He never looked back
On this date in history – June 8 – stuff happened. Sorry to sound so unceremonious. However, for baseball fans, June 8 is a day to remember Leroy Robert “Satchel” Paige. The great pitcher died on June 8, 1982 in Kansas City, Missouri. He was 75 years old.
In commemoration of the hurler’s life and sporting accomplishments, a new book is being released by Larry Tye entitled “Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend.” In addition, Erik Ofgang reports (at http://www.newstimes.com/ci_12514071?source=most_emailed) for The News-Times that a new film documentary “Pitching Man: Satchel Paige Defying Time” is being released. These are two new lights in the annals of memory celebrating this unique man who is believed to have won over 2,000 games in his career, which spanned America’s Negro Leagues, Mexican baseball, barnstorming and Major League Baseball (first at 42, then at 59 years old). At a time when the way was shut for African-American players in the Major Leagues, Satchel Paige was the face of the Negro Leagues, an attraction few other players of his day could match. His presence was like a constant cash advance for the gate receipts, and as he moved from team to team, he was a loan of greatness to each.
“I never rush myself. See, they can’t start the game without me.“
As M.B. Roberts writes for ESPN.com, Satchel Paige threw more pitches for more fans in more places around the world than anyone else has. He hurled those pitches with uncanny control and a bewildering array of motions that made simple two-seam, four-seam and cut fastballs (as well as a great slow ball) seem like 10,000 different pitches, each hurled at a different speed and angle than the next. I’m sure that Bugs Bunny’s mound acumen was based in no small part upon the wizardry of Satchel Paige (throw in a dash of Dizzy Dean and you’ve probably got it):
From a strong tree grows a legend
Leroy “Satchel” Paige supposedly received his nickname when he worked as a baggage porter in his hometown Mobile, Alabama. His ability to carry several bags at once prompted fellow employees to call the lanky youth a “satchel tree.” But like a tree, his roots go deep in baseball history. He made the Negro Leagues financially viable during the Great Depression and helped it to prosper all the way until the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947.
Above and beyond his legendary pitching talent and physical longevity in the game, Satchel Paige is perhaps best known as a character of great charisma and charm. His collected quotations continue to delight. “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you” is perhaps his most popular phrase, but it is only one of the six “master maxims” that appeared on his business card. Others included “Avoid fried meats, which angry up the blood” and “if your stomach disputes you, lie down and pacify it with cool thoughts.” Regarding age, Satchel had perhaps the most practical advice that has been uttered: “Age is a question of mind over matter,” he said. “If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
It wasn’t just a publicity stunt
Bill Veeck, then owner of the Cleveland Indians, signed the 42-year-old Satchel Paige to a player contract in 1948. The media had a field day with it, as Paige was easily the oldest “rookie” in Major League history. The Sporting News went so far as to say that the colorful Veeck was “demeaning baseball.” But Veeck’s response was telling: “If Satch were white, of course he would have been in the majors 25 years earlier and the question would not have been before the house.”
For his part, Paige answered critics with a fine season. He went 6-1 with one save and a 2.48 ERA. That season, the Indians won the American League pennant by a single game. The fans ate up every minute of the ageless wonder’s mound time. Over 200,000 people were reported to have attended his first three starts, including a Cleveland record of 78,382 for a single game.
But packing them in was nothing new for Paige. Over the course of his long career – the vast majority of it long before television carried baseball games – Satchel Paige is estimated to have performed before crowds of 10 million or more. That includes fans in the United States, the Caribbean and Central America, says “The New York Times Book of Sports Legends.”
“One time, I saw Satchel…”
Fans of baseball history have heard all the archetypal legends about great pitching. Whether they’re all true or not doesn’t matter, however. The mythology and magic of the game are what is truly enjoyable. Yet it is interesting that so many of these legends involved Satchel Paige. For instance, he was alleged to have regularly called in his outfielders to sit behind the pitcher’s mound while he struck out the side. He’d also deliver on promises to do things like strike out the first nine batters he faced in a game. His legendary “hesitation” delivery made it seem as if the ball literally stopped in mid-air, defying the laws of physics and driving batters crazy.
These were all parts of Satchel Paige’s repertoire, and then some. Plus, in sideline contests, Satchel would throw the ball time and again over a small matchbook or through holes in the scoreboard from hundreds of feet away. While pitching for a white semipro team in North Dakota, he is even alleged to have started 29 games in one month, an unbelievable total for a baseball pitcher from any era. There appears to be nothing the man couldn’t do with a baseball in his hands.
His documented accomplishments on the field were also extraordinary. From his 1924 debut with the semipro Mobile Tigers to legendary runs with the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Kansas City Monarchs, Paige’s teams won pennants (six total from 1939-48, in fact). Pitching for the Crawfords in 1933, the crafty moundsman won 31 of 35 decisions, including 21 straight wins and 62 consecutive scoreless innings. How did he follow up that season? While there is no concrete proof of this one, Paige himself claimed to have won 104 out of 105 total games in 1934 and to have struck out 22 batters in a nine-inning game.
Pitching at gunpoint
In one memorable season, Satchel Paige pitched for a Dominican Republic team organized by then dictator Rafael Trujillo. Reports as to how Trujillo courted American stars to play in his league vary, but they tend to run the gamut from large amounts of money to kidnapping. In one championship series, the outcome was supposedly going to decide a political election. Because of the importance of the contests, armed guards lined either side of the diamond during play.
After Paige and his fellow American captives won the series, they were escorted out of the country under armed guard. What would have happened if they had lost? Paige was no doubt thankful not to have discovered that outcome.
Grandpa shuts them down
On September 25, 1965, Satchel became the oldest player ever to pitch in the Major Leagues at 59. Before the game, the consummate showman sat in a rocking chair in the bullpen. For effect, he had a nurse rub liniment into his arm. Then he proceeded to pitch three scoreless innings for the Kansas City A’s against the Boston Red Sox. Only future Hall of Fame left fielder Carl Yastrzemski managed a hit off the old Satchel Tree.
Winding down his playing days, Paige barnstormed as a player virtually nonstop into his 60s. He made his last appearance in a Major League uniform as a coach for the Atlanta Braves in 1969. Two years later, Satchel Paige became the first Negro League start to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
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