Satchel Paige
On February 9, 1971, pitcher Leroy “Satchel” Paige becomes the first Negro League veteran to be nominated for the Baseball Hall of Fame. In August of that year, Paige, a pitching legend known for his fastball, showmanship, and the longevity of his playing career, which spanned five decades, was inducted. Joe DiMaggio once called Paige “the best and fastest pitcher I’ve ever faced.”
Satchel Paige was born Leroy Robert Page, Paige was born in Mobile, Alabama, most likely on July 7, 1906, although the exact date remains a mystery. He was the seventh of 12 children born to father John, a gardener, and mother Lula, a washerwoman. It was Lula who added the "i" to their surname not long before Paige was to start his illustrious career; he maintained that she changed it to sound "high-tone."He earned his nickname, Satchel, as a boy when he earned money carrying passengers’ bags at the train stations.
Baseball was segregated when Paige started playing baseball professionally in the 1920s, so he spent most of his career pitching for the Negro League teams around the United States. Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige honed his pitching talents in reform school. A run-in with the law got Paige "enrolled" in reform school at age 12. But his stay at the Industrial School for Negro Children in Mount Meigs, Alabama, may have been a blessing in disguise. His baseball talent, coupled with big hands and feet on his long, lanky frame—he would grow to 6'4"—were recognized by coach Edward Byrd as assets that could be developed.
Byrd taught Paige to pull back, kick his foot high in the air, and as he came down, bring his arm from way behind and thrust his hand forward as he released the ball, giving it maximum power as it hurtled forward. Paige later said, "You might say I traded five years of freedom to learn how to pitch."
Denied entry to the Major Leagues, he began his professional baseball career in the Negro Leagues and became its most famous showman. Paige began his professional career in 1926 in the Negro Southern League. His record with the Birmingham Black Barons did not go unnoticed and he moved quickly through the ranks of the Negro National League teams, becoming a popular draw among audiences. During the winter seasons, he pitched for teams in the Caribbean Islands and Central and South America, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. Between contracts, Paige built quite a following through barnstorming tours, which consisted of exhibition games against other professionals and regional talent that provided extra money. In one such game, he was hired to front a team called the "Satchel Paige All-Stars" and ended up pitching to New York Yankees great Joe DiMaggio, who called him "the best and fastest pitcher I've ever faced.". As a barnstorming player who traveled thousands of miles each season and played for whichever team met his asking price, he pitched an estimated 2,500 games, had 300 shut-outs and 55 no-hitters. In one month in 1935, he reportedly pitched 29 consecutive games.
Paige also once opposed St. Louis Cardinals ace, Dizzy Dean, in a series of exhibition games, winning four of them. Afterward, Dean noted, "If Satch and I were pitching on the same team, we'd clinch the pennant by the fourth of July and go fishing until World Series time."
In 1947, Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier and became the first African American to play in the Major Leagues when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. The following year, Cleveland Indians in need of extra pitching, owner Bill Veeck gave the veteran Negro League star a tryout. Veeck reportedly laid a cigarette on the ground and told Paige to think of it as a home plate; the hurler then threw five fastballs, all but one sailing directly over the cigarette. Paige entered the majors, signing with the Cleveland Guardians (then known as the Cleveland Indians) and becoming, at age 42, baseball’s oldest rookie. He helped the Guardians win the pennant that year and later played for the St. Louis Browns and Kansas City A’s.
Paige retired from the majors in 1953 but returned in 1965 to pitch three innings for the Kansas City A’s. He was 59 at the time, making him the oldest person ever to play in the Major Leagues. In addition to being famous for his talent and longevity, Paige was also well-known for his sense of humor and colorful observations on life, including: “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you” and “Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
He died June 8, 1982, in Kansas City, Missouri.
https://sportslifer.wordpress.com/2015/10/29/a-pitch-from-satchel-paige-draws-rave-reviews/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satchel_Paige
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/satchel-paige-nominated-to-baseball-hall-of-fame?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2022-0209-02092022&om_rid=38e4a34341a12eaaf36874c06ff050e31b6fc9bde4c796fca30b1697322015e4&~campaign=hist-tdih-2022-0209
https://www.biography.com/athlete/satchel-paige
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