No pitcher in the history of baseball can match Satchel Paige. Usually pitchers wear out faster than other players.Their arms go from so much throwing.But Satchel was never your usual pitcher. His career stretched over forty years and thousands of games.He was around sixty when he finally stopped pitching.
LeRoy Paige was born in Alabama sometime in the one,including Satchel,was ever sure of his exact birthday.He got his nickname when he was just a little boy.He used to earn extra money carrying people’s satchels at the train station.
In1924Satchel pitched his first pro game for the Mobile Tigers.It was the first of about two thousand and fifty teams Satchel played for.
Satchel was tall and thin.Almost skinny.But when he reared back and threw the ball,he was throwing fine.He had one of the most feared fastballs of all time.
Satchel had different names for his fastball.Sometimes he called it his“bee ball.”Or“trouble ball.”Or“jump ball.”Or “Long Tom.”Whatever its name,the batter knew one thing.He had to be really sharp to hit it.
Satchel joined the Pittsburgh Crawfords in1932.the team was started by a black man named Gus Greenlee,who was involved in gambling.He wanted to build the best team in the history of black baseball.And he did.Five members of the Crawfords are now in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Catcher Josh Gibson was almost as famous as Satchel.Josh was called the black Babe Ruth because he hit so many home runs. One season he hit eighty-nine—that was twenty-nine more than the Babe’s record.But this record didn’t count because Josh was not on a major-league team.
Josh Gibson’s short,smooth swing rocketed the ball over fences everywhere.Josh most famous homer was in Yankee Stadium. Another black team had rented the stadium for a game with the Crawfords.When it was his turn at bat,Josh hit the ball so hard and so far,it flew over the left-field stands.It went right out of the park.No other player—not even Babe Ruth—has ever done that. Judy Johnson was another famous teammate of Satchel’s.he played third base for the Crawfords.Like all gr
eat players at the “hot corner,”Judy was quick as a cat and had a rifle arm.
Oscar Charleston usually played first base for the Crawfords.
But he was such a great all-round athlete that he could play any position.And sometimes that is just what he did.He’d play all nine positions in a single game.
Cool Papa Bell played outfield for the Crawfords.The fans loved him because he was such a bold base runner.He turned singles into doubles and doubles into triples or homers.Nobody could run as fast as Cool Papa.Satchel often roomed with Cool Papa Bell.He once said that Cool Papa could flip off a light switch and be in bed before the room was dark!That might be one of Satchel’s tall tales. But anyone who saw Cool Papa knew he was the faster runner around.
Not only did Gus Greenlee put together a great team,he brought back the Negro National League.That was the league Rube Foster had started.In1937a second league was formed.The Negro American League.There were lots of good teams around,but the Crawfords were tops.And wherever they played,the star attraction was always Satchel.
Satchel had no change-up or curve ball.But he won game after game with his blazing fastball and his amazing confidence. Sometimes Satchel was so sure he would win,he would tell the
batter exactly what kind of pitch he was going to throw.And still he’d strike the batter out.Other times he would order his outfield off the field!
In barnstorming games Satchel pitched against some of the greatest white major league pitchers of the day.And he beat them. Satchel earned more money than most white players in the major leagues
Still,he was a black man.And he had to live with prejudice.He would not play in any city where he and his teammates could not get a decent hotel and a decent meal.
He played on all-black baseball teams for almost forty years. That was some record.
Like Jackie Robinson,Satchel finally did get to the major leagues.And he set a record there,too.It’s a record that will never be broken.Satchel became the oldest rookie in baseball history when the Cleveland Indians took him on in1948.
The Cleveland Indians were in a tight race for the American League pennant that year.They needed another good pitcher. Satchel filled the bill.Satchel was either thirty-nine,forty-two,or forty-eight at the time.He had a6-1season,and the Cleveland
Indians did go on to clinch the pennant and win the World Series. Satchel only lasted two seasons with
the Indians.But he kept on pitching until1965.lots of people,including Satchel himself, thought Satchel should have been the very first black player on a major-league team.It didn’t work out that way.But Satchel never had anything except great things to say about the man who was the first.Jackie Robinson.
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