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Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend
This is the first biography of Satchel Paige, the premier pitcher of the Negro Leagues. This is the definitive biography of a black showman-athlete. The author interviewed more than 200 veteran fellow players of the Negro and Major Leagues.
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First published June 9, 2009
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About the author
Larry Tye
15 books116 followersLarry Tye is a New York Times bestselling author whose most recent book is a biography of Robert F. Kennedy, the former attorney general, U.S. senator, and presidential candidate. Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon explores RFK’s extraordinary transformation from cold warrior to fiery leftist.
Tye’s first book, The Father of Spin, is a biography of public relations pioneer Edward L.Bernays. Home Lands looks at the Jewish renewal underway from Boston to Buenos Aires. Rising from the Rails explores how the black men who worked on George Pullman’s railroad sleeping cars helped kick-start the Civil Rights movement and gave birth to today’s African-American middle class. Shock, a collaboration with Kitty Dukakis, is a journalist’s first-person account of electro-convulsive therapy (ECT), psychiatry’s most controversial treatment, and a portrait of how that therapy helped one woman overcome debilitating depression. Satchel is the biography of two American icons – Satchel Paige and Jim Crow. Superman tells the nearly-real life story of the most enduring American hero of the last century.
In addition to his writing, Tye runs the Boston-based Health Coverage Fellowship, which helps the media do a better job reporting on critical issues like public health, mental health, and high-tech medicine. Launched in 2001 and supported by a series of foundations, the fellowship trains a dozen medical journalists a year from newspapers,radio stations, and TV outlets nationwide.
From 1986 to 2001, Tye was an award-winning reporter at The Boston Globe, where his primary beat was medicine. He also served as the Globe’s environmental reporter, roving national writer, investigative reporter, and sports writer. Before that, he was the environmental reporter at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, and covered government and business at The Anniston Star in Alabama.
Tye, who graduated from Brown University, was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1993-94. He taught journalism at Boston University, Northeastern, and Tufts.
Tye’s first book, The Father of Spin, is a biography of public relations pioneer Edward L.Bernays. Home Lands looks at the Jewish renewal underway from Boston to Buenos Aires. Rising from the Rails explores how the black men who worked on George Pullman’s railroad sleeping cars helped kick-start the Civil Rights movement and gave birth to today’s African-American middle class. Shock, a collaboration with Kitty Dukakis, is a journalist’s first-person account of electro-convulsive therapy (ECT), psychiatry’s most controversial treatment, and a portrait of how that therapy helped one woman overcome debilitating depression. Satchel is the biography of two American icons – Satchel Paige and Jim Crow. Superman tells the nearly-real life story of the most enduring American hero of the last century.
In addition to his writing, Tye runs the Boston-based Health Coverage Fellowship, which helps the media do a better job reporting on critical issues like public health, mental health, and high-tech medicine. Launched in 2001 and supported by a series of foundations, the fellowship trains a dozen medical journalists a year from newspapers,radio stations, and TV outlets nationwide.
From 1986 to 2001, Tye was an award-winning reporter at The Boston Globe, where his primary beat was medicine. He also served as the Globe’s environmental reporter, roving national writer, investigative reporter, and sports writer. Before that, he was the environmental reporter at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, and covered government and business at The Anniston Star in Alabama.
Tye, who graduated from Brown University, was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1993-94. He taught journalism at Boston University, Northeastern, and Tufts.
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June 24, 2019
"Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching."
---Satchel Paige
Notice that Satchel's name is misspelled.
When I was twelve, my Dad found a handful of his Topps baseball cards from the 1950s and gave them to me. Among the cool player’s names were Bob Feller, Yogi Berra, and a lanky black man named Satchel Paige. I pondered on the name Satchel and the name Yogi. How does a guy get a name like Satchel or for that matter Yogi? Later while in college, I was amused to hear that Woody Allen, as a tribute to the great ball player, named his son Satchel Ronan O’Sullivan Farrow, although calling Ronan Woody’s child is a bit of a stretch. I’m of the opinion, shared by many others, that he is actually Frank Sinatra’s son. Ronan doesn’t go by Satchel, which could be because he doesn’t like it, or it could be because he has some issues with his “father.” I hope he understands that he was named after a baseball legend.
It wasn’t until I read this book that some possibilities for the origins of Leroy Page evolving into Satchel Paige became known to me. (He added an i to his last name because he thought it added some panache.) As a boy, Leroy worked at the train station in Mobile, Alabama, carrying satchels for passengers. One story is that he designed a pole that would go over his shoulders that allowed him to carry more satchels at one time and, therefore, make more money. That is the sanitized story. The other story is that he was light fingered and quick enough to “liberate” satchels from passengers. I tend to lean towards the later since it was only a few years later that he found himself at reformatory school. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. He traded five years of his life to learn how to play baseball.
Satchel was an enigma.
Nearly every time he was asked for his birth date, whether by reporters or for official documents, he gave a different date, usually a date that made him younger than his actual age. Later when asked about his marriage date, he did the same thing, slinging a different date out there each time. It was as if he were trying to keep anything real to be known about Leroy safely tucked in the shadows of the larger than life Satchel.
He was a phenom.
He’d have to be coming from Mobile, Alabama, and having the wrong tint in the wrong time. He was told by owners and managers his whole life, ”If only you were white.” He was a superstar for the Negro leagues. His fastball was nearly unhittable until he hurt his arm in the late 1930s. The great Joe DiMaggio had a chance to bat against him and said he was "the best and fastest pitcher I've ever faced." He became the star that fans attending Negro games most wanted to see. He was a showman. He embellished, bragged, and most importantly delivered. Modesty was not a word he was very familiar with.
Satchel played wherever someone would pay him to play. He skipped out on contracts when he got better offers. He went to other countries to play if the offer was too irresistible. Given the fact that he spent money as fast as he could make it, he was forced to keep hustling. He made a better living than most white major leaguers by barnstorming across the country. He put his black All-stars up against some of the best of the major leaguers in exhibition games. The crowds came out to see this crazy, spaghetti legged pitcher with size fourteen feet pitch. He would raise his front foot so far into the air before he pitched that, as one player put it, “he temporarily blotted out the sun.”
As innings of pitching mounted (everyone wanted to see Satchel pitch every game), he developed some arm saving pitches that also resulted in some embarrassing swings from big leaguers. ”I got bloopers, loopers, and droopers. I got a jump ball, a be ball, a screw ball, a wobbly ball, a whispy-dispy-do, a hurry-up ball, a nothin’ ball and a bat dodger.”
If the world was a fair place, he would have been the first black to integrate into major league baseball, and though he supported Jackie Robinson publicly, privately he was hurt. He understood that he was ”old-school, while the twenty-six-year-old Robinson was a college boy and army veteran who the owner felt could bear the ruthless scrutiny of being first.”
Nobody did more to advance the idea that black men could compete on the same diamond equally with white men as Satchel Paige. He proved it every time he put on his cleats and toed the mound. Black people came to see him pitch in droves, but so did white people.
The Dapper Satchel Paige.
Another reason why Satchel may not have been the best choice to be first was the fact that he was a notorious womanizer. Single women, married women, black women, and white women flocked to him in whatever city he played in, and he enjoyed their company. He used to leave tickets at the box office of every game for “Mrs. Paige” and it tickled the other players that every day a different woman picked those tickets up. He was a man who enjoyed good food, women, music, fine clothes, and burned through a pile of money in the process. Though white players were enjoying the same benefits, a black man, especially the first integrated ball player, would have made fans uncomfortable that he was being seen with white women. Not to mention the very real possibility that some morons in some states would be looking for him with a rope.
He did finally make the major leagues as a 42 year old rookie for the Cleveland Indians. To this day he is still the oldest rookie ever in major league baseball. At age 59, he was hired for one game for the Boston Red Sox as a stunt to raise attendance. A crowd packed the stadium, and ”he needed twenty-eight tosses to get nine outs. He struck out one and walked none over three innings. Batters popped up his pitches and tapped meek grounders. The only base hit was a double by Carl Yastrzemski.” He was stripping down in the locker room when a player came down to tell him he had to come back out. The darkened stadium was filled with lit matches and lighters as the audience serenaded him with The Old Gray Mare.
I really love this picture of Satchel Paige. He is a tired warrior.
One interesting thing that no one could have anticipated with the integration of baseball was that only the very best black players were given spots on teams. Average players were more likely to be white. The end result was that, as the Negro leagues shut down, there were fewer black men making a living playing baseball.
Satchel called for integration of baseball for decades before Jackie Robinson was even playing. He proved every year that men of color could play the game as well as white men. He endured racism as he travelled across this country, entertaining black and white fans of the game. Sometimes hotels who would host blacks could not be found. Sometimes only dives could be found where regularly the whole team slept in one room. The players learned to sleep with newspapers under them to keep the bugs from nesting with them. (The rustling of his natural movements while sleeping would scare the bugs back into the walls.) Sometimes finding food was difficult because no one would serve the black players; some who would had them stand back in the kitchen to eat.
Satchel was a shrewd negotiator in an age when most players were just glad to have a job. He knew his value and asked for it. He was the first black man to pitch in a World Series game. He was a man of firsts, and if he had been able to play in his prime in the major leagues, the Cy Young award might very well be called the Satchel Paige award.
It was odd for me to be reaching back in time to the child I was in 1979 when I first held a Satchel Paige baseball card. I’ve been curious about the man for thirty-seven years. He has cropped up here and there in other books I’ve read. I’m not sure why it has taken me this long to give the man a voice in my head. Whatever inkling I had of who he was when I first learned his name, it was nothing compared to the man that I’ve met while reading this book.
”Leroy became Satchel. And Satchel became a legend.”
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visithttp://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
---Satchel Paige
Notice that Satchel's name is misspelled.
When I was twelve, my Dad found a handful of his Topps baseball cards from the 1950s and gave them to me. Among the cool player’s names were Bob Feller, Yogi Berra, and a lanky black man named Satchel Paige. I pondered on the name Satchel and the name Yogi. How does a guy get a name like Satchel or for that matter Yogi? Later while in college, I was amused to hear that Woody Allen, as a tribute to the great ball player, named his son Satchel Ronan O’Sullivan Farrow, although calling Ronan Woody’s child is a bit of a stretch. I’m of the opinion, shared by many others, that he is actually Frank Sinatra’s son. Ronan doesn’t go by Satchel, which could be because he doesn’t like it, or it could be because he has some issues with his “father.” I hope he understands that he was named after a baseball legend.
It wasn’t until I read this book that some possibilities for the origins of Leroy Page evolving into Satchel Paige became known to me. (He added an i to his last name because he thought it added some panache.) As a boy, Leroy worked at the train station in Mobile, Alabama, carrying satchels for passengers. One story is that he designed a pole that would go over his shoulders that allowed him to carry more satchels at one time and, therefore, make more money. That is the sanitized story. The other story is that he was light fingered and quick enough to “liberate” satchels from passengers. I tend to lean towards the later since it was only a few years later that he found himself at reformatory school. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. He traded five years of his life to learn how to play baseball.
Satchel was an enigma.
Nearly every time he was asked for his birth date, whether by reporters or for official documents, he gave a different date, usually a date that made him younger than his actual age. Later when asked about his marriage date, he did the same thing, slinging a different date out there each time. It was as if he were trying to keep anything real to be known about Leroy safely tucked in the shadows of the larger than life Satchel.
He was a phenom.
He’d have to be coming from Mobile, Alabama, and having the wrong tint in the wrong time. He was told by owners and managers his whole life, ”If only you were white.” He was a superstar for the Negro leagues. His fastball was nearly unhittable until he hurt his arm in the late 1930s. The great Joe DiMaggio had a chance to bat against him and said he was "the best and fastest pitcher I've ever faced." He became the star that fans attending Negro games most wanted to see. He was a showman. He embellished, bragged, and most importantly delivered. Modesty was not a word he was very familiar with.
Satchel played wherever someone would pay him to play. He skipped out on contracts when he got better offers. He went to other countries to play if the offer was too irresistible. Given the fact that he spent money as fast as he could make it, he was forced to keep hustling. He made a better living than most white major leaguers by barnstorming across the country. He put his black All-stars up against some of the best of the major leaguers in exhibition games. The crowds came out to see this crazy, spaghetti legged pitcher with size fourteen feet pitch. He would raise his front foot so far into the air before he pitched that, as one player put it, “he temporarily blotted out the sun.”
As innings of pitching mounted (everyone wanted to see Satchel pitch every game), he developed some arm saving pitches that also resulted in some embarrassing swings from big leaguers. ”I got bloopers, loopers, and droopers. I got a jump ball, a be ball, a screw ball, a wobbly ball, a whispy-dispy-do, a hurry-up ball, a nothin’ ball and a bat dodger.”
If the world was a fair place, he would have been the first black to integrate into major league baseball, and though he supported Jackie Robinson publicly, privately he was hurt. He understood that he was ”old-school, while the twenty-six-year-old Robinson was a college boy and army veteran who the owner felt could bear the ruthless scrutiny of being first.”
Nobody did more to advance the idea that black men could compete on the same diamond equally with white men as Satchel Paige. He proved it every time he put on his cleats and toed the mound. Black people came to see him pitch in droves, but so did white people.
The Dapper Satchel Paige.
Another reason why Satchel may not have been the best choice to be first was the fact that he was a notorious womanizer. Single women, married women, black women, and white women flocked to him in whatever city he played in, and he enjoyed their company. He used to leave tickets at the box office of every game for “Mrs. Paige” and it tickled the other players that every day a different woman picked those tickets up. He was a man who enjoyed good food, women, music, fine clothes, and burned through a pile of money in the process. Though white players were enjoying the same benefits, a black man, especially the first integrated ball player, would have made fans uncomfortable that he was being seen with white women. Not to mention the very real possibility that some morons in some states would be looking for him with a rope.
He did finally make the major leagues as a 42 year old rookie for the Cleveland Indians. To this day he is still the oldest rookie ever in major league baseball. At age 59, he was hired for one game for the Boston Red Sox as a stunt to raise attendance. A crowd packed the stadium, and ”he needed twenty-eight tosses to get nine outs. He struck out one and walked none over three innings. Batters popped up his pitches and tapped meek grounders. The only base hit was a double by Carl Yastrzemski.” He was stripping down in the locker room when a player came down to tell him he had to come back out. The darkened stadium was filled with lit matches and lighters as the audience serenaded him with The Old Gray Mare.
I really love this picture of Satchel Paige. He is a tired warrior.
One interesting thing that no one could have anticipated with the integration of baseball was that only the very best black players were given spots on teams. Average players were more likely to be white. The end result was that, as the Negro leagues shut down, there were fewer black men making a living playing baseball.
Satchel called for integration of baseball for decades before Jackie Robinson was even playing. He proved every year that men of color could play the game as well as white men. He endured racism as he travelled across this country, entertaining black and white fans of the game. Sometimes hotels who would host blacks could not be found. Sometimes only dives could be found where regularly the whole team slept in one room. The players learned to sleep with newspapers under them to keep the bugs from nesting with them. (The rustling of his natural movements while sleeping would scare the bugs back into the walls.) Sometimes finding food was difficult because no one would serve the black players; some who would had them stand back in the kitchen to eat.
Satchel was a shrewd negotiator in an age when most players were just glad to have a job. He knew his value and asked for it. He was the first black man to pitch in a World Series game. He was a man of firsts, and if he had been able to play in his prime in the major leagues, the Cy Young award might very well be called the Satchel Paige award.
It was odd for me to be reaching back in time to the child I was in 1979 when I first held a Satchel Paige baseball card. I’ve been curious about the man for thirty-seven years. He has cropped up here and there in other books I’ve read. I’m not sure why it has taken me this long to give the man a voice in my head. Whatever inkling I had of who he was when I first learned his name, it was nothing compared to the man that I’ve met while reading this book.
”Leroy became Satchel. And Satchel became a legend.”
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visithttp://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
October 30, 2022
I am not a big baseball fan, more an intermittent and occasional one; mostly watching the game from afar. But at some point when I was young I must have read a book that covered a lot of the early baseball stars. I remember some of their names. I remember reading about Satchel Paige and wanting to know more. So when I came across this biography, I quickly added it to a list of what I wanted to read someday.
Satchel Paige, maybe the greatest black baseball player of any period and certainly one of the best baseball players ever, played his best years prior to the integration of major league baseball. This biography was very well researched, and where the truth of certain stories could not be verified, they are still told but with caveats. In some cases the different variations of a story are described; it is explained how the changes had been introduced in the retelling, primarily by Satchel himself, and the most likely version is identified. The biography focuses heavily on black baseball prior to major league integration and provides great insight into the Jim Crow era; a detailed depiction of how black athletes are treated in the South and throughout the rest of the country during the first half of the twentieth century is provided. The ways in which black athletes helped to gradually alter the rules of the world in which they lived is very important to Satchel’s story and Larry Tye does an excellent job of telling it. Satchel’s ability to always find joy in such a world was one of his strengths. However, Satchel was human, and the biography benefits because Larry Tye provides a complete picture of the man, including his weaknesses and failings.
Larry Tye brings Satchel Paige to life while telling as truthful a story as he can discover. It is a story about much more than baseball or a particular baseball player, but without an interest in one of those two you might find it a bit tedious. I was impressed enough in this biography that I plan to consider other works by Larry Tye in the future.
Satchel Paige, maybe the greatest black baseball player of any period and certainly one of the best baseball players ever, played his best years prior to the integration of major league baseball. This biography was very well researched, and where the truth of certain stories could not be verified, they are still told but with caveats. In some cases the different variations of a story are described; it is explained how the changes had been introduced in the retelling, primarily by Satchel himself, and the most likely version is identified. The biography focuses heavily on black baseball prior to major league integration and provides great insight into the Jim Crow era; a detailed depiction of how black athletes are treated in the South and throughout the rest of the country during the first half of the twentieth century is provided. The ways in which black athletes helped to gradually alter the rules of the world in which they lived is very important to Satchel’s story and Larry Tye does an excellent job of telling it. Satchel’s ability to always find joy in such a world was one of his strengths. However, Satchel was human, and the biography benefits because Larry Tye provides a complete picture of the man, including his weaknesses and failings.
Larry Tye brings Satchel Paige to life while telling as truthful a story as he can discover. It is a story about much more than baseball or a particular baseball player, but without an interest in one of those two you might find it a bit tedious. I was impressed enough in this biography that I plan to consider other works by Larry Tye in the future.
February 25, 2019
Spring training has started, and this wonderful biography is the perfect way to get ready for another season of baseball. I learned a lot about Mr. Paige and admire him even more. Great stuff for any baseball fan.
July 31, 2020
Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend by Larry Tye
I’d been the guy who’d started all that big talk about letting us in the big time
- Satchel Paige
This book started slowly and finished with a kick. Since Satchel Paige is such an important figure in sports history. I devoted some extra words to this long review.
The baseball wisdom and detailed play-by-play analysis in this book was not particularly strong but I was okay with this. This is, after all, a biography about Satchel Paige, the man, and in that regard Larry Tye does a very good job. Of course the task is made easier because Satchel had a remarkable life.
We learn about LeRoy Satchel Paige’s upbringing in Mobile where he developed a personality and persona that allowed him to navigate a racially charged world better than most. He learned self-reliance and business acumen growing up in Mobile which as a professional player he would use to sign with a another league or team to increase his pay. His nickname supposedly came from a method he developed to carry luggage (satchels) at the Mobile train station. By using a wooden pole he was able to carry more bags at a time and bring more money home to his mother. This sounds apocryphal. It is true that Satchel did spend many years in reform school as a teenager and was well known to local officials. Satchel later spoke of how hungry he was as a child. Putting a positive light on his life of petty crime, Mobile was a multi-ethnic and somewhat cosmopolitan city. It is likely that these influences, both positive and negative, in a good sized city created a worldliness and set of negotiating skills that would have been unavailable to the large number of ball players who grew up in small farm towns.
A disarming smile probably helped his cause as well. His playing career was not just in the Negro Leagues but in Latin America, several mixed professional leagues with whites and many barnstorming tours with major league all-stars. Because the pay was so good he even recruited Negro League stars like Josh Gibson to play for Trujillo the dictator of the Dominican Republic for a season. He later regretted this decision when it became clear to him that they might not have escaped the Dominican Republic with their lives had they lost the championship that season while under Trujillo’s watchful eyes.
As far as physical gifts, Satchel was especially tall and lanky. He had a very high leg kick to go with his one-of-a-kind slingshot delivery. He delivered heaters and off-speed pitches with equal mastery. He was also a showboater and was known to empty the outfield of defenders to strike out and humiliate batters in some instances. This was said to be done by major leaguers as well. Although I suspect such stunts were only done in exhibition games since it seems like humiliating someone in this way was a good way to get beaned, physically assaulted or worse. Nevertheless it was said that he was keen to learn a batter’s individual tendencies at the plate and could recall these facts years later — so it is clear that he was a student of the game and not solely a gifted athlete.
The book covers his playing years in rapid fashion and if not for the ending would have been an otherwise solid book. In a career that spanned thirty three seasons across seven different professional baseball leagues, Satchel won nearly 300 games. In 1971 he was the first Negro Leaguer, and third African-American, to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
But if I may back up for a moment. It is 2/3 of the way through the book that the biography heats up. It is 1947 and Branch Rickey has recently signed Jackie Robinson. Robinson is assigned to the Dodger’s AAA affiliate in Montreal and after tearing it up makes a spectacular debut. At this time Satchel Paige is 41 years old, still a top pitcher in the game, and playing for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League. He is already a baseball legend and everyone knows it including white Major League owners but he is antsy to play in the big leagues. This was unquestionably a racist time in America and so his value to any team potentially signing him had to greatly exceed any blowback of crossing the racial lines. In fact it took the Red Sox a full twelve years after Jackie Robinson to integrate even though many iconic stars by then were African American.
Satchel had wanted to be the first African American to play in the major leagues since Moses Fleetwood Walker back in the 1880’s. Part of his concern and motivation was that his accolades, potential salary, continued existence of the Negro Leagues and whatever baseball future he had left were about to be overshadowed by Jackie Robinson. Although Jackie beat him to the punch, Satchel did connect with an eager Bill young owner of the Cleveland Indians named Bill Veeck. Veeck had tried to purchase the Philadelphia Phillies in 1944 but when it was learned that he was going to sign Negro League players Judge Landis — the aging and racist commissioner — blocked the deal. A few years later there were fewer impediments in the way of the league office, since Landis was dead and Robinson had crossed the color barrier. So in 1948 at the age of 42 Satchel was signed by Veeck and became the first African American pitcher to play in the big leagues. He received a huge increase over his prior salary with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues and Veeck gave him a signing bonus. In fact Satchel was paid more than Jackie Robinson.
Satchel joined in mid-season during the Indian’s pennant run but had little interest in following management’s onerous rules. He was an independent and self-made man with loads of cash and he had looked after himself since he was a young child. Satchel drank, he smoked and he was a ladies man. Not unusual for the time but all the carousing could reflect poorly on a club. Fortunately for Satchel, and much to the dismay of the Indian’s manager Lou Boudreaux, Veeck instructed his manager to lay off Satchel. After all on days that Satchel would pitch attendance often doubled. It was no surprise to Veeck the businessman.
Overshadowed by Jackie Robinson’s achievement in the history books, Satchel finished that year with baseball’s second best E.R.A. and the Indians made it as far as the World Series. It was quickly evident that Satchel was an effective pitcher even as the old man of the league. He was still disappointed that was he was not used more often especially considering that the Indians lost in the World Series and he only had one short relief appearance. Veeck left the Indians two years later for St.Louis and Satchel’s pay was cut by the new management in an attempt to get him to leave. They said he was disruptive so Satchel walked away from the game.
A year later in 1952 Satchel re-joined with Veeck in St.Louis with the Browns. Now 46 Satchel became the game’s best relief pitcher and even started a few games. In one game against Virgil Trucks he threw a complete game 12 inning shutout! Over the next few years he pitched less and retired.
Then twelve years later — Satchel now 59 years of age and living in Kansas City — was signed by Charlie Finley for one game in a bit of a stunt. Finley was a brash marketer and innovative owner of the Kansas City Athletics. So on ‘Satchel Paige Night’ on September 25, 1965 Satchel pitched three scoreless innings against a slack-jawed Boston Red Sox lineup and ended his career in style.
In his later years, after his induction into the Hall of Fame and with his own legacy now secure, Satchel became more vocal about the racial injustices he faced in his own life and career and spoke more respectfully of his rival Jackie Robinson.
4.5 stars.
I’d been the guy who’d started all that big talk about letting us in the big time
- Satchel Paige
This book started slowly and finished with a kick. Since Satchel Paige is such an important figure in sports history. I devoted some extra words to this long review.
The baseball wisdom and detailed play-by-play analysis in this book was not particularly strong but I was okay with this. This is, after all, a biography about Satchel Paige, the man, and in that regard Larry Tye does a very good job. Of course the task is made easier because Satchel had a remarkable life.
We learn about LeRoy Satchel Paige’s upbringing in Mobile where he developed a personality and persona that allowed him to navigate a racially charged world better than most. He learned self-reliance and business acumen growing up in Mobile which as a professional player he would use to sign with a another league or team to increase his pay. His nickname supposedly came from a method he developed to carry luggage (satchels) at the Mobile train station. By using a wooden pole he was able to carry more bags at a time and bring more money home to his mother. This sounds apocryphal. It is true that Satchel did spend many years in reform school as a teenager and was well known to local officials. Satchel later spoke of how hungry he was as a child. Putting a positive light on his life of petty crime, Mobile was a multi-ethnic and somewhat cosmopolitan city. It is likely that these influences, both positive and negative, in a good sized city created a worldliness and set of negotiating skills that would have been unavailable to the large number of ball players who grew up in small farm towns.
A disarming smile probably helped his cause as well. His playing career was not just in the Negro Leagues but in Latin America, several mixed professional leagues with whites and many barnstorming tours with major league all-stars. Because the pay was so good he even recruited Negro League stars like Josh Gibson to play for Trujillo the dictator of the Dominican Republic for a season. He later regretted this decision when it became clear to him that they might not have escaped the Dominican Republic with their lives had they lost the championship that season while under Trujillo’s watchful eyes.
As far as physical gifts, Satchel was especially tall and lanky. He had a very high leg kick to go with his one-of-a-kind slingshot delivery. He delivered heaters and off-speed pitches with equal mastery. He was also a showboater and was known to empty the outfield of defenders to strike out and humiliate batters in some instances. This was said to be done by major leaguers as well. Although I suspect such stunts were only done in exhibition games since it seems like humiliating someone in this way was a good way to get beaned, physically assaulted or worse. Nevertheless it was said that he was keen to learn a batter’s individual tendencies at the plate and could recall these facts years later — so it is clear that he was a student of the game and not solely a gifted athlete.
The book covers his playing years in rapid fashion and if not for the ending would have been an otherwise solid book. In a career that spanned thirty three seasons across seven different professional baseball leagues, Satchel won nearly 300 games. In 1971 he was the first Negro Leaguer, and third African-American, to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
But if I may back up for a moment. It is 2/3 of the way through the book that the biography heats up. It is 1947 and Branch Rickey has recently signed Jackie Robinson. Robinson is assigned to the Dodger’s AAA affiliate in Montreal and after tearing it up makes a spectacular debut. At this time Satchel Paige is 41 years old, still a top pitcher in the game, and playing for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League. He is already a baseball legend and everyone knows it including white Major League owners but he is antsy to play in the big leagues. This was unquestionably a racist time in America and so his value to any team potentially signing him had to greatly exceed any blowback of crossing the racial lines. In fact it took the Red Sox a full twelve years after Jackie Robinson to integrate even though many iconic stars by then were African American.
Satchel had wanted to be the first African American to play in the major leagues since Moses Fleetwood Walker back in the 1880’s. Part of his concern and motivation was that his accolades, potential salary, continued existence of the Negro Leagues and whatever baseball future he had left were about to be overshadowed by Jackie Robinson. Although Jackie beat him to the punch, Satchel did connect with an eager Bill young owner of the Cleveland Indians named Bill Veeck. Veeck had tried to purchase the Philadelphia Phillies in 1944 but when it was learned that he was going to sign Negro League players Judge Landis — the aging and racist commissioner — blocked the deal. A few years later there were fewer impediments in the way of the league office, since Landis was dead and Robinson had crossed the color barrier. So in 1948 at the age of 42 Satchel was signed by Veeck and became the first African American pitcher to play in the big leagues. He received a huge increase over his prior salary with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues and Veeck gave him a signing bonus. In fact Satchel was paid more than Jackie Robinson.
Satchel joined in mid-season during the Indian’s pennant run but had little interest in following management’s onerous rules. He was an independent and self-made man with loads of cash and he had looked after himself since he was a young child. Satchel drank, he smoked and he was a ladies man. Not unusual for the time but all the carousing could reflect poorly on a club. Fortunately for Satchel, and much to the dismay of the Indian’s manager Lou Boudreaux, Veeck instructed his manager to lay off Satchel. After all on days that Satchel would pitch attendance often doubled. It was no surprise to Veeck the businessman.
Overshadowed by Jackie Robinson’s achievement in the history books, Satchel finished that year with baseball’s second best E.R.A. and the Indians made it as far as the World Series. It was quickly evident that Satchel was an effective pitcher even as the old man of the league. He was still disappointed that was he was not used more often especially considering that the Indians lost in the World Series and he only had one short relief appearance. Veeck left the Indians two years later for St.Louis and Satchel’s pay was cut by the new management in an attempt to get him to leave. They said he was disruptive so Satchel walked away from the game.
A year later in 1952 Satchel re-joined with Veeck in St.Louis with the Browns. Now 46 Satchel became the game’s best relief pitcher and even started a few games. In one game against Virgil Trucks he threw a complete game 12 inning shutout! Over the next few years he pitched less and retired.
Then twelve years later — Satchel now 59 years of age and living in Kansas City — was signed by Charlie Finley for one game in a bit of a stunt. Finley was a brash marketer and innovative owner of the Kansas City Athletics. So on ‘Satchel Paige Night’ on September 25, 1965 Satchel pitched three scoreless innings against a slack-jawed Boston Red Sox lineup and ended his career in style.
In his later years, after his induction into the Hall of Fame and with his own legacy now secure, Satchel became more vocal about the racial injustices he faced in his own life and career and spoke more respectfully of his rival Jackie Robinson.
4.5 stars.
December 28, 2009
This was decent enough, and certainly an interesting subject. I have a lot of sympathy for the author, for it was apparent that he was caught up in a very understandable quandary involving how much background to include. Can you understand the career of Satchel Paige without understanding the Negro Leagues and can you understand the Negro Leagues without understanding Jim Crow and on and on. It landed in one of those places that is probably too much for some readers and not nearly enough for others, but what do you do?
I felt this was a good overview of Paige's career and it offered a Satchel-centric view of the desegregation of modern major league baseball, which I would say was 80% thoughtful and only 20% whiny, not a terrible split although it skated a little close to calling Branch Rickey an opportunist and Jackie Robinson an ingrate.
I was also somewhat alarmed at the willingness to lump together Paige's tall-tales about his early days in baseball, his dissembling about his age, and his willingness to marry someone when he was already married to another person as several examples of the self-creation of a folksy mythology. Hey, maybe they are are aspects of a folksy mythology, but Tye should have made some sort of case for this. In the absence of any convincing argument, I'm going to go with the tall-tales (throwing a ball so far that the catcher caught it the following day) being, you know, stories told for entertainment value that were clearly not intended to be believed; the age issue being evidence that he needed to lie about his age in order to continue making an income, which could start up a discussion about whether lying is an acceptable way of avoiding discrimination; and the getting married more than once thing, oh, let's call that one bigamy. Maybe I'm crazy but these seem like three very different things.
Baseball-wise, there is a lot of good information and you get a great mental picture of Paige's career, especially the barnstorming years, and you are left with a real churn about the absolute unfairness of it all.
I felt this was a good overview of Paige's career and it offered a Satchel-centric view of the desegregation of modern major league baseball, which I would say was 80% thoughtful and only 20% whiny, not a terrible split although it skated a little close to calling Branch Rickey an opportunist and Jackie Robinson an ingrate.
I was also somewhat alarmed at the willingness to lump together Paige's tall-tales about his early days in baseball, his dissembling about his age, and his willingness to marry someone when he was already married to another person as several examples of the self-creation of a folksy mythology. Hey, maybe they are are aspects of a folksy mythology, but Tye should have made some sort of case for this. In the absence of any convincing argument, I'm going to go with the tall-tales (throwing a ball so far that the catcher caught it the following day) being, you know, stories told for entertainment value that were clearly not intended to be believed; the age issue being evidence that he needed to lie about his age in order to continue making an income, which could start up a discussion about whether lying is an acceptable way of avoiding discrimination; and the getting married more than once thing, oh, let's call that one bigamy. Maybe I'm crazy but these seem like three very different things.
Baseball-wise, there is a lot of good information and you get a great mental picture of Paige's career, especially the barnstorming years, and you are left with a real churn about the absolute unfairness of it all.
September 3, 2009
As a lifelong baseball fan and a person who believes in racial equality and the importance of respecting all people, this book was a good read. It was about baseball but also about the struggle for racial equality and respect.
The book probably could have been better organized and the story being told in a non-chronological manner bothered me some--and some of the content seemed a little contradictory. But the book is written in good prose; it flowed well and was a joy to read.
Satchel was certainly a colorful figure. He was not a man without faults, and there were aspects of his way of living I did not like. But for the most part he was not only a man with great ability as a baseball player but also a man who was able to cope and even to thrive in very difficult circumstances.
The book probably could have been better organized and the story being told in a non-chronological manner bothered me some--and some of the content seemed a little contradictory. But the book is written in good prose; it flowed well and was a joy to read.
Satchel was certainly a colorful figure. He was not a man without faults, and there were aspects of his way of living I did not like. But for the most part he was not only a man with great ability as a baseball player but also a man who was able to cope and even to thrive in very difficult circumstances.
November 6, 2017
SIX WORD REVIEW: Got to the league at 42.
July 29, 2015
As a baseball fan this was a very enjoyable book for me. I enjoyed learning about Satchel Paige who was a fantastic ball player who pushed the boundaries his entire life.
Living in Kansas City and knowing the President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, I've heard stories over the years about the Monarchs, Satchel Paige and Buck O'Neil. Buck was a supporter of the organization where I work and I missed meeting him by a few months. So, I recognize several names in this book. If you are in Kansas City, love baseball, stop by the Museum, it has a lot of fascinating history.
This book does jump around a lot but it has so much history and information that I want to know more about Satchel and about the Negro Leagues. Glad I found this on the shelf at the library. If you like baseball and the history of baseball, definitely pick this up.
Living in Kansas City and knowing the President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, I've heard stories over the years about the Monarchs, Satchel Paige and Buck O'Neil. Buck was a supporter of the organization where I work and I missed meeting him by a few months. So, I recognize several names in this book. If you are in Kansas City, love baseball, stop by the Museum, it has a lot of fascinating history.
This book does jump around a lot but it has so much history and information that I want to know more about Satchel and about the Negro Leagues. Glad I found this on the shelf at the library. If you like baseball and the history of baseball, definitely pick this up.
December 31, 2016
Outstanding read! Satchel was an outstanding, complicated gift to baseball. This is a definite must read!
July 30, 2009
"Critics agreed that Tye's greatest challenge was to separate the truth of Paige's life from the fiction, promulgated by the shamelessly self-aggrandizing Paige himself. To this end, Tye researched Paige's life thoroughly, scrutinizing source documents from birth records to FBI files and conducting more than 200 interviews with Paige's family and friends. Tye's fondness for his subject is obvious, but that doesn't prevent him from debunking the myths surrounding Paige's life. However, a couple of critics felt that Tye was still too credulous, and others considered some of his arguments a bit tenuous. Though Tye has unearthed some eye-opening information -- for example, Paige was a bigamist -- Satchel is no racy, tell-all biography but a balanced examination of a legendary athlete and pioneer."
October 5, 2018
This was simply a great book on one of America’s best all time baseball players. As expected, the book confronts uncomfortable realities for those like Satchel that played in the pre-1948 segregation era of this sport. Satchel never let anything stop him and certainly not the effects of racial segregation. I have to admit I was rather stunned to read the realities of the opinions these African American baseball players had of Jackie Robinson. Where no one wanted to take anything away from Jackie at the time the players in the black league did not think that Jackie had paid his dues to be “the first” to cross the color barrier in baseball. The details that followed shed the reasons as to why; and I will not go into the specifics here for this review – it would spoil the many other aspects of the book and life of Leroy “Satchel” Paige.
Satchel certainly protected his legacy very well and deservedly did so for the sake of his family and his unique contribution to the game. Inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971 he insisted his dedicated section not remain in the section of the HOF dedicated to the African American players; rather, he wanted to a location within that of the general population of inductees – the HOF agreed. It simply must have been amazing to see Satchel on the mound doing his thing in his style, in his manner, tossing heat across home plate.
The big take away for me in this book was simply that Satchel never gave up, never gave in, had a work ethic I sincerely respect, and continued to push along even when the going got tough. He never cried over spilled milk and had a reputation in baseball in the 1920’s and 1930’s that rivaled many others of the era. In the end, he was as human as any of us; flaws and all and accepted this but kept moving to perfect his style, his game, his earning potential with negotiating strategies and most important his dignity.
The author did a great deal of research, interviews, and wrote a critical book on the life of this terrific American. If you enjoy reading sports biographies then this book should be a necessary read for you at some point in the future.
Satchel certainly protected his legacy very well and deservedly did so for the sake of his family and his unique contribution to the game. Inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971 he insisted his dedicated section not remain in the section of the HOF dedicated to the African American players; rather, he wanted to a location within that of the general population of inductees – the HOF agreed. It simply must have been amazing to see Satchel on the mound doing his thing in his style, in his manner, tossing heat across home plate.
The big take away for me in this book was simply that Satchel never gave up, never gave in, had a work ethic I sincerely respect, and continued to push along even when the going got tough. He never cried over spilled milk and had a reputation in baseball in the 1920’s and 1930’s that rivaled many others of the era. In the end, he was as human as any of us; flaws and all and accepted this but kept moving to perfect his style, his game, his earning potential with negotiating strategies and most important his dignity.
The author did a great deal of research, interviews, and wrote a critical book on the life of this terrific American. If you enjoy reading sports biographies then this book should be a necessary read for you at some point in the future.
February 21, 2025
One of the great things about baseball are the characters that graced the game and Satchel Paige was one of the greatest ambassadors in the history of the great game.
This is the defining biography of Satchel, who was known for his embellishment about his own legend. He claimed to have thrown over 2500 games (Jesse Orosco has the most in MLB history with 1252) claims to have over 6000 strikeouts and over 700 wins during his Negro League and barnstorming days.
He was 42 when he finally got to the big leagues, in 1947, the oldest rookie in baseball history, he was also the first black pitcher in the big leagues. He came back at age 59 and threw three scoreless innings for the Oakland A's, yet threw exhibition games well into his 70's. He was elected to the Hall of Fame but never went back to Cooperstown because the Negro League players were not allowed to be in the sane room as the white hall of famers and he referred to it as the baseball ghetto. He was told that he was either "too black" or "too old" to play in the majors and resented the fact that a lot of his peers were shut out for so long by the old white boy network, who were afraid to integrate the game because of hatred and insecurity. He was bitter at the end, and could never quite get over his resentment.
This is a solid "B" book. There was only one Satchel Paige, and the three quotes below are part of his steps for success.
"How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were?"
"Never look back, something might be gaining on you."
"Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody is watching."
This is the defining biography of Satchel, who was known for his embellishment about his own legend. He claimed to have thrown over 2500 games (Jesse Orosco has the most in MLB history with 1252) claims to have over 6000 strikeouts and over 700 wins during his Negro League and barnstorming days.
He was 42 when he finally got to the big leagues, in 1947, the oldest rookie in baseball history, he was also the first black pitcher in the big leagues. He came back at age 59 and threw three scoreless innings for the Oakland A's, yet threw exhibition games well into his 70's. He was elected to the Hall of Fame but never went back to Cooperstown because the Negro League players were not allowed to be in the sane room as the white hall of famers and he referred to it as the baseball ghetto. He was told that he was either "too black" or "too old" to play in the majors and resented the fact that a lot of his peers were shut out for so long by the old white boy network, who were afraid to integrate the game because of hatred and insecurity. He was bitter at the end, and could never quite get over his resentment.
This is a solid "B" book. There was only one Satchel Paige, and the three quotes below are part of his steps for success.
"How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were?"
"Never look back, something might be gaining on you."
"Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody is watching."
July 27, 2016
Unfortunately, in Satchel Paige's time there were no radar guns to measure the speed of a pitched ball, but we do know these two facts:
1. Satchel threw so fast, sometimes the ball disappeared before it reached the catcher's mitt to the astonishment of everyone at the park. Now that is fast!
2. Satchel threw so fast, sometimes if a batter was lucky enough for his bat to strike the ball, the wood would start on fire. I ain't never seen no modern pitcher do that.
Owner Bill Veek came out of this book quite well. I always liked the guy. Jackie Robinson not so well. All of the black ball players who deserved a chance to play had to wait. Maybe it needed an asshole like Jackie to put up with the taunts and not react, at least not at the beginning.
Some Satchel quotes:
1. How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?
2. Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you.
3. Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching.
1. Satchel threw so fast, sometimes the ball disappeared before it reached the catcher's mitt to the astonishment of everyone at the park. Now that is fast!
2. Satchel threw so fast, sometimes if a batter was lucky enough for his bat to strike the ball, the wood would start on fire. I ain't never seen no modern pitcher do that.
Owner Bill Veek came out of this book quite well. I always liked the guy. Jackie Robinson not so well. All of the black ball players who deserved a chance to play had to wait. Maybe it needed an asshole like Jackie to put up with the taunts and not react, at least not at the beginning.
Some Satchel quotes:
1. How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?
2. Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you.
3. Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching.
April 29, 2017
I'm not much of a baseball fan, or of sports or competition in general, but the subject of Satchel Paige peaked my interest since Greg Proops first belligerently sung the pitcher praise on his podcast the Smartest Man in the World.
If I had no choice but to study American sports I'd likely choose baseball ("for it is our game" goes Whitman), and to pick an angle on baseball history to research, it would definitely be how race relations operated in baseball in the middle of the 20th century. Since I did have a choice though, I picked this book out anyway because I wanted to try something out of my comfort zone, read something that might offer an essential piece of American history that I would not otherwise have sought out.
Satchel Paige is a fantastic subject matter, as I soon learned. Both the man and the legend, the interplay between the real person and the cultural icon. His overspending habits and infidelities, his cockiness, his traveling spirit, supreme pitching skill. Dude's a complex character who Tye never downplays in his imperfections, his downright cruelties even, but who Tye also acknowledges as a singular force in baseball history. Tye's characterization of Satchel is neither irredeemable nor glorified. Rather, what was bad is admitted as bad and what was good is admitted as good. I loved one particular passage that describes how, when pitching to a 4-year-old fan, Satchel didn't do the expected underhand toss, but threw a damn fast ball. The idea of it is bizarre, funny, and mean, and encompasses a lot that one could both love and hate about the guy.
The later sections of this book reminded me a lot of another biography I read recently, Douglas Brinkley's Rosa Parks. Specifically, how these works reminds us that our cultural icons and heroes continue to exist after they're shifted out of the limelight. I'm always interested in learning about the "fade out" of one's career, whether or not they recuperate, whether or not they ever thought to save enough to support themselves out of the public eye, etc.
Unfortunately, also like Brinkley's work, Tye's biography also has an offputting distance to it. This is likely because both authors were white men. Now, Brinkley's just an amazing historian and Tye has experience writing about black people and black men more specifically in his book Rising From the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class, but I still feel like there's something underexplored in their work on black subjects precisely because race isn't the first thing on their minds.
Satchel is still probably the most factual and holistic biography of Satchel Paige, so for that it is absolutely worth reading. My reservations about this book are abstract and possibly subjective, but it comes down to one simple feeling: I didn't feel like we got down to the "spirit" of Satchel Paige in this book. I think it records him and his legend splendidly, from his inimitable stats to his personal faults and triumphs, but I'm not so sure we got to what was essentially Satchel Paige here.
If I had no choice but to study American sports I'd likely choose baseball ("for it is our game" goes Whitman), and to pick an angle on baseball history to research, it would definitely be how race relations operated in baseball in the middle of the 20th century. Since I did have a choice though, I picked this book out anyway because I wanted to try something out of my comfort zone, read something that might offer an essential piece of American history that I would not otherwise have sought out.
Satchel Paige is a fantastic subject matter, as I soon learned. Both the man and the legend, the interplay between the real person and the cultural icon. His overspending habits and infidelities, his cockiness, his traveling spirit, supreme pitching skill. Dude's a complex character who Tye never downplays in his imperfections, his downright cruelties even, but who Tye also acknowledges as a singular force in baseball history. Tye's characterization of Satchel is neither irredeemable nor glorified. Rather, what was bad is admitted as bad and what was good is admitted as good. I loved one particular passage that describes how, when pitching to a 4-year-old fan, Satchel didn't do the expected underhand toss, but threw a damn fast ball. The idea of it is bizarre, funny, and mean, and encompasses a lot that one could both love and hate about the guy.
The later sections of this book reminded me a lot of another biography I read recently, Douglas Brinkley's Rosa Parks. Specifically, how these works reminds us that our cultural icons and heroes continue to exist after they're shifted out of the limelight. I'm always interested in learning about the "fade out" of one's career, whether or not they recuperate, whether or not they ever thought to save enough to support themselves out of the public eye, etc.
Unfortunately, also like Brinkley's work, Tye's biography also has an offputting distance to it. This is likely because both authors were white men. Now, Brinkley's just an amazing historian and Tye has experience writing about black people and black men more specifically in his book Rising From the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class, but I still feel like there's something underexplored in their work on black subjects precisely because race isn't the first thing on their minds.
Satchel is still probably the most factual and holistic biography of Satchel Paige, so for that it is absolutely worth reading. My reservations about this book are abstract and possibly subjective, but it comes down to one simple feeling: I didn't feel like we got down to the "spirit" of Satchel Paige in this book. I think it records him and his legend splendidly, from his inimitable stats to his personal faults and triumphs, but I'm not so sure we got to what was essentially Satchel Paige here.
June 6, 2021
This was a dense, in depth examination of one of the greatest pitchers to ever live. In an era that preceeded Tommy John surgery and MLB integration Satchel Paige's achievements stand out that much more. Larry Tye's book, meticulously researched yet goes further and delves into the larger than life persona of Satchel Paige. You can see his maturation as he goes from a hot shot 18 year old fireballer, to a wise and crafty vet, both on and off the field. Of course this is also one story of a vile chapter in American history, where we see a player who would have carved up MLB not allowed to play due to his skin color. That backdrop is a sobering context to examine Satchel's amazing feats
July 3, 2023
While certainly a slow read, with some parts that are little more than simple renumeration, and others that are (admitted by the author) to be wildly speculative, this book does show how to craft an American legend. Jackie Robinson is arguably the third most important in the American Civil Rights movement, and yet, without Satchel, there is no Jackie. He showed that, on the baseball field, ability had nothing to do with the color of your skin. And it took a lot of reckoning fpr the baseball establishment and the country to realize that. I also love that biographies such as this show you can be great, and not be perfect.
July 25, 2009
This is a well written biography of baseball legend Satchel Paige. He was finally admitted into the "Negro League" wing, a separate area of Cooperstown from the "real" Hall of Fame.
This ably constructed book, authored by Larry Tye, traces Paige's bittersweet life from birth to death. We see how he grew up and how he began to create his own persona (his last name morphed from Page to Paige, for example).
He began playing professional baseball in the Negro Leagues in Chattanooga in 1926. Early on, his strong right arm made an impression. His career progressed, until he joined the mighty Pittsburgh Crawfords, which included such greats as Cool Papa Bell, Judy Johnson, Oscar Charleston, and Josh Gibson. Early on, Paige enjoyed spending money at a pace greater than the amount that he earned. This was a practice for most of his life, leading to a rather lugubrious period of time in the latter part of his life, when he was unable to support himself and his family very well and would do almost anything to earn a buck.
One way of earning extra money? Jumping teams to go with someone who would pay more. Or barnstorming in the winter against teams led by major leaguers such as Dizzy Dean. Or playing ball in the Caribbean area. Given how many innings Ol' Satch pitched, it is stunning that he only suffered serious arm trouble once.
His career on the downside, he finally had a chance to play major league baseball, when Bill Veeck signed him to play with the Cleveland Browns. Although past his peak, he provided valuable pitching in the team's pennant run. He played for several more years in the big leagues before he was let go. After that, minor league pitching, barnstorming, and the like. His final major league performance was with the Oakland Athletics (under the ownership of the colorful Charles Finley).
This isn't just a book about Satchel Paige as a baseball player. It also explores his (sometimes less than admirable) relationships with women, his distance from many of the people he worked with, a kind of lone wolf approach (he would drive managers nuts by not riding from one city to another with the team, but by driving his own car).
Again a fine book about the bittersweet life of Satchel Paige. Well worth looking at if you have an interest in the subjects covered here.
This ably constructed book, authored by Larry Tye, traces Paige's bittersweet life from birth to death. We see how he grew up and how he began to create his own persona (his last name morphed from Page to Paige, for example).
He began playing professional baseball in the Negro Leagues in Chattanooga in 1926. Early on, his strong right arm made an impression. His career progressed, until he joined the mighty Pittsburgh Crawfords, which included such greats as Cool Papa Bell, Judy Johnson, Oscar Charleston, and Josh Gibson. Early on, Paige enjoyed spending money at a pace greater than the amount that he earned. This was a practice for most of his life, leading to a rather lugubrious period of time in the latter part of his life, when he was unable to support himself and his family very well and would do almost anything to earn a buck.
One way of earning extra money? Jumping teams to go with someone who would pay more. Or barnstorming in the winter against teams led by major leaguers such as Dizzy Dean. Or playing ball in the Caribbean area. Given how many innings Ol' Satch pitched, it is stunning that he only suffered serious arm trouble once.
His career on the downside, he finally had a chance to play major league baseball, when Bill Veeck signed him to play with the Cleveland Browns. Although past his peak, he provided valuable pitching in the team's pennant run. He played for several more years in the big leagues before he was let go. After that, minor league pitching, barnstorming, and the like. His final major league performance was with the Oakland Athletics (under the ownership of the colorful Charles Finley).
This isn't just a book about Satchel Paige as a baseball player. It also explores his (sometimes less than admirable) relationships with women, his distance from many of the people he worked with, a kind of lone wolf approach (he would drive managers nuts by not riding from one city to another with the team, but by driving his own car).
Again a fine book about the bittersweet life of Satchel Paige. Well worth looking at if you have an interest in the subjects covered here.
October 30, 2010
Probably the saying most often attributed to Satchel Paige is "Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you." But one of his I like even better than that is "Work like you don't need money. Love like you've never been hurt. And dance like no one is watching." Not bad words to live by, coming from someone with almost no formal schooling.
Satchel Paige was definitely a true American Legend, for the way he played baseball (blackball in the Jim Crow era, and then later in the Major Leagues) and for the way he chose to fight the racism of his day. And what made this book interesting was that he was very human, with lots of faults and idiosyncrasies. Though he was decidedly less than faithful to his wives during his three marriages, he was nevertheless devoted to his children, working well past his prime to keep them fed and to pay their tuition to their schools, all the way through college for those of his seven children who chose that path.
His story is also extremely interesting, since he spent almost all his playing days toiling in the Negro Leagues before the Major League color barrier was finally broken. I found his career in the Negro Leagues very interesting, as well as his career as a player in his mid- to late 40's in the Major Leagues.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in American history and the history of the American pastime. It will not disappoint.
Satchel Paige was definitely a true American Legend, for the way he played baseball (blackball in the Jim Crow era, and then later in the Major Leagues) and for the way he chose to fight the racism of his day. And what made this book interesting was that he was very human, with lots of faults and idiosyncrasies. Though he was decidedly less than faithful to his wives during his three marriages, he was nevertheless devoted to his children, working well past his prime to keep them fed and to pay their tuition to their schools, all the way through college for those of his seven children who chose that path.
His story is also extremely interesting, since he spent almost all his playing days toiling in the Negro Leagues before the Major League color barrier was finally broken. I found his career in the Negro Leagues very interesting, as well as his career as a player in his mid- to late 40's in the Major Leagues.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in American history and the history of the American pastime. It will not disappoint.
August 22, 2013
Satchel Paige was a pitcher with legendary skills and longevity. He literally pitched his way out of poverty during his childhood in Mobile, Alabama, rising quickly to the top of the negro leagues. He became a top drawer wherever he went and was literally baseball's first free agent. He knew his worth and commanded impressive earnings. Satchel felt throughout his career he had good enough stuff to excel in the major leagues. Unfortunately, when he finally was called up in 1948 by the Cleveland Indians, he was in his late 40's and not the dominant powerhouse he once was. As Buck O'Neil so aptly summed it up, "Don't feel sorry for us, I feel sorry for your fathers and your mothers, because they didn't get to see us play." He apparently handled the indignities of Jim Crow with surprising grace, regardless of his true feelings.
I give this book 5 stars partly for the effort the author obviously put into this biography. Satchel Paige's life was a legend, crafted by himself, a creator of tall tales and embellishments, and also due to incomplete recordkeeping during his early years in the negro leagues. Newspapers and periodicals also contributed their own fantastic yarns. It is a wonder how any dependable portrait could be written at all.
I give this book 5 stars partly for the effort the author obviously put into this biography. Satchel Paige's life was a legend, crafted by himself, a creator of tall tales and embellishments, and also due to incomplete recordkeeping during his early years in the negro leagues. Newspapers and periodicals also contributed their own fantastic yarns. It is a wonder how any dependable portrait could be written at all.
August 21, 2010
Satchel is the biography of the legendary baseball pitcher Satchel Paige. The stories in this book show Satchel as both an extremely talented athlete, who paved the way for breaking the Major Leagues color barrier and a flawed, hard living everyman. One of my favorite stories is of a batter facing Satchels' pitching who didn't wait for a strikeout call. He walked back to the dugout after taking two called strikes, saying to his manager, "I didn't see the first two. What makes you think I'm going to hit a third one?"
Many interviews and in depth research are pieced together to tell this tale. This makes a good book, but the lack of smooth chronological progression and insufficient editing of reiterated facts keep it from being a great book, although it is still a worthwhile read.
Many interviews and in depth research are pieced together to tell this tale. This makes a good book, but the lack of smooth chronological progression and insufficient editing of reiterated facts keep it from being a great book, although it is still a worthwhile read.
November 19, 2021
Listened to the audiobook of this excellent biography of the legendary Negro and Major League pitcher.
February 22, 2021
Larry Tye has done a fantastic job of researching a difficult subject in Satchel Paige and has created a great biography of the flamboyant pitcher who made it to the big leagues in 1948 with Cleveland only a year after Jackie Robinson did with Brooklyn.
Even the birthdate of Paige was in question and had been for some time. Tye researches birth records until he finds the actual date, dispelling a mystery that's been around for years. He also searches countless county records for marriage licenses, et al. It's a lot of work for just a sentence or two in the book, but his attention to detail make this the best book on Paige, obviously, and one of the better biographies of any baseball player available.
I've read several biographies in the past about old Negro League players and have been somewhat disappointed by the lack of info. The bio on Oscar Charleston, while interesting, contains some debate about facts that are a bit discerning. Tye backs up everything he's written with documentation galore.
And, he includes the debates about facts. When Bill Veeck wanted to bring Paige to Cleveland, Tye also included background on Veecks' alleged attempt to buy the Philadelphia Phillies and to stock the roster with Negro League players in an attempt to force integration before Branch Rickey did. There's been so much debate about whether that was actually true and Tye notes it, offering both sides of the story. Since there is no real proof either way, Tye couldn't show it and admits it in his copy.
This is an excellent book for any baseball fan -- especially during the dawn (maybe) of a new baseball season. I've been meaning to read this for a while and I'm glad I finally did.
Even the birthdate of Paige was in question and had been for some time. Tye researches birth records until he finds the actual date, dispelling a mystery that's been around for years. He also searches countless county records for marriage licenses, et al. It's a lot of work for just a sentence or two in the book, but his attention to detail make this the best book on Paige, obviously, and one of the better biographies of any baseball player available.
I've read several biographies in the past about old Negro League players and have been somewhat disappointed by the lack of info. The bio on Oscar Charleston, while interesting, contains some debate about facts that are a bit discerning. Tye backs up everything he's written with documentation galore.
And, he includes the debates about facts. When Bill Veeck wanted to bring Paige to Cleveland, Tye also included background on Veecks' alleged attempt to buy the Philadelphia Phillies and to stock the roster with Negro League players in an attempt to force integration before Branch Rickey did. There's been so much debate about whether that was actually true and Tye notes it, offering both sides of the story. Since there is no real proof either way, Tye couldn't show it and admits it in his copy.
This is an excellent book for any baseball fan -- especially during the dawn (maybe) of a new baseball season. I've been meaning to read this for a while and I'm glad I finally did.
May 10, 2022
My response is as swirled as an acrylic pour painting: bowled over, sad, amazed, amused, incredulous, melancholic, impressed, indignant, dumbfounded, annoyed, achy.
Reading Joe Posnanski's Baseball 100 (<-it's amazingly wonderful) made me want to know more about the Negro Leagues, Buck O'Neil, and Satchel Paige.
This pitcher had phenomenal talent augmented with perpetual practice. A showman, he knew how to perform and produce an entertaining game. He had the confidence to intentionally walk three batters to load the bases, then strike the next three out...with the game on the line.
No, Satchel was not plagued with humility. Nor with fidelity. Nor with accountability.
We love the concept of perfect heroes. Satch wasn't one. And yet, the way he overcame the prejudices of the racism, the way he threw year-round to make a living, his incredible traveling schedule, the indignities of finding hotels and restaurants that served blacks, the length of his career (he pitched at age fifty-nine) — all make me shake my head in wonder.
Reading Joe Posnanski's Baseball 100 (<-it's amazingly wonderful) made me want to know more about the Negro Leagues, Buck O'Neil, and Satchel Paige.
This pitcher had phenomenal talent augmented with perpetual practice. A showman, he knew how to perform and produce an entertaining game. He had the confidence to intentionally walk three batters to load the bases, then strike the next three out...with the game on the line.
No, Satchel was not plagued with humility. Nor with fidelity. Nor with accountability.
We love the concept of perfect heroes. Satch wasn't one. And yet, the way he overcame the prejudices of the racism, the way he threw year-round to make a living, his incredible traveling schedule, the indignities of finding hotels and restaurants that served blacks, the length of his career (he pitched at age fifty-nine) — all make me shake my head in wonder.
July 15, 2023
Fantastic biography that covers the life and legends of Satchel Paige. This book balances an in depth story of Satchels exploits as a pitcher, social commentary and history of baseball in Jim Crow, and a larger than life character with more outlandish stories than seemingly possible in one man’s life. I maintain that there are few better ways to study the Jim Crow era of American history than to investigate the stories of the Negro Leagues. The book consistently colors a more full understanding of what American society looked like, talked like, and acted like over the decades for better or for worse. You do not need to be a baseball fan nor a history buff to enjoy this book, I’d highly recommend!
“Don’t look back, something might be gaining on ya”
“Don’t look back, something might be gaining on ya”
October 29, 2024
Absolutely delightful read. Very well done from the author Larry Tye on being a comprehensive look at Satchel Paige’s life, his career, fight against Jim Crow and the great wonder/mysticism about him. Just a whirlwind life and baseball journey. Some hilarious anecdotes, Satchel was so damn quotable and knew how to work a room or a story. Really cool to get Negro League stories that have been hidden away/not told before. Truly one of the greatest to ever do it! Also shoutout my Dad for giving me this book for Christmas in college.
**took a big break while reading this bc I had the unlimited books from the library that were popular reads and were due back so that is the cause for the jumbo reading time.
**took a big break while reading this bc I had the unlimited books from the library that were popular reads and were due back so that is the cause for the jumbo reading time.
May 12, 2020
Amazing to read the story of a unique American folk hero. Sad and difficult to hear and imagine the prejudice and racism he faced, and the pathetic way he was at times treated by major leaguers.
As with most biographies I’ve read, he ends up being an interesting, complex human being. I enjoyed the book, and got with it a new hero.
As with most biographies I’ve read, he ends up being an interesting, complex human being. I enjoyed the book, and got with it a new hero.
July 20, 2021
An wonderful account of arguably the most colorful baseball player ever. The book recounts his youth, and his acquiring the nickname of "Satchel." The book gives the reader a good sense of Jim Crow and how baseball players navigated through those limitations.
Mostly, we see how this great talent was stifled by the racism of the time.
A highly recommended read.
Mostly, we see how this great talent was stifled by the racism of the time.
A highly recommended read.
April 10, 2024
I really enjoyed this book and learned a lot about the history of baseball. I learned that Blacks played baseball in the majors shortly after the Civil War and they weren’t banned until Jim Crow took over in 1887. So Jackie Robinson was really not the first, but the first after Jim Crow banned them.
June 24, 2025
3.49 stars. Best part of this book is when Tye talks about Satchel's arm care routine. Satch is quoted saying something like, stay outta the trainers room and away from the ice... put something hot on your arm.
Confirming my suspicion that you should not ice your arm after throwing.. the muscles need blood flow to repair themselves. Heat helps that, ice doesn't.
Confirming my suspicion that you should not ice your arm after throwing.. the muscles need blood flow to repair themselves. Heat helps that, ice doesn't.
March 22, 2021
He was an incredible baseball player.
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