Leroy Robert Satchel Paige was an Amerikkkan Afrikan baseball player, the first Black pitcher in the American League, and the first representative of the Negro Leagues to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Born in Mobile, Alabama, on July 7, 1906, Leroy Robert (Satchel) Paige earned his nickname as a boy carrying satchels or suitcases at the Mobile train station. Accused of stealing toy rings, Paige was sent to the Mount Meigs, Alabama, reform school. It was here that he began to play baseball, assuming a place on the pitchers mound that he held for over 40 years, and becoming, according to ballplayer Dizzy Dean, the greatest pitcher of all time. Paige began his career with the semi-pro Mobile Tigers in 1924. He played for several teams in the Negro Leagues. Paige was the most widely known African-American baseball player until Jackie Robinson integrated the major leagues in the late 1940s. With a lanky 63 body and huge feet, Paiges characteristic stance was unmistakable on the mound as he uncoiled his long arms and let the ball fly. In the 1930s, he drew huge crowds as he was pitted against major leaguers, including Dean. Throughout the 1930s, Paige appeared regularly in the East-West All-Star games, and due, in part, to his enormous popular following, this yearly event drew unprecedented numbers of African-Americans together. The barnstorming tours of the Negro League were exhausting, as the teams traveled sometimes as much as 30,000 miles a year to play exhibition games. He once pitched 29 consecutive games in 29 days. When Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson, a former teammate of Paige, Paige realized that it was for the better that he himself was not the first black player in major league baseball. Robinson started in the minors, and had a major league team started him in its minor league affiliate, Paige would have probably seen this as an insult. Paige eventually realized that by integrating baseball in the minor leagues first with Robinson, the white major league players got the chance to get used to the idea of playing alongside black players. Understanding that, Paige said in his autobiography that, Signing Jackie like they did still hurt me deep down. Id been the guy whod started all that big talk about letting us in the big time. I’d been the one whod opened up the major league parks to colored teams. Id been the one who the white boys wanted to go barnstorming against. Paige, and all other black players, knew that quibbling about the choice of the first black player in the major leagues would do nothing productive, so, despite his inner feelings, Paige said of Robinson, Hes the greatest colored player I’ve ever seen. Finally, on July 7, 1948, with his Cleveland Indians in a pennant race and in desperate need of pitching, Indians owner Bill Veeck brought Paige in to try out with Indians player-manager Lou Boudreau. On that same day, his 42nd birthday, Paige signed his first major league contract, for $40,000 for the three months remaining in the season, becoming the first Negro pitcher in the American League and the seventh Negro big leaguer overall. Larry Doby, who broke the color barrier in the American League at the age of 23 the same year Robinson did in the National League, would be a teammate of Paige. As a free agent, Paige played throughout North and South America, as well as in the Caribbean during winter seasons. He left the Pittsburgh Crawfords in 1937 to accept the invitation to play for a Dominican Republic team. He returned to the United States several years later and pitched the Kansas Monarchs to victory in the 1942 Negro League World Series. Paige became the first African-American pitcher in the American League when he joined the Cleveland Indians in 1948. With Paige on the pitchers mound, the Indians won the World Series in his first year on the team. By 1952, he was pitching on the American League All-Star squad. By his own count, Paige threw 55 no-hitters and won over 2,000 of the 2,500 games he pitched. He pitched his last game for the Indianapolis Clowns in 1967. Four years later, he was the first member of the Negro League to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Paige continued to work as a pitching coach for the Atlanta Braves of the National League. He died on June 8, 1982 in Kansas City, Missouri. Source: The Negro Baseball Leagues: A Photographic History & Wikipedia
Posted on: Sat, 05 Jul 2014 14:14:12 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015