Phillip "Fish" Cockrell, born Philip Cockrell Williams, (June 29, 1895 – March 31, 1951) was a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

player in the

Negro leagues 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 ...

. Cockrell started his career as a top-level Negro league pitcher in 1917, playing for both with the Lincoln Giants and Hilldale. He pitched for Hilldale from then until the team's demise in 1932. He was

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

and

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to c ...

from 1917 to 1934. 1921 Hilldale Club

Cockrell was the first pitcher to pitch in the first

Colored World Series The Negro World Series was a post-season baseball tournament that was held from 1924 to 1927 and from 1942 to 1948 between the champions of the Negro leagues, matching the mid-western winners against their east-coast counterparts. The series was a ...

. Game One of the Colored World Series occurred on October 3, 1924 at the Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Cockrell was also the first Negro league pitcher to pitch at historic

Hinchliffe Stadium Hinchliffe Stadium () is a 10,000-seat stadium located in Paterson, New Jersey. The venue was completed in 1932 and sits on a dramatic escarpment above Paterson's National Historic Landmark Great Falls, surrounded by the city's national landmark ...

in Paterson, New Jersey. He started the first game of a doubleheader between the Paterson Pros and the

Bacharach Giants The Bacharach Giants were a Negro league baseball team that played in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Founding The club was founded when two African-American politicians moved the Duval Giants of Jacksonville, Florida, to Atlantic City in 1916 an ...

on August 14, 1932. While with Hilldale he formed a close friendship with teammate George Washington "Dibo" Johnson that extended beyond the baseball diamond, and he and Johnson roomed together after their playing careers ended. He lived in Philadelphia after his retirement as a player, rooming with former teammate George Johnson. After Dibo Johnson died, Cockrell led a fundraiser to get money for a memorial tablet for his grave. Cockrell was murdered in 1951 when he was shot by a jealous husband in a case of mistaken identity as he walked out of a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania bar. He is buried at Mount Lawn Cemetery, Sharon Hill, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, USA. One year after his death, Cockrell received votes listing him on the 1952 ''

Pittsburgh Courier The ''Pittsburgh Courier'' was an African-American weekly newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1907 until October 22, 1966. By the 1930s, the ''Courier'' was one of the leading black newspapers in the United States. It was acqu ...

'' player-voted poll of the Negro leagues' best players ever."1952 Pittsburgh Courier Poll of Greatest Black Players"
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References

External links

an
Baseball-Reference Black Baseball stats
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Seamheads
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cockrell, Phil 1895 births 1951 deaths Bacharach Giants players Brooklyn Royal Giants players Hilldale Club players Lincoln Giants players Philadelphia Stars players Baseball players from Augusta, Georgia Negro league baseball managers 20th-century African-American sportspeople Deaths by firearm in Pennsylvania People murdered in Pennsylvania Burials in Pennsylvania