Ashwill: The Radcliffe brothers

From SABR member Gary Ashwill at Agate Type on April 4, 2018:

Among the most accomplished pairs of brothers in Negro league history are Ted and Alex Radcliffe. Ted is by far the most famous of the two now, thanks to the “Double Duty” nickname he received from Damon Runyon as well as his post-baseball reputation as a gregarious, prolific storyteller; but Alex, an 11-time All-Star third baseman, may have been the better ballplayer.

For all that they were brothers who both played baseball for a living, though, Ted and Alex had little to do with each other professionally. They rarely played on the same team; in the Negro leagues, they both played for the 1934 American Giants, and they appeared on the same All-Star team a few times. They even spelled their names differently—Ted was “Radcliffe,” while Alex appears as “Radcliff,” at least in official documents.

The great baseball artist Graig Kreindler recently asked me about a photo of the two wearing a uniform with a lion on the jersey, with no letters or other identifying markings.

Read the full article here: http://agatetype.typepad.com/agate_type/2018/04/the-radcliffe-brothers.html



Originally published: April 4, 2018. Last Updated: April 4, 2018.