Satchel Paige’s greatest hits | Royals Review

James Brown, the fabulous soul singer, was known as the Hardest Working Man in Show Business due to his constant touring, tireless work ethic, and electric live performances.

I’ve already told my family that I want Brown’s I Feel Good as my exit song at my funeral. I figure it’s good to send everyone out on a high note.

Who was the hardest-working man in baseball history? I’m going with Satchel Paige. Paige pitched for more than 40 years in locales as diverse as Bismarck, North Dakota, and the Caribbean. He pitched in small-town sandlots and before crowds of more than 78,000 at Cleveland Stadium. If there was a paycheck and a crowd, Satchel found a mound.

Paige always seemed to have a little something extra. When he was a child lugging bags at the train station, he brilliantly devised a pole-and-rope contraption that allowed him to carry more than one bag at a time. At a dime per bag, it added up. A coworker said Satch, who was born Leroy Robert Page, looked like a satchel tree. The name stuck. Credit his parents with the change from Page to Paige, which sounded more high class. So Satchel Paige it was.

Just barely 12, Satch was sentenced to six years at the Alabama Reform School for skipping school and petty theft. It seems like a stiff sentence, but Satchel came out of the school knowing how to pitch, courtesy of the Reverend Moses Davis, a trustee of the school and its baseball coach.

After his release from reform school, Paige joined the semi-pro Mobile Tigers. By 1926, he was pitching for the Chattanooga White Sox of the Negro Southern League.

One of the interesting things about Paige is that he was one of the few Negro League players to have played in almost every year of the league’s existence. The Negro Leagues started in 1920 and ran through 1948. Yes, there were a few teams that continued to play after 1948, mostly on a barnstorming basis, but the league was never the same after integration. Paige pitched for the Kansas City Monarchs from 1939 to 1942 and led the team to four consecutive Negro American League pennants, including a four-game sweep of Josh Gibson and the Homestead Grays in the 1942 Negro League World Series.

Today we throw around words like epic and legendary far too casually. Bo Jackson throwing Harold Reynolds out at home plate was epic and legendary. The wedding dance you went to last weekend? Probably neither. Satchel Paige was a living legend. He was often epic and legendary.

Bob Feller, one of the all-time greats, spent many offseasons barnstorming with Paige. Feller was a man who considered himself one of the greatest pitchers ever, yet when pressed, he admitted that Paige was the greatest he had ever seen.

Joe DiMaggio, who knew a thing or two about pitchers, said Paige was the “best and fastest” he’d ever faced. I love this description from Hall of Fame catcher Biz Mackey, who said Paige’s fastball could pound steak into hamburger. Paige did have a legendary fastball, and he gave different pitches colorful names: Bee Ball, Midnight Rider, Trouble Ball, Long Tom, and Jump Ball. He also had a hesitation pitch that drove hitters crazy.

When Paige worked out for the Cleveland Indians, owner Bill Veeck said Paige threw four of his five pitches directly over a cigarette.

With someone like Paige, whose career spanned six decades, how does one rank his legendary moments? You don’t. These, however, are my favorite Satchel moments, in no particular order.

The setting was Game Two of the 1942 Negro League World Series between the Kansas City Monarchs and the Homestead Grays. The great Buck O’Neil was playing first base for the Monarchs that day. This story was one of Buck’s favorite stories to tell, and no one could tell a story better than Buck O’Neil.

Buck said Paige came on in the seventh inning in relief of Hilton Smith. With two outs and a man on third and the Monarchs clinging to a 2-0 lead, Satch called Buck to the mound and said, “Nancy, you know what I’m fixin’ to do?”

Buck: “Yes, you’re fixin’ to get these other guys out.”

Satch: “No, I’m going to walk these next two guys so I can pitch to Josh.”

O’Neil promptly called time and motioned manager Frank Duncan to the mound. Duncan listened to the story, then agreed with Satch, saying, in effect, that the people in the crowd wanted to see Satch pitch to Josh. Paige promptly walked the next two hitters. Gibson stepped in, looking like a baseball version of Paul Bunyan.

Gibson, a fearsome slugger, was baseball’s most feared power hitter.

The loquacious Paige then told Gibson what he was going to throw him. Ballsy.

“Josh, I’m going to throw you a fastball.” Boom, strike one.

“Josh, I’m going to throw you another fastball, in about the same location, only faster!” Boom, strike two.

“Now Josh, I’m ahead 0-2 and I’m supposed to brush you off the plate. But I’m not going to throw smoke at yo yoke. I’m going to throw a pea at yo knee.”

Fastball at the knees. Strike three.

Three blazing fastballs, and Josh Gibson, arguably the greatest hitter in Negro Leagues history, never moved the bat off his shoulder.

The story is now nearly 84 years old, and everyone involved is long gone. But isn’t that one of the things that makes baseball such a romantic game?

The tales passed down from generation to generation. Is it 100 percent factual? Who knows? There are several versions of this story floating around. I don’t care if it is 100 percent factual. I like the story just as it is.

This is one of the most famous Paige stories and has several variations. My favorite comes from a description by Buck O’Neil, as quoted by Joe Posnanski in his terrific book, The Soul of Baseball. According to Buck, Satchel was barnstorming through North Dakota (who knew North Dakota was such a baseball hotbed?) when a beautiful young woman named Nancy took a seat close to the dugout. Satchel always had a weakness for a beautiful woman, and he possessed the necessary game to interact with them.

After a night on the town, Satchel invited Nancy to join them at their next stop in Chicago. Ever the gentleman, Satch gave Nancy cash for the train fare and instructions to meet them at the Evans Hotel. True to her word, Nancy showed up at the Evans and retired to Satchel’s room.

Buck was sitting in the lobby enjoying an iced tea when Satchel’s fiancée, Lahoma, unexpectedly arrived. Buck, ever the alert wingman, ran interference and instructed the bellman to put Lahoma in a vacant room next to his and to alert Satch.

The surprised Paige climbed down the fire escape, then walked around to the front of the hotel where Buck and Lahoma were waiting.

“Lahoma! What a pleasant surprise to see you!”

Later that evening, Buck knew Satchel would have to make amends with Nancy, so he kept his ears open.

Sure enough, Buck could hear Satchel lightly rapping on Nancy’s door, followed by, “Nancy. Nancy. NANCY!”

This brought a suspicious Lahoma out of her room.

Once again, Buck, being a gold-medal wingman, opened his door and said, “Satch, are you looking for me?”

Paige: “Yes, Nancy, what time is the game tomorrow?”

From that point on, Buck’s new nickname was Nancy.

Making His First Cleveland Start

Revolutionary owner Bill Veeck signed Paige to a major-league contract with the Cleveland Indians in early July 1948. On July 9, 1948, the 42-year-old Paige made his major-league debut, throwing two scoreless innings of relief. He brought the crowd of almost 35,000 to its feet with his hesitation pitch. Paige made seven more relief appearances, throwing a total of 18 innings, striking out 10 while allowing only four runs.

American League president, and resident killjoy, Will Harridge eventually declared the hesitation pitch illegal, saying that if Paige threw it again, it would be called a balk.

Finally, on August 3, the Indians gave Paige his first start. A crowd of 72,562 fans—an attendance record for a night baseball game—packed Cleveland Stadium to witness the event. Paige went seven innings, scattering seven hits. The Washington Senators nicked him for two runs in the first before Paige settled down. He surrendered only one more run before yielding to Ed Klieman, who closed out the 5-3 Cleveland victory.

Paige went 6-1 with a 2.48 ERA down the stretch for the eventual World Series champions and drew huge crowds whenever he pitched.

A crowd of 51,013 packed Comiskey Park for his August 13 start, a five-hit complete-game shutout.

Another 78,382 showed up for his August 20 start in Cleveland, where he threw a three-hit complete-game shutout.

Paige drew 201,829 fans for those three starts, which is astounding.

It’s also worth noting that 1948 was the last time Cleveland won the World Series.

In doing so, Paige became the first Black pitcher to appear in the World Series when he made a relief appearance in Game Five.

Paige played for the Indians in 1949, then followed Veeck to the St. Louis Browns, where he pitched from 1951 to 1953.

Even more astounding, Paige made the American League All-Star team in both 1952 and 1953 at the ages of 45 and 46.

Once his contract with the Browns expired, Paige returned to barnstorming.

Which brings us to our next segment…

Pitching for the Kansas City Athletics at the Age of 59

Kansas City Athletics owner Charlie Finley declared that September 25, 1965, would be Satchel Paige Day. In addition to honoring Paige, Finley signed the 59-year-old pitching legend and announced that Paige would start against the powerful Boston Red Sox.

By 1965, Paige was more than a star in Kansas City. He was a living legend.

His night began in pure Satchel fashion, with Paige sitting in a rocking chair, a blanket draped over his legs, and a pretty nurse rubbing liniment on his famed pitching arm. When the game started, the rocker was moved to the A’s dugout, which was below field level. Paige rocked away while the A’s batted.

When asked about the rocker, Paige delivered this pearl:

“At my age, I’m close enough to being below ground as it is.”

Finley asked Paige if he could pitch three innings.

Paige replied, “That depends. How many times a day?”

For this promotion, Finley did it right. He invited former stars of the Monarchs and the Kansas City Blues to a luncheon honoring Paige and even hosted a three-inning exhibition before the game, which featured Buck O’Neil, Hilton Smith, Cool Papa Bell, and Bullet Rogan.

It had been 12 years since Paige had pitched in the majors. He ran into a little trouble in the first, giving up a two-out double to Carl “bleeping” Yastrzemski before retiring Tony Conigliaro on a fly ball to left to escape the jam.

Paige sailed through the second and third innings while Kansas City squeezed across a run to give him the lead.

Paige came to the mound in the fourth, but after throwing his warm-up pitches, manager Haywood Sullivan emerged from the dugout and, to thunderous boos, removed him from the game.

As Satchel approached the dugout, the fans erupted in a standing ovation, prompting Paige to doff his cap twice and bow to the adoring crowd. The stadium lights were then turned off, matches were lit, and the crowd of 9,289 sang “The Old Gray Mare.”

In attendance that night was a nine-year-old from Independence named Rick Sutcliffe.

Sutcliffe later said, “I’m quite sure that game had something to do with me wanting to be a baseball player.”

Home plate umpire Bill Valentine said that Paige was really pitching and that Boston was doing its best to hit him.

“He kept the ball down, kept it moving below their knees,” Valentine recalled. “I’ll bet he wasn’t throwing 80 mph, and they’d swing and say, ‘Son of a bitch, that pitch was right there.’”

Jim Gosger, who later played for Kansas City and made both the first and last outs against Paige that night, later said:

“My two biggest thrills in baseball were batting against Satchel Paige and hitting a home run against Whitey Ford the only time I faced him. As far as I’m concerned, Satchel was a prince.”

Paige even came to the plate in the second inning and struck out to end the frame.

Kansas City led 2-0 after six innings, but Boston, sparked by a two-run inside-the-park home run by Conigliaro in the eighth, won the game 5-2.

Also playing in the game were José Tartabull (father of future Royal slugger Danny Tartabull) and Diego Seguí (father of David Seguí).

Paige was paid $3,500 for his three innings of work and needed only 28 pitches to retire 10 batters.

Truly amazing stuff for a 59-year-old.

But as Satchel so often said:

“How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were? Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”

Post-baseball, Paige continued to live an interesting life. He even had his six rules for living:

One more Satchel story. September 14th, 1951. Fenway Park. The Red Sox are having a good year, sitting at 84 and 54. St. Louis is well, the St. Louis Browns. They’re playing out the string at 43 and 95. Satchel comes in to pitch the 9th inning of what is a 9 to 6 Boston win. He gets Johnny Pesky on a groundout to the second baseman. The second batter is Ted Williams. Williams will soon be off to Korea to fight in his second war. This is a huge matchup for both men. The greatest hitter who ever lived against the greatest pitcher who ever lived. Satch was 44 at the time, while Williams was still in his long prime. 1951 was like a lot of summers for Williams. He led the league in multiple offensive categories, walks, slugging percentage, on base percentage and total bases and yet somehow only finished 13th in the MVP vote. He was far and away the best player in the American League, except in the eyes of the voters.

Paige got a couple of quick strikes on Williams on breaking pitches before somehow slipping a fastball by the Splinter for strike three. Understand, Williams did not strike out a lot. in 1951, he struck out 45 times in 675 plate appearances. Yet somehow, someway, Paige dug into his bag of tricks and got Williams. Ted was so disgusted with himself that upon returning to the dugout, he smashed his bat against the wall until it shattered into several pieces. After the game, Williams took the remnants of that bat to the St. Louis clubhouse and asked Paige to sign it. Today that bat is in the possession of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

The respect between those two men was great. When Williams was inducted into the Hall of Fame, he used his speech to shame and implore the Hall to start accepting some of the great Negro League players into the Hall. In 1971, Paige became the first black player elected to the Hall.

In 1968, he became a deputy sheriff with Jackson County, Missouri, a job that didn’t require him to show up. He later tried running for political office.

In August 1968, he joined the Atlanta Braves as an advisor, in an attempt to qualify for his major league pension.

In 1973, Paige joined the AAA Tulsa Oilers as a pitching coach.

Paige suffered a fatal heart attack at his home in Kansas City on June 8, 1982. He was 75. Paige is interred at Forest Hill Calvary Cemetery, on the city’s south side.