Satchel Paige: What's Next

Chapter 2 The Big Leagues and Beyond

Jackie Robinson broke into the majors with Brooklyn in 1947. His trials and tribulations have been well documented. But despite his breaking the color barrier, there was no real rush by any major league team to follow the Dodgers lead. Larry Doby was signed by the Indians, 3 months after Jackie made his debut and went straight to the majors from the Negro Leagues. It would be the following year in July of 1948, I was barely 3 weeks old, when 42-year-old Satchel Paige finally got his chance. He was signed by Bill Veeck for the Indians and he and Doby would help lead them to the World Series Championship over the Braves. Becoming the first black teammates to play for a World Champion.

Satch went 6-1 with an ERA of 2.48. Some writers were so impressed that he received Rookie of the Year votes. He joked he would have had to decline the award since he was not sure which year the writers were talking about. It would be the best season of any of his six years in the majors. He pitched one more year in Cleveland, and then moved on to the St. Louis Browns.

He went 18-23 in his three seasons with the Browns. He had a 12-10 record in 1952. Although his record in the majors was 28-31 with a 3.29 ERA, it is pretty impressive when you consider he was 42 before he even got there. His last game in the majors came for Charlie Finley’s Kansas City A’s in 1965. He shut out the Red Sox for three innings on one hit. A double to Carl Yastrzemski. Yaz led the league in doubles that year and had seen his dad hit against Paige in a semi-pro game on Long Island a generation earlier. He was 59 years, 2 months and eight days old when he ended his career.

That night he was 2 years older than his nearest competitor for the oldest player to appear in a major league game, and he was 33 years older than his catcher. Paige continued to pitch now and then. Mostly just exhibitions. After he had left the Browns, he pitched for Miami of the International League, a Phillies affiliate. He won 30 games over those three seasons, but never made it back to the majors with the Phils.

He pitched five games for Portland in the PCL in 1961. He was 54 years old. Portland was a Cardinals farm team. After his one game in KC, he pitched in one game for Peninsula in the Carolina League and called it a career.

He was as colorful as they come. And a tireless self-promoter. Paige was also very quotable. Some of his best. ” Don’t look back, something might be gaining on you.” ” Smile well and often, it makes people wonder what you have been up to.” ” How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?” “Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way,”

A couple more. ” Never pray for rain if you don’t pray when the sun shines.” ” You win a few. You lose a few. But you have got to dress for all of them.” And one of my favorites. ” Work like you don’t need the money. Love like you’ve never been hurt. And dance like there is nobody watching.”

Paige was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1971. The very first Negro League player afforded this honor. His last years were spent quietly in Kansas City with his wife, Lahoma and where he and her had raised seven children. Those years were probably too quiet for the man who had reveled in the cheers of the crowd.

His last public appearance was in Kansas City, on June 5th, 1982. He was there for a dedication of a field being named in his honor. He was in a wheelchair and his voice was not what it once was. He told the crowd that he hoped the next time he spoke that he could stand. He thanked them and said I have lived in Kansas City for 46 years, and people on the street do not recognize me. His friends, knowing his condition, had rushed to put the ceremony together. The stadium they were dedicating was as old and falling apart as the old pitcher himself.

Two days later, KC was battered by a rainstorm that felled trees and knocked out power. Paige woke that night with a headache. The next morning, he could not find a comfortable position to lie or sit. His shoulder hurt and he had the chills. His wife put a hot compress on him and covered him with her coat. Then she left to get ice so the food in the refrigerator would not spoil. While she was gone, her second oldest daughter found Paige in a daze. She asked if he could hear her, but he just muttered. She called the paramedics, but they were delayed by a fallen tree.

When his wife returned, she tried to resuscitate him with CPR she had learned as a nurse’s aide. His heart finally gave out in the ambulance, and he was pronounced dead. He had known he was going to pass away soon, but they did not talk about it.

If we look back it is easy to see that Paige had more than his memorable form to set him apart and earned him a cherished spot not just in the Hall of Fame, but in a statue of him that now stands on the grounds. He also was a pioneer in racial equality for his race. A role that is lost because of his showmanship and bluster.

He proved that blacks could play and play well against white teams and that black fans would fill ballparks. He regularly beat white teams during this era of segregated baseball. And he beat the best of them, Dean, Feller, and other white champions. They barnstormed all over the US and in the Caribbean. He drew attention to himself, then his team, the Monarchs and finally, to Jackie Robinson himself.

If you look at his career, Paige was fighting for the demise of baseball’s color line long before Jackie appeared. He was fighting for it the same way early civil rights leaders did for Dr. King. The way Louis Armstrong did for black music and Paul Roberson for black stage performers. So Satchel is not only known as a great Black pitcher, but simply as a great pitcher. Did he win as many as he said he did? Well we would have to see his notebook to find out how much is true. I would think the truth is somewhere less than what he claimed, but more than he got credit for. Satchel Paige is and was a true baseball legend.