201,829 people had come to see his last three starts. Wilkinson offered him the modest opportunity to play, not for the Negro American League Monarchs, but for a second-string barnstorming team called the Travelers, which was now renamed the Satchel Paige All-Stars. American baseball player and coach; Negro Leagues, Cuba, Baltimore, and Cleveland: 1929–1931, Pittsburgh, California, and North Dakota: 1931–1936, National Baseball Hall of Fame, Satchel Paige. The Monarchs won 9–3 and Paige struck out ten. Where is a fire belly toads wildlife environment? 96–97. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. Paige ended the 1948 season with a 6–1 record with a 2.48 ERA, 2 shutouts, 43 strikeouts, 22 walks and 61 base hits allowed in 72​2⁄3 innings. It was decided that all who had been chosen and all who would be chosen would get their plaques in the "regular" section of the Hall of Fame. Coming into the game against the White Sox, Bob Lemon, Gene Bearden and Sam Zoldak had thrown shutouts to run up a 30-inning scoreless streak, eleven shy of the big league record. Wilkinson of the Monarchs. Nervous, Paige walked two of the first three batters and then gave up a triple to Bud Stewart to fall behind 2-0. The season ended with an eight-game series between the two top teams, Paige's Dragones of "Ciudad Trujillo" (as Trujillo had renamed the capital city of Santo Domingo) and the Águilas Cibaeñas of Santiago. David Barry Gray, [141] Paige married Lucy Maria Figueroa during this time while playing in Puerto Rico in 1940 but because he was not divorced from his first wife, the marriage to Figueroa was not legal. Floyd worked with massage, hot and cold water, ointments, and chiropractic. The purpose of the charade was to set up Paige with political credentials. This time, Paige was not invited to tour with him, with Feller opting to play more games in the South against white opponents. In the title game against an overmatched semi-pro team from Borger, Texas, Paige pitched a 7–0 shutout, striking out 18. 158–62; Tye 2009, pp. 51,013 people paid to see the game, but many thousands more stormed the turnstiles and crashed into the park, overwhelming the few dozen ticket-takers. [23] At the end of the season, Tom Wilson arranged with the other NNL owners to assemble an all-star team that would enter the lucrative Denver Post tournament. ), Vol. That had to be some kind of incredible fastball. And the balls I was throwing never would fool anybody in the Negro leagues, not without a fast ball to go with them. I became a fan of the Minnesota Twins after a friendly wager in the early 1980s. Required fields are marked *. Paige was in and out of baseball, pitching sporadically, over the next decade. [84], Because of Paige's strong gate appeal, there was considerable demand by outside teams to lease Paige's services to pitch for a single game. View Satchel Paige's Page at the Baseball Hall of Fame (plaque, photos, videos). Pitching the last three innings, he allowed three runs on five hits and was charged with the loss in the 5–2 game. In his autobiography (Paige and Lipman 1993, pp. In late September, Paige faced a team of Negro league all-stars at the Polo Grounds. 60–61. Understanding that, Paige said in his autobiography that, “Signing Jackie like they did still hurt me deep down. Paige once again returned to his barnstorming days. When Manley rejected his offer, Paige, having learned about an injunction that wouldn’t allow him to play for any other team in New York or New Jersey, went to play in Mexico. Satchel Paige, the best pitcher of all time,* is wonderfully remembered in “Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest Maverick,” a biography of the legendary team owner and promoter by Paul Dickson. The Dragones won the first four, with Paige contributing two of them. Despite an outstanding season, Paige had a strong competitor for best Negro league pitcher of 1934, the 21-year-old Slim Jones of the Philadelphia Stars, who went 22–3 in league games. His major league record was 28-31 with a 3.29 ERA, which might seem pedestrian to some, except that he accomplished those results in his 40s and 50s. Spivey, Donald, "If You Were Only White": The Life of Leroy "Satchel" Paige (University of Missouri Press, 2012), 14-17, Paige, Maybe I'll Pitch Forever, 26; This Is Your Life, Leroy "Satchel" Paige (Ralph Edwards Productions, taped 22 October 1971, aired 22 January 1972). Several same-day multi-city doubleheaders were to be played. Paige was a right-handed pitcher, and at age 42 in 1948, he was the oldest major league rookie while playing for the Cleveland Indians. Vesper Vivianne Ruck, [143] Paige and LaHoma had seven children together; LaHoma also had a daughter from an earlier marriage.[144]. In his early years, Paige was known as a pure fastball pitcher. Stephanie Paisley Biography, Paige ended the 1948 season with a 6-1 record with a 2.48 ERA, 2 shutouts, 43 strikeouts, 22 walks and 61 base hits allowed in 72 2/3 innings. The final, championship game was his third start in five days and he faced the Kansas City Monarchs—at the time an independent, barnstorming team—who were participating in the tournament with a lineup augmented by Negro league stars Turkey Stearnes and Sam Bankhead. [86][87], Paige took over the role of ace pitcher for the Monarchs, while Hilton Smith, their former ace, dropped to number two pitcher and sometimes was relegated to relieving Paige. Are you a Stathead, too? Hogan 2006, p. 308; Tye 2009, pp. To get his arm in shape, Paige spent the winter playing for the Guayama Brujos (later, Caguas-Guayama team) in Puerto Rico where he went 19-3 with a 1.93 ERA and a league high 208 strikeouts. This time, when Veeck left the team, Paige was allowed to stay on, for two more years. In the spring of 1930, Jackson leased him to the Baltimore Black Sox, who had won the 1929 American Negro League championship led by their bowlegged third baseman Jud "Boojum" Wilson. 184–87; Tye 2009, pp. Paige finished the year 12–10 with a 3.07 ERA for a team that lost ninety games.[127]. For the first time since 1927, the champions of the two leagues, Kansas City and Washington/Homestead, met in the Negro World Series. Other claims that would have set marks: 50 no-hitters, 29 starts in a month, 21 straight wins, 62 consecutive scoreless innings, 153 pitching appearances in a year, and three wins the same day. 125–26. Myths and 5 top Cures talked about discs here. And then he'd come up and throw you a change of pace and, oh, man. new topic. Paige, a choice Stein meant more out of sentiment than anything else, was the relief pitcher on his black team. The year 1949 was not nearly as good for Paige as 1948. [85], Hoping for some publicity for Paige, who had received relatively little coverage while pitching in the hinterlands with the Travelers, Wilkinson arranged for Paige to pitch on opening day of 1941 for the New York Black Yankees. The 1934 tournament was Paige's first major exposure in front of the white press.[44]. He managed to go six-plus innings in a game that Paige's team ultimately lost 10–3. Abe and Effa Manley, owners of the Newark Eagles, still claimed that they still held the rights to Paige's Negro league contract, and retaliated against Wilkinson by signing players from Wilkinson's Negro American League. J. L. Wilkinson, owner of the independent Kansas City Monarchs, signed Paige on a game-by-game basis through the end of the season. It made a real man out of me." Miami manager Don Osborn is underwhelmed at the thought of Paige on his team, saying he expects to use him in exhibition play but not regular games. Browns manager Zack Taylor bolted from the dugout to talk to umpire Bill McGowan about the pitch, claiming it was a balk, but McGowan let it stand as a strike. I tried lifting my arm. Matchett pitched the remainder of the game, which the Monarchs won, 9–3, giving them a 3–0 lead in the series. (I’m sure there’s a great biography of Paige as well, but, for the moment, I’ve read the Veeck book, which was published in … [65], In 1938, Greenlee, who still held Paige's NNL contract, again made an unsuccessful attempt to sign Paige. A right-handed pitcher, Paige first played for the semi-professional Mobile Tigers from 1924 to 1926. [138] Paige did most[quantify] of his coaching from his living room in Kansas City, but he did pitch in at least one pre-season exhibition game in April 1969, striking out Don Drysdale. By the end of 1931, the Cubs moved back to Nashville. On September 22, 1939, in the second game of a double-header against the powerful American Giants, Paige won a 1–0 game, striking out 10 men in the seven innings before the game was called on account of darkness. Paige won the four games he started, pitched in relief in a fifth game, and struck out 60 batters—a record that still held 74 years later.