Never Look Back - Baseball History - Leroy "Satchel" Page

By: Lindsey Williams
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:26:25
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Never Look Back

New Year resolutions come and go -- except for me.

Many years ago – none of your business how many -- I adopted a set of good intentions propounded by the legendary African-American baseball player Leroy Paige.

He was best known as “Satchel” – a nickname he acquired as a young boy carrying luggage for nickels at the Mobile, Ala., train station.

I had the pleasure of interviewing the renowned star when he earned a living barnstorming the country with a back-up team from the old Negro League.

At that time, I was a rookie sportswriter for the Flint (Mich.) Daily Journal and relegated to the least assignments – black baseball players so regarded prior to World War II.

There aren’t many of us old baseball fans around to recount the feats of Satch who may have been the greatest pitcher of all time. My evaluation of Satchel is hard to prove because he played the game before blacks were accepted in the major leagues.

* * *

There were many professional Negro baseball teams in my days of sports writing. Black players were famous in big cities where there was a population of African-Americans large enough to support a team.

In addition to Paige, there was Cool Papa Bell, Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston who often back-flipped to catch a fly ball, Jody Johnson and Pop Lloyd – just to mention a few.

They played for such teams as the St. Louis Stars, East St. Louis Cubs, Chicago American Giants, Kansas City Monarchs, Washington Homestead Grays, Birmingham Black Barons and Pittsburgh Crawfords.

Though not nearly as well paid as their white counterparts -- $60 a month plus eats and lodging was typical – Negro League players played heads-up often-unorthodox baseball. A few stars such as Paige and Gibson drew $125 a week.

After the World Series, pick-up teams of white major league players toured Negro League towns to play exhibition games. In these contests, African-American teams regularly trounced the white stars.

The opportunity to learn new tricks was the principal reason major leaguers went barnstorming in the Negro League.

* * *

Satchel brought the Kansas City Monarchs to Flint to play the leading team of the pro-competent Industrial League. The Monarchs, with Paige on the mound, walloped our local boys -- but with a grace and skill that brought fans to feet many times.

He had an accurate fastball with which he could nip the corners. Opposing batters claimed it disappeared on its way to the plate.

His curve had drop that made grown men cry. It was like rolling a ball off a table.

To show off in exhibition games, Satchel would pitch an inning while seated in a rocking chair on the mound, or call in the outfield to sit behind him while he fanned out the side.

Once Gibson led off the first inning with a single and then razzed Satchel. Irritated, Satchel waved his teammates to the dugout, ignored Gibson who sauntered to third and then struck out the next three batters.

Satchel’s most devastating pitch was the “hesitation.” In some mysterious manner, he could pause in mid-delivery for a millisecond. It was just enough to confound the best batters.

He let me swing against that pitch in the exhibition warm up. I struck out on three throws and quit for the day.

* * *

Breakthrough for blacks aspiring to the major leagues came in 1947. Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson for the old Brooklyn Dodgers. Thereafter, the Negro League faded for lack of good players.

Satchel was signed up by the Cleveland Indians in 1948 as the oldest rookie ever to play major league baseball. He racked up a 6-1 record with a 2.48 ERA that year to help the Indians win the American League pennant.

He pitched one inning in the 1949 World Series won by Cleveland.

Satch retired a couple a couple years, then came back to play a season with the St. Louis Browns. However, the great Paige was then somewhere in his late forties – an old man by baseball standards. He professed not to know his age.

With much of youthful speed gone from his fast ball, he relied on breaking stuff, including the hesitation speech.

He did right well until they outlawed the hesitation. Satch was dropped from the roster but played in the 1952 and 1953 All Star games.

Twelve years later, at the dubious age of 59, Satchel pitched three innings for the Kansas City Athletics to become the oldest player to pitch in a major league game.

Roy Campanella chaired a committee to select some players from the old Negro League for a special section of the Baseball Hall of Fame. The committee concluded two years of work without making any recommendations. It was too difficult to choose from the hundreds of candidates.

Nevertheless, the first African-American to be enshrined at Cooperstown – on the basis of record, not skin color – was Satchel Paige in 1971. He died in 1982.

Sometimes I wonder if he had any regrets that the color barrier was not broken before his prime, instead of in his declining years.

But then I dig out the clipping of that interview of so long ago and re-read the sage advice he gave a young sportswriter for a long and happy life – pearls of wisdom I adopt every January as my road map for the coming year:

1. Avoid fried meats which angry up the blood.

2. If your stomach disputes with you, lie down and pacify it with cool thoughts.

3. Keep the juices flowing by jangling around gently as you go.

4. Go light on the vices, such as carrying on in society. The social ramble ain’t restful.

5. Avoid running at all times.

6. And, finally, the admonition that made Satchel Paige immortal: Never look back. Something may be gaining on you.

January 16, 2000 .

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