John Henry Russell (February 24, 1898 – December 4, 1972), nicknamed "Pistol", was an American

Negro league The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

second baseman in the 1920s and 1930s. A native of Dolcito, Alabama, Russell made his Negro leagues debut in 1923 with the

Memphis Red Sox The Memphis Red Sox were an American Negro league baseball team that was active from 1920 to 1959. Originally named the Barber College Baseball Club, the team was initially owned and operated by Arthur P. Martin, a local Memphis barber. In the la ...

. After three years with Memphis, he spent the following five seasons with the St. Louis Stars, and contributed six hits and two RBIs in the Stars' 1928 Negro National League championship series victory over the

Chicago American Giants The Chicago American Giants were a Chicago-based Negro league baseball team. From 1910 until the mid-1930s, the American Giants were the most dominant team in black baseball. Owned and managed from 1911 to 1926 by player-manager Andrew "Rube" F ...

. While representing the

Pittsburgh Crawfords The Pittsburgh Crawfords, popularly known as the Craws, were a professional Negro league baseball team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team, previously known as the Crawford Colored Giants, was named after the Crawford Bath House, a recre ...

, Russell laid down a successful suicide squeeze bunt in the 1933 East–West All-Star Game. He died in Cleveland, Ohio in 1972 at age 74.

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an
Baseball-Reference Black Baseball stats
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1898 births 1972 deaths Cleveland Red Sox players Homestead Grays players Indianapolis ABCs (1931–1933) players Memphis Red Sox players Pittsburgh Crawfords players St. Louis Stars (baseball) players 20th-century African-American sportspeople Baseball outfielders {{Negro-league-baseball-outfielder-stub