baseball's greatest pitcher ever, was born on July 7, ca. 1906, in Mobile, Alabama. Paige earned his nickname, Satchel, as a young boy carrying bags at railroad stations for passengers. After being convicted of petty theft, he was placed in a black reform school where he began refining his baseball skills. Five years later, the lean long-armed Paige began pitching professionally for several teams in the Negro Southern Association, the Negro American League, and the Negro National League. Paige's pitching prowess drew huge crowds. A natural showman, Paige enjoyed driving from game to game in his Cadillac Convertible. He also owned a bus and several airplanes with Satchel Paige's All-Stars written on the side.
Barred from the major leagues because of his race, Paige showcased his skills by barnstorming across the country, pitching for any team willing to meet his price, and proving his mettle in organized exhibition games against the best players of the day. Many major league teams barred their players from wearing their team uniforms in these games. Despite this, the exhibition games were extremely popular and provided one of the few opportunities for players in the U.S. to compete in integrated games:
I liked playing against Negro League teams, but I loved barnstorming. It gave us a chance to play everybody and go everywhere and let millions of people see what we could do. I just loved it. I'd have played every day of the year if I could."A charismatic young man of enormous talent," Prentice Mills writes in "Satchel Paige: The Great Integrator of American Baseball," his "emergence as a nationally recognized figure called attention to the great reservoir of talent in the Negro Leagues."1 Between 1939 and 1942, Paige's pitching took the Kansas City Monarchs to four consecutive Negro American League Pennants and to another pennant in 1946. On July 19, 1948, Paige followed former Kansas City Monarchs teammate Jackie Robinson into the major leagues when he signed with Bill Veech's Cleveland Indians, becoming the American League's oldest rookie. Robinson had broken the color line in 1947 when he debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Paige went on to pitch for St. Louis and Kansas City. At the age of 59 in 1965, he was the oldest player ever to play in the Major Leagues. Paige was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971.
