double duty is a great nickname...

Ted Radcliffe, one of the last surviving Negro leagues stars, whose prowess on the pitching mound and behind the plate inspired Damon Runyon to nickname him Double Duty, died yesterday in Chicago. He was 103.

The cause was complications from cancer, said the Chicago White Sox, who invited Radcliffe to throw out ceremonial first balls in recent seasons.

Radcliffe was an All-Star pitcher-catcher and a manager in a Negro leagues career than spanned more than two decades. But he was 44 years old when Jackie Robinson broke the major league color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. The closest he came to the majors was his stint as a scout with the Cleveland Indians in the 1960's.

Radcliffe made frequent ceremonial appearances in recent years. Radcliffe and Buck O'Neil, 93, a star player and manager with the Kansas City Monarchs and now chairman of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo., were often honored as pre-eminent figures whose playing careers were solely in black baseball.

He made his debut with the Detroit Stars, and played in the Negro leagues from 1928 to 1950. Radcliffe appeared six times in the Negro leagues' East-West All-Star Game at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Pitching in three of those games and catching in three others, he lived up to the nickname that Runyon had given him after watching him play for the Pittsburgh Crawfords against the New York Black Yankees in 1932.

"He said I was the most versatile man he'd even seen," Radcliffe recalled in "Voices From the Great Black Baseball Leagues," by John Holway. "He saw me and Satchel Paige pitch a doubleheader in Yankee Stadium. I caught Satchel in the first game and we won it, 5-0, then I pitched the second game and we won it, 4-0. The next day, Runyon wrote, 'It was worth the price of admission of two to see Double Duty out there in action.' "