Q&A: Negro Leagues Baseball Museum President Bob Kendrick on Cool Papa Bell
May 20, 2021 | Baseball, HailStateBEAT
STARKVILLE - Bob Kendrick has served the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri for 28 years and is currently in his 10th year as president of the institution. We sat down with Kendrick following the dedication of the Cool Papa Bell Plaza at Dudy Noble Field on Thursday, May 13, to discuss the legacy of Cool Papa Bell and the Negro leagues.
Last weekend against Missouri, Mississippi State dedicated Cool Papa Bell Plaza to honor the Starkville native and professional baseball icon.
Tell me about the work you have done at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and the work that you continue to do?
BK: I serve now as President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. I have been in this role for 10 years. My affiliation with the museum is now in its 28th year. I started as a volunteer here at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in 1993. Who knew? Who knew that it would become a passion and would ultimately lead me to one of the most gratifying career choices that I could have ever chosen? It became instantly a labor of love. So, I have enjoyed this improbable journey going from being a volunteer to now trying to run this great organization.
You said that it became a passion for you. How did that happen?
BK: I didn't know a whole lot about the Negro Leagues when I first got involved with the museum. I considered myself to be a baseball fan, yet here is this amazing chapter of baseball and Americana that I really did not know anything about, and I became almost engrossed in it. I wanted to learn as much as I could, and I didn't want to keep it to myself. I wanted everybody else to feel the same way that I felt about it because it was such an awakening. Yeah, I knew the names Satchel Paige, Cool Papa [Bell], Josh Gibson. Those are transcending names. Most baseball fans have at least heard of those names, even if you don't grasp just how great they really were. But I had no idea about the breadth, the depth, the scope, the magnitude that this history represented both on and off the field. Then, I started to meet some of these legendary players, and I fell even deeper in love with the story because their spirits were so endearing. To a player I have ever encountered, not one of them ever harbored any bitterness or ill-will toward anyone who may have attempted to perpetrate anything against them as they were trying to play baseball in this country. And I think most people would agree with me; had they been bitter, we all would have said, "you have every right to be bitter." But none of them expressed any bitterness. For them, you could not convince them that they weren't playing the best baseball that was being played in the country. The world thought that the best baseball was being played in the major leagues, but they never succumbed to that. Now, did they like the things that were happening to them as they were traveling the highways and byways of this country? Not being able to get a meal, not having a place to stay? No. But they would never allow that to harden their hearts. It's that endearing quality that makes the story itself that much more inspirational and compelling, and for me, it just grabbed hold of me, and I just wanted to do as much as I could for this organization at that time. Like I said, I had no idea it would turn into a career.
Why is it important to have tangible remembrances of Cool Papa Bell and the Negro Leagues like your museum and the Cool Papa Bell Plaza?
BK: It's important because what you all have done is started to help educate the public about this once forgotten chapter of baseball history. And Cool Papa Bell should be remembered. We're talking about one of the greatest baseball players in the history of the sport. Not just the Negro Leagues, but in the history of this sport. And he was right there in your backyard. So it is important that we don't forget them. I'll never forget, when I first started volunteering with the museum in 1993, one of the first things I asked the late great John "Buck" O'Neill, who was the founder of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, was the question of what motivated him to want to build a Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. And his answer was very succinct, but also very poignant. "So that we would be remembered." And that's the quest. They should not be forgotten for what they were able to do in this game, help make this game better, but more importantly what they were able to do for society. They changed this country for the better, and it all begins with their simple love of the game. But when we talk about Cool Papa Bell, we're talking about one of the elite, one of the greatest of all time. And there's no more lore or legend surrounding any one athlete, maybe with the exception of Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige, than there is with Cool Papa Bell, because of the blazing speed. And so, I love telling Cool Papa Bell stories. I love introducing folks to not only Cool [Papa Bell], but also to the other heroes of the Negro Leagues, some of the lesser known that have called the Negro Leagues home.Â
What are some of your favorite stories about Cool Papa Bell?
BK: The speed was almost mythical-like. But as I tell people all the time, oh it was very real. I remember a story that Buck O'Neil would tell that they were playing in Mexico, and Cool goes from first to third so fast on a single that the Mexican team stopped the game in protest because they swore he had cut across the diamond. Or, you hear stories that if he bunted the ball and it bounced twice, forget about it. You had no chance to get it. If he bunted the ball back to the pitcher, everybody in the infield was yelling "Hurry!" You know, he twice, twice, honest to God's truth, twice scored from first base on a bunt in exhibition games against major league All-Stars. They had this play that they called the bunt and run, which really started in the Negro Leagues, later picked up by Major League Baseball, so was the hit-and-run. And so, on the bunt and run, Cool, whom Buck O'Neil said could literally steal second base standing up, well, Cool is breaking on the pitch. The batter would drop that bunt down the third base line. Well by the time the catcher and the third baseman had converged to field it, the third baseman picks it up, starts his throw to first base, Cool is rounding third. Well, the pitcher's not thinking that anybody was going to try to score from first on a bunt, fails to back up home plate, Cool beats him easily. This happens twice in a game against major league All-Stars because the major leaguers had not seen this very aggressive style of play. They were accustomed to more of a base-to-base game. And here was Cool Papa Bell. But lost within the speed, because speed is, again, legendary, was that fact that Cool Papa Bell may have been the greatest baserunner this game has ever seen because, again, the late great Buck O'Neil says what separated Cool from the other fast guys was his uncanny and amazing ability to cut the bag on the inside. So where other guys had to take that big round turn, or they were going to fall over, Cool is on the inside. And again, as Buck would describe the way he ran, he would say that Cool could literally smack the bag with his hand and not fall over. At some point, we just have to accept that the Good Lord gives some of us a little something that he doesn't give everybody else, and for Cool it was a great sense of balance along with blazing speed. And perhaps the greatest thing that ever happened to Cool Papa Bell probably disappointed him. He hurt his arm as a pitcher, and they moved him to the outfield where that blazing speed got to be exhibited every day. He didn't necessarily have a great throwing arm, but he had a very quick release and he could play so shallow. So, you couldn't bloop it in front of him. And, of course, with the kind of wheels that Cool had, unless you hit it on a rope, you couldn't get it over his head. I remember the late great Bill Blair, "Skinny Legs" Blair, we were in Dallas, and he was telling the story, he's on the mound, bases loaded situation, and he thought he had given up what was surely going to be a double or triple that was going to clear the bases. Cool is in center field, and he says he never turned because he knew he was getting ready to go back up home plate. He finally turns around, and he sees Cool on his horse. And Cool runs this thing down, makes almost a shoestring catch, and when he gets back to the dugout, he looks at Mr. Blair, and Cool kind of had a high-pitched voice, he said, "Well, I just barely got that one." I could tell you now, no mere mortal would have gotten close to that ball.
I think about all these stories that you hear about him, that he was so fast that the legendary Jesse Owens, who at that time was the fastest man in the world, would never race Cool Papa Bell. Flat out refused to race Cool Papa Bell. So that's what I tell people is that the speed, while it was mythical-like, it was very very real. And so, I am just thrilled and proud that we could be part of this celebration at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and join forces with the university in recognizing someone who absolutely deserves to be remembered, and we appreciate what you all are doing. For us, it is absolutely an extension of the work that we're doing here in Kansas City with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
You talked about pitching. His nickname came from his pitching days. What can you relate about Cool Papa Bell the pitcher?
BK: Cool Papa Bell was cool. He seemed to be unflappable. And the story you're relating is a story that was related to me where he was a member of, then, the St. Louis Stars, would strike out Oscar Charleston in a critical bases loaded situation with a lot of calm and cool and someone from the Stars dugout yells, "That's one cool papa!" The name stuck, and he was Cool Papa, and it's still Cool Papa, even in a heavenly state. And I think it's the greatest nickname in baseball history. But it was so befitting of Cool because, as I tell people all the time, Cool was really cool. He was unflappable, he was a snazzy dresser, so he always was sharp. So, the moniker fit him to a T. And again, the name is legendary in baseball circles, as it should be.
We usually talk about Cool Papa Bell for his athletic exploits. Who was Cool Papa Bell as a man?
BK: The biggest disappointment was that I never got to meet him. He lived and died in St. Louis, and when I got involved with the museum, I never got the opportunity to meet him. And I've never had many regrets in this work that I've done because it's been so gratifying, so fulfilling, but having not gotten the opportunity to meet Cool and Satchel Paige [...] Everything that I heard others, he garnered the utmost respect, not just as ballplayer, but as a man, the way he carried himself. [He] didn't drink, didn't smoke, didn't do any of these things. [He was] a great family man. To me, he epitomized what being a negro leaguer was all about. And for a guy who didn't have a formal education, he understood life. He understood people. He related to people, and people responded back to him. He was so much more than a great baseball player. Cool Papa Bell was a great human being. When you embody both of those things, you're very special, and Cool was indeed very special, but I do regret that I never got to meet him.
Do you know what he was involved with following his playing career?
BK: You know, I just hear stories of things that he used to do in St. Louis. I remember a great story that the great Lou Brock told me. When Lou was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals from the Chicago Cubs, Buck O'Neil had signed Lou to the Cubs, and the Cubs decided to trade Lou […] And Lou would go on to propel the St. Louis Cardinals to the World Series and will go down, again, as one of the greats of this game and a hall of fame player. Well, Lou says when he gets to St. Louis, the first person that reaches out to him was Cool Papa Bell. And he says, he knew who Cool Papa Bell was, but he had no idea that Cool Papa Bell knew who he was. He's still a young ballplayer trying to make it in this game. And he says Cool meets with him, and he starts giving him some tips on base stealing that he'd never heard before. And he says, "Cool, I have never seen this in the book." And he says Cool Papa looked at him and said, "Son, this ain't in the book. You won't find this in the book." And Lou takes those tips and becomes obviously one of the great base stealers of all time. Well, when Lou set the all-time single-season stolen base record, who was there to greet him? Cool Papa. And Cool is holding the bag in his hand, had the base in his hand, and they finally get the microphone to Cool. And when Cool gets on the mic, he said, "Lou, we gonna give you this base, because if we don't give it to you, you're going to steal it anyways." But you hear the stories of him giving his time, teaching the game, with the kids. That was Cool and his wife, Clara[belle], they were part of the community. Those who live in St. Louis respected them, admired them, and I think appreciate what they were doing. He didn't have great means, he really didn't. This legendary ballplayer, because of the color of his skin, never really got the opportunities that others got, but, even though he didn't have great means, he had great passion and a great spirit for community and understood everything that it meant to give back […] But those means and his time, his spirit, his heart and soul were part of that St. Louis community, and they rightfully named a street for Cool Papa Bell. Now, I tell them, I think the speed limit on that street is maybe 25-30 miles per hour. That's too slow. They should have named a section of the freeway for Cool Papa.Â
What is Cool Papa Bell's legacy, and how does that tie in to the legacy of the Negro Leagues as a whole?
BK: Well Cool Papa Bell was part of something special. He was part of this league that as I like to say forged a glorious history in the midst of an inglorious time in American history. And Cool Papa Bell became a star in this league that they had to create their own league. Cool Papa Bell would have been a star in any league had he been given an opportunity to do so. But, you won't let me play with you, I'll create my own. And he was part of that spirit, that heart, that soul, that helped changed the game of baseball, but more importantly helped change this country, and in the process he became legendary. It is our job here at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum to make sure that people never forget Cool Papa Bell. But what you guys have done there at Mississippi State University, you're also part of that equation of helping make sure people never forget Cool Papa Bell, nor the other legends of the Negro Leagues. So, that is why we tip our cap to everyone involved for this incredible recognition of one of the greatest baseball players to ever put on a baseball uniform. Perhaps, even more importantly, one of the greatest human beings to walk the face of this earth, and his name was James Thomas "Cool Papa" Bell.