It’s tough to find a concise time-line of his baseball tenure, but it is alleged that Radcliffe played for over 30 teams and collected more than 4000 hits, hit 400 home runs, won over 500 games and struck out about 4000 batters.
A long time teammate of the great Satchel Paige, Radcliffe once caught a shutout by Paige in the first game of a double-header, then went out and pitched a shutout himself in the second game!
Six times Radcliffe played in the Negro league East-West game, three as a pitcher and three as a catcher, while also pitching and catching in two and six other all-star games respectively.
Remarkably, as part of a publicity stunt, Radcliffe was “signed” at the age of 96 by the Schaumberg Flyers of the Northern League in 1999, throwing one pitch to become the oldest player ever to appear in a game.
A character on and off the field, you can find more anecdote regarding Radcliffe than you can statistics, sadly the result of lost record-keeping for the Negro leagues over the years.
Just Google his name and try reading the bits and pieces that were recording over his long life, definitely an entertaining read!
