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Leroy Robert Paige was born in Mobile, Alabama on July
7, 1906. (There is some controversy over the Satchel's actual birth
date, with some historians placing it as early as 1899.) He was
the sixth of twelve children born to John Paige and Lula Coleman. Not
much is known of his early life, however it is known that he spent
some time in reform school for truancy and shoplifting. He earned his
nickname, Satchel when he worked as a baggage porter in Mobile,
Alabama.
Satchel Paige was the most famous and
best known of all the baseball players that played in the old Negro
Leagues during the Jim
Crow years. Satchel stood 6 foot 3 inches tall and has
been described as a Right-Handed, Loose Jointed, Beanpole.
He was a master of the slow breaking pitch and a strikeout artist
without peer. There are very few pitchers in the history of the game
that could throw the slow breaking ball as well as Satchel.
Satchel started his professional
baseball career in 1924 in the old Semi-Pro Southern League, with the
Chattanooga Black Lookouts, Birmingham Black Barons, Nashville elite
Giants, and the Mobile Tigers.
Satchel pitched for the Crawfords of
the Negro National League from 1932 to 1937. His pitching record for
his first two years was 32 wins, 7 losses in 1932 and 31 wins, 4
losses in 1933. In 1933, he also pitched for 21 straight wins
and had 62 consecutive scoreless innings.
In the off season Satchel played in
exhibition games and fielded his own team, The Satchel Paige All
Stars. Satchel was the ultimate showman. He barnstormed the
country, even playing for the bearded House of David team while
wearing a false red beard. His annual salary at the height of his fame
in the Negro leagues was $40,000.
In 1937 and 1938 Satchel played in the
Dominican Republic and Mexico. Satchel signed with the Kansas
City Monarchs in 1938. He won four consecutive league pennants for the
Monarchs from 1939 to 1942 and won 3 out of the 4 games in the 1942
series sweep against the Homestead Grays. He won his fifth pennant
with the Monarchs in 1946.
Satchel finally broke into the major
leagues when Bill Veeck signed him with the Cleveland Indians in 1948.
He helped the Indians win the World series that year. He joined the
St. Louis Browns in 1951 and was their most effective relief pitcher
for three years.
Satchel is reported to have pitched in
over 2,500 games during his thirty year career, winning over 2000 of
those games. Although Satchel didn't enter the major leagues until
late in life, he faced many of the best white major league players
during exhibition games. He once struck out Rogers Hornsby five times
in a single game. In 1934 Paige pitched 13 innings against Dizzy Dean
and won the game 1-0. (Dizzy won 30 games that year.)
When Satchel was 59 years old, he
pitched an exhibition game against the Boston Red Sox, becoming the
oldest player to pitch in the major leagues. He threw for three
scoreless innings and allowed only one hit. In 1969, Satchel worked as
a coach for the Atlanta Braves and in 1971 he was elected to
Baseball's Hall of Fame.
Satchel died from complications of
emphysema in Kansas City, Missouri on June 8, 1982.
Sources:
Encyclopedia
Britannica
Encyclopedia
Africana
National
Baseball Hall of Fame
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