OK Baseball book fans, I have to give some reference to the Negro League which always peaked my interest growing up and with Ken Burns Baseball documentary back in 1994 furthered my interest in the league. And if we are to talk bout The Negro League we have to start wit the greatest pitcher and face of the League Satchel Page. The most prominent book on Satchel is Dont Look Back: Satchel Paige in the Shadows of Baseball (2000) by Mark Ribowsky. Perhaps the greatest pitcher ever, and unquestionably one of its most memorable characters, Satchel Paige has been the subject of numerous books. But only Ribowskys bio, which aptly compares Paige to Miles Davis and his battery mate Josh Gibson to Charlie Parker, really gets to the heart (and soul) of the man.... EVEN though major league baseball is by far the most thoroughly documented of American sports, its history is strewn with tall tales of gargantuan clutch home runs and improbable catches and unseen pitches. Tall tales are also told of black baseball stars in the quarter-century before Jackie Robinson stepped onto Ebbets Field in a Brooklyn Dodgers uniform. Perhaps the tallest tales of all are told about Leroy Robert (Satchel) Paige, who became the most celebrated ballplayer in the history of the Negro leagues. From the early 1930s, when Paige began the first of several stints with the Pittsburgh Crawfords, until his 1971 induction into the Hall of Fame, he symbolized the world of black baseball, for whites as well as for blacks. He was known for his indeterminate age, for his exceptional fastballs and for his showboating: he would call in his outfielders -- and sometimes even order his infielders to sit down -- before striking out opposing batters. Paiges confrontation with the great slugger Josh Gibson in the second game of the 1942 Negro World Series, after he intentionally loaded the bases with two out, has become a legendary battle of the titans. (Gibson struck out on three pitches.) The pitcher Connie Johnson once told of watching Paige pitch against a minor league club, the Toledo Mudhens, in 1939: I thought he was playin shadowball. Cuz I didnt see the ball. As Mark Ribowsky shows in his well-researched biography Dont Look Back, Satchel Paige was more than a myth or a ballplayer -- he was a phenomenon. According to Mr. Ribowsky, Paige was one of the shrewdest self-promoters in the history of American entertainment and helped create the legend of his own sleepy innocence and untouchable bee-ball. He may have been one of the first athletes to refer to himself in the third person; he quickly understood that Ol Satch was a marketable commodity, and he acted accordingly. Fortunately, Mr. Ribowsky, the author of Slick: The Silver and Black Life of Al Davis and Hes a Rebel: The Truth About Phil Spector, has done enough digging into Paiges life and career to separate the historical record from the pitchers own gauzy, entertaining recollections. Paige earned his reputation -- on and off the field. Even though some contemporaries resented his share of headlines and the gate, they also knew that Paiges name and his brilliant pitching produced crowds, publicity, money and opportunities for black ballplayers. You gotta understand, said Connie Johnson. He was like a Babe Ruth for us, but he was our Babe Ruth. I think its hard for people nowadays to understand how big he was. He was like the biggest guy we knew. It didnt make no difference what kinda stuff he did, cause that only made him more bigger than life. An dont you believe that Satchel didnt know he was, too. Modern fans often fret that todays ballplayers are the first generation to choose big salaries over team loyalty. In fact, before the reserve clause ended player mobility in the 1880s, ballplayers had always jumped for better money and better teams. Fortunately for Paige -- who loved making money as much as he detested staying in one place -- Negro baseball had no reserve clause. He eagerly jumped his Crawfords contract to lead a group of Negro leaguers to the Dominican Republic in 1937, where they played a lucrative couple of months on behalf of Rafael Trujillo. In the preceding few years, Paige had played for an integrated team in Bismarck, N.D. (twice), with the Kansas City Monarchs in a barnstorming tour against the Dizzy Dean All-Stars, and on his own Satchel Paige All-Stars in northern California. Mr. Ribowsky provides so many details about Paiges complicated wanderings that the reader is occasionally lost in the profusion of leagues, all-star combinations and barnstorming enterprises. Paiges sheer longevity as a ballplayer would be difficult to grasp even if he had not lived an eventful life. But the lanky, apparently ageless pitcher with the spindly legs and bewildering delivery had already been through a couple of baseball careers, including one apparent conclusion (when his arm quit after the 1939 season) and one resurrection (when his arm came back the following year), by the time integration came to the major leagues. Few of us can avoid wishing that great baseball players would also be wonderful human beings. Alas, the only loyalty Satchel Paige demonstrated was to himself. A reckless driver and late-night carouser (into his 70s) who could never be relied on to show up on time for games -- even those in which he was scheduled to pitch -- Paige was also, according to Mr. Ribowsky, an inveterate philanderer. He cheated constantly on both his wives, as well as on his girlfriends. Hence, perhaps, the source for the last of his famous Rules for Staying Young (and the origin of the books title): And dont look back. Something might be gaining on you. What finally did gain on Ol Satch was age and the integration of baseball. Although he was deeply stung that Branch Rickey did not choose him to be the pioneer (instead of his Monarchs teammate Jackie Robinson), Paige did get a chance to play in the majors, unlike most of his Negro league comrades. A 42-year-old rookie when he joined Bill Veecks Cleveland Indians in their 1948 pennant drive (Mr. Ribowsky establishes that he was born in 1906 in Mobile, Ala.), Paige not only drew enormous crowds, he won six games (including two shutouts) while losing just one, and posted a 2.48 earned run average. (The two showmen Veeck and Paige were a near-perfect match.) He pitched, occasionally quite well, for four more seasons in the big leagues and several in the minors. Looking back on Satchel Paiges barely believable career has not helped me to shake the feeling that even though he made it to the Hall of Fame, the record of his lifetime statistics -- respectable as they are for a man in his 40s (28-31, 3.29 e.r.a., 290 strikeouts in 476 innings) -- remains one of the sadder entries in the Baseball Encyclopedia. If only they coulda seen Satchel, Mr. Ribowsky quotes the former Negro Leaguer Buck ONeil. If only theyda seen. Some say Satchel Paige was the greatest pitcher ever—and certainly his dazzling record of perhaps as many as 2,000 wins, first in the Negro Leagues and then in the integrated major leagues, ranks as one of the most remarkable athletic feats of the century. He also became famous for the advice he freely offered others, including the now legendary Dont look back, something might be gaining on you. Mark Ribowsky gives the best picture yet of life in the Negro Leagues as he brings to life a man whose act as a lovable eccentric with a golden arm masked a decidedly darker side as womanizer, hard drinker, and contract jumper always on the lookout for number one. bks9.books.google/books?id=LT2pirW9nSYC&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&edge=curl&imgtk=AFLRE71oXSENTaaRsOHP4EGy2I32uwDv-J9Phug47Ro3Yn_L-QmGhfTWbONomVtQT4v_4uj2tkATyL1mac3kqD3I2tI_9wDrS3ivTtnV_T9-wcByPR9Dekn58zzbjOmAyyEmN_HMLYt3
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 13:27:07 +0000
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