Baseball Hall of Famer Judy Johnson once admitted that Marcell was a better defensive player than himself.

Marcell was known for a terrible temper, with umpires and opponents commonly drawn into arguments with him, and even teammates sometimes fighting him.

Marcell was rated ahead of Hall of Famers Judy Johnson and Ray Dandridge in the renowned 1952 Pittsburgh Courier player-voted poll of the Negro leagues' best players.

He was a proud, handsome guy, you know, and then he used to wear a black patch across his nose and he got so he couldn't play baseball anymore."

[citation needed] Marcell died in poverty in 1949 in Denver, Colorado and was buried in an unmarked grave in Riverside Cemetery.