Many Stars Played In St. Louis

Many Stars Played In St. Louis

While Cardinals and Browns fans cheered for their team’s .400 hitters at Sportsman’s Park in 1922, another downtown ballpark hosted a third team of baseball legends.

Stars Park had just opened that year as home for the city’s new Negro Leagues team, the St. Louis Stars. The architect designed around a street car maintenance shop at the back of left field. The resulting 10,000-capacity Stars Park, reminiscent of Fenway Park, had a 35-foot-high left field wall only 269 feet from home plate.

The Stars hired Big Bill Gatewood, a 6’7” spitball pitcher, as their player manager. Gatewood had pitched the first no hitter in the Negro National Leagues in 1921. They also signed James Bell, a skinny 19-year-old knuckleball pitcher. After calmly striking out Oscar Charleston, the best hitter at the time, Gatewood dubbed him “Cool Papa.”

Gatewood also encouraged the young star to switch hit and play center field to take advantage of his speed. Bell had amazing balance in rounding bases and could go from first to home faster than anyone in baseball history. He’d stand back from the plate and often chop down on the ball. Infielders were forced to play in but even so by the time the ball came down, no one could throw him out. As Hall of Fame third baseman Judy Johnson said: “if Cool Papa hit a ground ball to the left side of the infield and it took more than one hop, might as well hold on to the ball.”

The Stars were an instant hit with the black community in St. Louis. Families adjusted their schedules around games. Cardinals and Browns players also came to Stars Park to watch high-level play.

In 1927, while managing the Birmingham Black Barons, Bill Gatewood would teach Satchel Paige how to throw his famous hesitation pitch. In 1962, Gatewood was buried in an unmarked grave in Columbia, Missouri. Although a SABR committee paid for a proper headstone in 2010, Big Bill Gatewood is still near the top of the list of great Negro League stars who are not enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

James Cool Papa Bell batted .316 over 21 Hall of Fame seasons, retiring in 1946, one year before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier.