Ashton

(Available piece) Cool Papa Bell, a legend who if you follow baseball history, sure you’ve heard of. Most people don’t watch baseball though. Papa was a Negro leagues legend and for 24 years he traveled the country and the continent looking for an opportunity to shine. Sadly due to the racist institution of Major League Baseball which according to Reggie Jackson, “Hasn’t changed all that much” he never got a shot at the bigs and was all but forgotten to history along with his teammate Josh Gibson and hundreds of others. Either way Papa was a star! He played all over Latin America in the off seasons and was the first player to have won the triple crown for the Vera Cruz Azules in 1940. He was inducted into the baseball HOF in 1974. This piece was really feckin hard to make and carved entirely with hand tools. In laymen terms that means I literally shaved every spec of wood off with carving knives. The hat was fine tuned with a rotary grinder. #baseball #woodcarver #woodartist #negroleagues #blackhistorymonth