5	36	25	33	0	.313	.282 (+11%)	.344 (+6%)	.392 (+9%)	.736 (+7%)	578.4
1928	SLS	NNL	79	338	81	112	21	6	6	41	19	32	1	.331	.280 (+18%)	.342 (+14%)	.395 (+22%)	.737 (+18%)	1156.0
1929	SLS	NNL	93	375	95	122	24	5	3	38	48	44	1	.325	.289 (+12%)	.353 (+13%)	.415 (+6%)	.769 (+9%)	771.9
1929	CAG	NNL	4	17	3	3	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	.176	—	—	—	—	771.9
1930	SLS	NNL	80	345	107	123	20	8	9	54	15	36	3	.357	.293 (+21%)	.354 (+19%)	.429 (+25%)	.784 (+22%)	1564.0
1931	SLS	NNL	33	132	46	38	7	2	1	18	16	24	0	.288	.276 (+4%)	.338 (+18%)	.388 (+1%)	.726 (+9%)	280.8
1932	DW	EWL	29	120	28	38	6	2	0	14	8	11	0	.317	.275 (+15%)	.335 (+13%)	.391 (+2%)	.726 (+7%)	167.8
1932	HG	EWL	10	40	12	16	3	1	0	5	1	3	0	.400	—	—	—	—	167.8
1932	PC	IND	2	7	4	3	1	1	0	1	0	1	0	.429	—	—	—	—	167.8
1932	KCM	IND	16	57	17	22	4	5	0	11	6	9	2	.386	.275 (+40%)	.335 (+45%)	.391 (+61%)	.726 (+54%)	167.8
1933	PC	NN2	74	300	64	91	12	4	2	28	16	28	0	.303	.270 (+12%)	.329 (+11%)	.377 (+3%)	.707 (+7%)	410.1
1934	PC	NN2	69	272	52	89	10	3	1	28	14	34	3	.327	.278 (+18%)	.340 (+19%)	.392 (+1%)	.733 (+9%)	590.3
1935	PC	NN2	49	197	68	68	14	6	2	30	12	31	2	.345	.279 (+23%)	.342 (+27%)	.399 (+27%)	.742 (+27%)	1012.4
1936	PC	NN2	41	165	39	48	4	2	1	20	6	17	0	.291	.283 (+2%)	.349 (+2%)	.404 (-12%)	.753 (-5%)	-113.7
1937	PC	NN2	8	36	9	13	2	0	2	7	1	3	0	.361	—	—	—	—	0.0
1942	CAG	NAL	39	141	24	44	7	3	0	11	4	27	1	.312	.253 (+23%)	.323 (+30%)	.349 (+16%)	.672 (+23%)	610.3
1943	HG	NN2	65	263	63	92	12	5	0	29	12	39	1	.350	.255 (+37%)	.324 (+33%)	.346 (+25%)	.671 (+29%)	1429.9
1944	HG	NN2	52	213	43	66	9	3	1	27	4	30	0	.310	.261 (+19%)	.325 (+22%)	.357 (+10%)	.683 (+16%)	666.4
1945	HG	NN2	48	179	38	50	6	1	1	20	10	35	1	.279	.260 (+7%)	.328 (+22%)	.354 (-4%)	.683 (+8%)	417.9
1946	HG	NN2	39	121	23	48	5	2	0	16	6	16	0	.397	.256 (+54%)	.328 (+42%)	.358 (+31%)	.687 (+36%)	786.1
Career · 25 seasons			1,237	4,893	1,188	1,592	270	82	60	606	302	559	21	.325	—	—	—	—	15,266

Lg columns show the league average for that season, with the player's figure as a percentage above or below it. Career totals the seasons listed above.

Career Pitching Statistics

W	L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	ERA	Pitcher PIV
20	15	49	30	21	1	0	308.7	338	159	17	94	146	4.64	1418.8

Career ERA 4.64 vs. league average 4.23 across their career seasons — 9.5% worse than league average.

Season-by-Season Pitching

Pitching Career Arc

Click a stat to plot it across every season.

Year	Team	Lg	W	L	G	GS	CG	SHO	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	ERA	Lg ERA	Pitcher PIV
1922	SLS	NNL	7	7	16	12	9	1	113.0	118	63	40	63	5.02	4.18 (-20%)	697.5
1923	SLS	NNL	11	7	25	14	9	0	153.7	180	77	34	66	4.51	4.03 (-12%)	1175.2
1924	SLS	NNL	2	1	6	4	3	0	40.0	37	17	19	17	3.83	4.13 (+7%)	-454.0
1929	SLS	NNL	0	0	2	0	0	0	2.0	3	2	1	0	9.00	—	0.0
Career · 4 seasons			20	15	49	30	21	1	308.2	338	159	94	146	4.64	—	1,419

Lg columns show the league average for that season, with the player's figure as a percentage above or below it. Career totals the seasons listed above.

Postseason Statistics

Playoff Career Batting

G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG
43	175	26	48	6	4	1	16	16	3	.274

Playoff Batting by Year

Year	Round	Team	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG
1945	NWS	HG	4	14	1	3	1	0	0	0	2	0	.214
1944	NWS	HG	5	24	1	6	0	1	0	3	0	1	.250
1943	NWS	HG	7	34	5	10	1	1	0	4	4	0	.294
1935	NLC	PC	7	23	2	3	0	1	0	1	3	0	.130
1930	NNC	SLS	6	24	5	7	3	0	1	3	3	0	.292
1928	NNC	SLS	7	27	7	11	0	1	0	5	4	1	.407
1925	NNC	SLS	7	29	5	8	1	0	0	0	0	1	.276

Game Log & Splits

View full game log (282 games) →

Per-game data from Retrosheet (regular season, through 2025).

Batting — Home / Away

Split	G	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	AVG
Home	155	546	134	195	3	49	.357
Away	126	483	110	146	3	20	.302

Pitching — Home / Away

Split	G	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	ERA
Home	1	0.0	0	0	0	0	—

Last 10 Games — Batting

Date	Tm	Opp	Res	AB	R	H	2B	BB
1946-09-15	HOM	NY6	W	3	2	2	0	1
1946-09-01	HOM	BLG	L	0	0	0	0	1
1946-09-01	HOM	BLG	L	4	0	1	0	0
1946-08-31	HOM	PH5	L	4	0	2	1	0
1946-08-30	HOM	PH5	L	1	0	0	0	0
1946-08-25	HOM	NW2	L	1	1	1	0	0
1946-08-11	HOM	NW2	L	1	0	0	0	0
1946-07-28	HOM	NW2	L	1	0	0	0	1
1946-07-28	HOM	NW2	W	1	0	1	0	0
1946-07-27	HOM	BLG	W	3	0	1	0	0

Fielding Statistics

Career Fielding Totals by Position

Position	G	GS	PO	A	E	DP
1B	33	21	224	7	8	8
2B	2	1	1	4	0	0
3B	1	1	1	2	0	1
OF	1164	1051	2080	117	65	12
P	49	30	14	138	5	5

Season-by-Season Fielding

Year	Team	Pos	G	GS	PO	A	E	DP
1922	SLS	OF	1	0	0	0	0	0
1922	SLS	P	16	12	1	56	1	3
1923	SLS	1B	2	1	6	0	1	1
1923	SLS	2B	1	1	1	4	0	0
1923	SLS	OF	15	13	27	0	1	0
1923	SLS	P	25	14	12	69	2	1
1924	SLS	1B	1	1	15	0	0	0
1924	SLS	OF	61	58	131	6	2	0
1924	SLS	P	6	4	1	11	2	0
1925	SLS	1B	2	0	0	0	0	0
1925	SLS	OF	87	2	5	1	0	0
1926	SLS	OF	91	91	206	15	5	1
1927	SLS	1B	5	2	38	1	0	2
1927	SLS	OF	95	95	186	12	8	3
1928	SLS	OF	79	79	201	14	8	3
1929	SLS	1B	2	0	6	0	0	0
1929	SLS	OF	93	92	204	17	5	0
1929	SLS	P	2	0	0	2	0	1
1929	CAG	OF	4	4	4	0	0	0
1930	SLS	OF	80	80	175	17	6	2
1931	SLS	OF	33	32	54	3	1	0
1932	DW	OF	29	29	57	7	1	0
1932	HG	OF	10	10	24	0	0	0
1932	PC	OF	2	2	2	0	0	0
1932	KCM	OF	16	16	28	2	2	0
1933	PC	OF	74	74	109	1	5	1
1934	PC	1B	2	1	15	0	1	2
1934	PC	OF	67	67	120	2	4	0
1935	PC	1B	3	3	25	1	0	0
1935	PC	3B	1	1	1	2	0	1
1935	PC	OF	44	44	111	6	5	1
1936	PC	1B	1	1	9	0	1	0
1936	PC	OF	40	40	74	1	2	0
1937	PC	OF	8	8	16	1	0	0
1942	CAG	1B	10	10	86	3	3	2
1942	CAG	OF	28	28	64	0	2	0
1943	HG	OF	64	63	96	4	1	1
1944	HG	OF	57	51	74	2	0	0
1945	HG	2B	1	0	0	0	0	0
1945	HG	OF	52	46	69	4	6	0
1946	HG	1B	5	2	24	2	2	1
1946	HG	OF	34	27	43	2	1	0

Career Games by Position

Position Diamond

Circle size = games played at each position.

Position	Games
Pitcher	49
First Base	33
Second Base	2
Third Base	1
Left Field	180
Center Field	979
Right Field	5

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Frequently Asked Questions about Cool Papa Bell

Was Cool Papa Bell a pitcher?: Both. Cool Papa Bell pitched in 49 games, going 20-15 with a 4.64 ERA, but spent most of his career as a Center Fielder.
How many home runs did Cool Papa Bell hit?: Cool Papa Bell hit 60 career home runs with 1592 hits.
Is Cool Papa Bell in the Hall of Fame?: Yes. Cool Papa Bell was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.