Some Satchel Paige Stories

I normally stick to producing original content around here, but at this point in the year would require me to write about the Cubs. It's the middle of summer. The sun is shining. I don't hate myself, and thus, am not going to devote time to something that is just going to piss me off. My old college roommate used to say, "All Cubs fans are masochists." He was absolutely right.

Instead, I have some Satchel Paige stories from the book I just finished, Invisible Men: Life in Baseball's Negro Leagues by Donn Rogosin. The Hall of Fame pitcher is probably the most well-known Negro League player (excluding players such as Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron who spent the majority of their careers in MLB). The pages devoted to him were the most entertaining. It's a shame Paige's career didn't sync up with the Internet era. Twitter would have loved him.

All passages are in italics and quoted directly from Rogosin's book.

On his pinpoint control...

It was in the Southern Negro League that Paige began to emphasize his precise control by disdaining a regular home plate and placing a gum wrapper down instead. "This is my base," he'd chortle, or he'd place two bats about six inches apart and zap the ball between them into the catcher's mitt (45).

As the definition of confidence...

The greatest single episode of Paige's lengthy career occurred in Forbes Field on July 21, 1942, when Paige had his penultimate showdown with Josh Gibson. That hot July day Paige knew he really had his stuff and he baffled and teased the Grays through six innings. With a 4-0 lead, he was a picture of nonchalance, as he put the first two men out in the seventh. Then lead-off man Jerry Benjamin tripled.

Satchel motioned for first baseman John "Buck" O'Neil, the Monarchs' captain, to approach the mound. "Hey, Nancy," yelled Paige, using the nickname he gave O'Neil, "I'm gonna put Howard Esterling on base; I'm gonna put Buck Leonard on base; I'm gonna pitch to Josh!"

"Oh, Satchel, you got to be crazy," moaned O'Neil, who was accustomed to Satchel's antics.

Behind the scene was this story. When both Satchel and Josh had been rising young stars with the Pittsburgh Crawfords years before, Paige had told Josh, "Some day we're gonna meet up. You're the greatest hitter in Negro baseball, and I'm the greatest pitcher, and we're gonna see who's best."

So on that day in 1942, Paige walked Howard Esterling so that Buck Leonard entered the batter's box and Gibson reached the on-deck circle. "Hey, Josh, you remember that time when I told you about this," roared Paige as he began deliberately to walk Leonard. "Now is the time."

"Okay, Satchel, okay," cackled Gibson in his high-pitched voice. In repartee, Gibson was not ready to challenge the voluble Paige.

"I'm gonna put Buck on. I'm gonna put him on, and pitch to you. I want this to happen," Satchel told Josh.

Now the fans began to realize just what was happening. They stood and cheered. And then, as Leonard hustled to first, loading the bases, they turned oddly silent.

"Now I'm gonna throw you a fastball, but I'm not gonna trick you, I'll tell you what, I'm gonna give you a good fastball," said Paige as Gibson stepped in.

Boom! It was a knee-high fastball. Josh didn't swing. Strike one.

"Now I'm gonna throw you another fastball, but I'm not gonna try and trick you. Only it's gonna be a little faster than the other one," teased Satchel.

Boom! Again, Josh didn't swing the bat. Strike two.

"Now Josh, that's two strikes," laughed Paige. "Now I'm not gonna try to trick you. I'm not gonna throw any smoke around your yoke. I'm gonna throw a pea on your knee, only it's gonna be faster than the last one."

Boom! It was a fastball, knee high on the outside corner, and Josh didn't swing. Strike three.

As Paige walked off the mound even the Grays' fans cheered. "I told you, I was the greatest in the world... (97-98)"

Again teetering the line between confidence and cockiness, and durability to boot...

Wendell Smith argued Satchel Paige's greatest days came in July of 1934. Pitching for the Pittsburgh Crawfords, Paige mowed through the Homestead Grays' lineup at Forbes Field. Paige had such extraordinary stuff that day, he'd shout to the batter, "You'll get nothing today," while an appreciative crowd howled with laughter. Finally Buck Leonard, to slow Paige up, complained that Paige was tampering with the ball, and in an unusual concession, several were thrown from the game. Paige scornfully approached Leonard and yelled, "You might as well throw them all out, 'cause they're all jumping today." Then after his victory, the incredible Paige hopped into his roadster and drove straight to Chicago; there he outdueled the American Giant ace Ted Trent 1-0 in a twelve inning ballgame (78-79)!

The time his team's owner threw him into a Dominican jail...

The Negro League players, loyal only to their wallets, watched amused as the Dominican factions used baseball as the arena for their power struggles. One day Chet Brewer, who was playing for Santiago, went hunting for Satchel Paige, who was playing for Trujillo City, to invite him to have a beer with him. Unfortunately, Brewer couldn't find Paige. Then as Brewer recalled, "A little kid (they know all the business), he said, 'En la carcel,' that's 'jail' in Spanish. Trujillo had put them in [protective custody] before they were gonna play us. So they wouldn't 'rouse around. He was gonna have it (167).

With the top down screaming out, "Money ain't a thang..."

Stories of irreverence toward segregation became staples of Negro league lore. Satchel Paige, who loved fast cars and had a tongue as sharp as his fastball, was legendary for getting "one up" on the white man. Double Duty Radcliffe relates that once Paige got a speeding ticket while zooming through a small Kansas town in his new Lincoln. A policeman escorted him to the local judge, who fined him forty dollars and asked if he had anything to say for himself. According to Radcliffe, "Paige pulled eighty dollars from his wallet and said, 'Here you go judge, 'cause I'm coming back tomorrow (132-33).'" 

You are so dumb. You are really dumb...

While playing for the Pittsburgh Crawfords he loaded the bases with Philadelphia Stars. Third baseman Judy Johnson called for the ball, and while rubbing it up, informed Paige that "the fellows were kinda hoping you'd get in this spot." "They did, did they?" questioned Paige. "Yeah they did," answered Johnson. "They said you were such a pop off." Paige fulminated a couple of minutes and then struck out the side on nine pitches. Quickly he walked toward the Stars dugout and boasted, "Now go back to Philadelphia and tell that (99)!"