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Touchline issue 23 | April 2016 | 19
never going to be easy, but Paige did himself no favours
by indulging in some petty crimes as a youth. By getting
arrested for shop-lifting, he was forcibly enrolled in the
Alabama Reform School for Juvenile Negro Lawbreakers
at the age of 13. This school was more like a minimum-
security prison, and he would not be leaving until he
was 18.
This sentence would be the defining event of his life. He
was spotted by coach Moses Davis, who taught him how
to lift his leg high and control his swing. Paige later said
that, “You might say I traded five years of freedom to
learn how to pitch.”
So began a long and meandering journey through
baseball. African-American players were banned
from the Major Leagues, though he did pitch in the
minor leagues. Paige started at the bottom of the
Negro League in 1926, and rose rapidly to the top. His
charisma and talent made him a huge draw for crowds.
He was an epic sledger, always backing his predictions
with devastating accuracy. On more than one occasion,
he drew all of his fielders in, leaving the outfield
completely open. He would then strike the batter out
with his rocket fastballs.
His showboating was legendary. Knowing all eyes were
on him, his walk to the mound was comically slow. He
would sometimes use a windmilling wind up. Famously,
he once allowed two batters in sequence to walk.
Bases fully loaded, he then faced down the opposition’s
best hitter. Stacking the deck against himself, he then
proceeded to strike out the famous big-hitter.
For twenty years, Paige’s career had him criss-crossing
the western hemisphere, thrilling crowds but always
chasing a the next cheque. In order to supplement the
relatively meagre wage he made as an athlete, he would
hold exhibition games. Often teaming up with other
stars of the Negro League, he would play these matches
after sleeping in his car.
In 1937, a touch more colour was added when he joined
a team in Dominican Republic. “Los Dragones” was
owned by the then-dictator of the Central American state,
Raffeal Turjillo. Paige was delighted at the substantial
payday and the 5-star hotels where he and his team-
mates stayed. His time there was typically short-lived,
but strangely, money was not the issue. “Los Dragones”
played each game surrounded by hard-nosed soldiers
who clutched automatic weapons. Apparently provided
by their patron to prevent crowd trouble and protect the
players, Paige got it into his head that they might just kill
him if his performances dropped.
A small fine and ban from the Negro League for
skipping out on his contract didn’t keep Paige out of the
game for long. Soon he shifted down to Mexico, where
he suffered a shoulder injury.
Paige was famous for naming his pitches: there were
“Thoughtful Stuff”, “Long Tom” and “Bat-dodger”. But
they were basically all fastballs. The problem, probably
repetitive strain injury from the tens of thousands of
pitches, was predicted to end his career. It is testimony
to Paige’s determination that he would not only beat
this prognosis, but come out the better for it.
Not having anything close to a nest egg, Paige had to
keep playing. So he developed a battery of trick balls.
One of the most famous was the “Hesitation Pitch”,
which contained a little feint at the top of the arc. Later
deemed illegal, it was just one of a series of balls that
swung, dipped or slowed. Once his fastball returned in
1938, he recognized as the greatest pitcher outside the
majors, and probably better than those within it.
He had to wait almost another decade to pitch in the
majors. A period of relative stability had followed his
recovery, and perhaps his greatest playing days were
had at the Kansas City Monarchs. He finally was making
the money he was worth: in the early 40s, he was
getting 40,000 dollars per year.
At the age of 42, less than a year after the integration of
the majors allowed African-Americans in, Paige signed
for the Cleveland Indians. He would not be the first
black player to sign for a major team, but he would be
the first pitcher.
Paige was not impressed by following Jackie Robinson,
saying, "signing Jackie like they did still hurt me deep
down. I'd been the guy who'd started all that big talk
about letting us in the big time. I’d been the one who'd
opened up the major league parks to colored teams.”
Nineteen-forty-eight was perhaps Paige’s most
memorable year. The Indians won the World Series,
and Paige played a significant role in the six-win series.
There was even talk of him being named rookie of the
year, a dubious honour for a veteran of 20 seasons.
Even Paige couldn’t arrest his slow decline, and after
a miserable 1948, returned to his roaming. Periods
between contracts got longer as he got older, and his
last professional pitch came 1965, when he was 59.
Satchel Paige’s status in sport is not only a result of his
hard work on the field. Paige’s spirit saw him through
the hell of segregation and made him a beacon for
African-Americans. His philosophy can best be seen in
his famous quote: “Don’t look back, something might be
gaining on you.”
By Timothy Mottram