Former Negro League star Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe, believed to be the oldest living professional baseball player, died yesterday in Chicago. He was 103.

Radcliffe, given his singular nickname by sportswriter Damon Runyon after catching Satchel Paige in the first game of a doubleheader in the 1932 Negro League World Series and pitching a shutout in the second game, died from complications after a long bout with cancer, the Chicago White Sox said.

Radcliffe was frequently in the crowd at U.S. Cellular Field and occasionally visited the White Sox clubhouse. He made it a tradition in recent years to throw out the first ball on his July 7 birthday.

In May, Radcliffe was among 14 Negro League players honored in a pregame ceremony at RFK Stadium before the Chicago Cubs played Washington. Sitting in a golf cart behind the plate, Radcliffe made the ceremonial first pitch by handing the ball to Nationals coach Don Buford.

A six-time All-Star – fittingly, three times as a pitcher and three times as a catcher – Radcliffe outlived his contemporaries in the Negro League and players from his era in the majors.

Radcliffe was raised in Mobile, Ala., and went on to play for more than 15 teams in the Negro League from the late 1920s to the early 1950s. His brother, Alex, also played in the league.

Radcliffe roomed with Jackie Robinson with the Kansas City Monarchs in 1945, two years before Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in the majors, and also managed in the Negro League.