James "Cool Papa" Bell
The Color Barrier

Other Leagues

Cool Papa Bell didn't only play in the Negro Leagues. He played in two other leagues, the Dominican League and the Mexican League. He was away from the Negro Leagues for a total of 5 years, 1937-1941. While in these different leagues, Bell was still making a difference for African Americans everywhere. 

Dominican League

Cool Papa Bell played in the Dominican League for only one year. Bell went with other stars like Satchel Paige, to play in the Dominican Republic in 1937. Their new manager thought that a championship would strengthen his ruling power so he kept the players under armed supervision. Toward the end of the year, an army officer warned the team not to lose again and proceeded to fire gunshots at the walls of their hotel. This team that was worth $30,000 did win the championship but just barely and the manager was disapointed. He disbanded the entire Dominican League which resulted in no organized baseball being played in the Dominican Republic for 12 years. 

Mexican League

Bell played in the Mexican League for four seasons between 1938 and 1941. He spent his first two seasons playing for a team in Tampico. His batting averages were .356 and .354 in those years. When the 1940 season came around, Bell split his season between teams in Torreón and Veracruz. In that season, Bell was the first person in the Mexican League to win the Tripple Crown, leading the league with a .437 batting average, 12 homeruns, and 79 runs batted in. Bell finished that great season with 167 hits and eight of his homeruns were inside the park homeruns. Veracruz won the pennet that year. The next season, Bell played with Monterrey, batting .367.