'Double Duty' Radcliffe's Busy Life

NPR | By Melissa Block

Published August 12, 2005 at 12:00 AM EDT

Negro League baseball legend Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe died Thursday at the age of 103. He had been the oldest living pro baseball player.

Radcliffe played for more than 15 teams in the Negro Leagues from 1919 to 1954. Writer Damon Runyon gave Radcliffe the nickname Double Duty in 1932 when he was the catcher in one game of a doubleheader and the pitcher in the next.

In May, he was among 14 Negro Leagues players honored in a ceremony at RFK Stadium.

Melissa Block talks to Kyle P. McNary, author of Ted 'Double Duty' Radcliffe: 36 Years Of Pitching and Catching In Baseball's Negro Leagues.

Melissa Block

As special correspondent and guest host of NPR's news programs, Melissa Block brings her signature combination of warmth and incisive reporting. Her work over the decades has earned her journalism's highest honors, and has made her one of NPR's most familiar and beloved voices.

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