re: SIAP, Nola.com: Top athlete from every Louisiana parish

Cool Pick for Lafourche... I'd never heard of this guy and I've lived in Thibodaux my whole life:




Lafourche Parish - Oliver Marcelle
One of the top players in the Negro Leagues from 1919-30, Marcelle is a native of Thibodaux. In 1922 he batted .379 for the Bacharach Giants, and .352 for Bacharach and the New York Lincoln Giants in 1924. His career average in the Negro Leagues was .310, and his career average in eights years of winter league play in Cuba was .305, including a league best .393 in 1923-24.
In a 1952 Pittsburgh Courier poll, fellow Negro League players voted him the best Negro League third baseman, ahead of future National Baseball Hall of Famers Judy Johnson and Ray Dandridge. When he and Johnson played together for five years, Johnson played second and Marcelle third. In exhibition competition against white major leaguers, he batted .365 (23 for 63). He was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 1996.

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Factoid: He had the tip of his nose bitten off in a fight with a teammate in Cuba.

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