The fourth annual Double Duty Classic will be played at U.S. Cellular Field Wednesday at 1:05 p.m., featuring the nation’s top high school baseball players.
The event is named for Negro leagues legend Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe, who died Aug. 11, 2005, at the age of 103 in Chicago.
Radcliffe, who hit .376 in nine exhibition games against major league clubs, once told me: “I played against Andy Pafko and all of them. Some of them were better than others, you know that. The boy who played third base … what was his name? Stan Hack? He was good.”
Renowned New York writer Damon Runyon gave him the nickname “Double Duty” because Radcliffe performed as a catcher and as a pitcher in successive games of a 1932 Negro League World Series doubleheader.
“While we are very proud of the 10 former Double Duty participants who have been selected in recent MLB Drafts, we are even more proud of the kids who have utilized their baseball skills and used it as means to earn a college scholarship and education,” said Scott Reifert of the White Sox.
Admission is free.
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