SATCHEL PAIGE Regarded as the nearest thing to a legend that ever came out of the Negro Leagues, this tall, lanky right-hander parlayed a pea-sized fastball, nimble wit, and a colorful personality into a household name that is recognized by  people who know little about baseball itself and even less about the players who performed in the Jim Crow era or organized baseball. His name has become synonymous with the barnstorming exhibitions played between traveling black teams and their white counterparts.  A mixture of fact and embellishment, Satchel's stories are legion and form a rich array of often-repeated folklore. On many occasions he would pull in the outfielders to sit behind the mound while he proceeded to strike out the side with the tying run on base.

 Once he intentionally walked Howard Easter ling and Buck Leonard to load the bases so he could pitch to Josh 
Gibson, the most dangerous hitter in black baseball, and then struck him out.   He was advertised as guaranteed to strike out the first nine batters he faced in exhibition games, and he almost invariably fulfilled his billing. Satchel frequently warmed up by throwing twenty straight pitches across a chewing gum wrapper that was being used for home plate. His "small" fastball 
was described by some hitters as looking like a half dollar. Others said that he wound up with a pumpkin and threw a pea. But Biz Mackey had the best story about how small his fastball looked. He said that once Satchel threw the ball so hard that the ball disappeared before it reached the catcher's mitt. The stories are endless. But the facts are also impressive.

His generally accepted birth date is July 7, 1906, in Mobile, Alabama, but no one really knows the truth date, and Satchel maintained an air of mystery about his age throughout his career. The only certainty about his birth is that it was sometime in this century. As one of a dozen children, eh learned early to fend for himself. He rarely attended school and frequently got into mischief.  When he was a youngster he carried suitcases at the train station for tips. Once he attempted to steal a man's satchel but the owner ran him down and cuffed him about the head while recovering his property. A friend who witnessed the incident gave him the nickname "Satchel," with young Leroy hated. In later years he concocted various versions of the origin of his nickname that were more socially acceptable.

Later he was caught stealing costume jewelry and was sent to Mount Meigs reform school, where he converted his natural ability into a measure of pitching polish. After leaving Mount Meigs he pitched for the Mobile Tigers and other local semipro teams for a coupe of years before embarking on his professional career in 1926 with Chattanooga in the Negro Southern League. After arriving in Chattanooga he was described as "just a big ol' tall boy" who had extraordinary speed but was lacking the fine control that he developed later in his career. He joined the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro National League in 1927, where he fashioned an 8-3 record, and soon thereafter established himself as a gate attraction and began playing year-round. While with the Black Barons, he finished seasons of 10-11 and 10-4 in 1929-30.

In 1931 he joined Tom Wilson's Nashville Elite Giants when they moved to Cleveland to play as the Cleveland Cubs, but before the season was over he had been persuaded by Gus Greenlee to sign with his newly acquired ball-club, 
the Pittsburgh Crawfords. In the latter part of June he pitched the first victory for the Crawfords over the Homestead Grays, winning a close 6-5 contest. Paige's greatest popularity came through this association with the Pittsburgh Crawfords during the early 1930s. He compiled marks of 32-7 and 31-4 in 1932-33. In 1934 he was credited with a league record of 10-1.

Satchel joined the Monarchs' league team during the latter part of the 1939 season, and for the next decade he pitched for them, pitching them to four consecutive Negro American League pennants (1939-42), culminating in a clean sweep of the powerful Homestead Grays in the 1942 World Series, with Satchel himself winning 3 of the games. 

Finally, with Satchel at an undetermined age, Bill Veeck brought him to the major leagues in 1948, and the rest is history. As the oldest rookie ever to play major-league baseball, he registered a 6-1 record and a 2.48 ERA down the stretch to help pitch the Indians to the pennant and World Series victory that year.

Reunited with the consummate showman Veeck on the St. Louis Browns in 1951, Satchel relaxed in his own personal rocking chair in the bullpen when not in action and kept the legend going. Twelve years after making appearances in the major-league All-Star games of 1952-53, Satch, at the dubious age of fifty-nine, pitched 3 innings for the Kansas City A's in 1965 to become the oldest man to pitch in a major-league game, contributing still another chapter to the ever-expanding collection of "Satchel stories."

In 1971, on the proudest day of his life, Satchel was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, becoming the first player elected from the Negro Leagues. In the years after his induction, Satch was continuing to follow his own rare advice, "Don't look back, something might be gaining on you," when, indeed, something finally did catch up with him. On June 8, 1982, death stilled the baseball immortal.
                                                                            

BACK

Courtesy of  "The Biographical Encyclopedia of The Negro Baseball Leagues" by James A. Riley

HOME