Satchel: The Life and Times of an
American Legend by Larry Tye
Incredible Page-Turner About The Mystical, Magical Satchel Paige
He is that rare American icon who has never been captured in a biography
worthy of him. Now, at last, here is the superbly researched, spellbindingly
told story of athlete, showman, philosopher, and boundary breaker Leroy
“Satchel” Paige.
Few reliable records or news reports survive about players in the Negro
Leagues. Through dogged detective work, award-winning author and
journalist Larry Tye has tracked down the truth about this majestic and
enigmatic pitcher, interviewing more than two hundred Negro Leaguers
and Major Leaguers, talking to family and friends who had never told their
stories before, and retracing Paige’s steps across the continent. Here is
the stirring account of the child born to an Alabama washerwoman with
twelve young mouths to feed, the boy who earned the nickname “Satchel”

from his enterprising work as a railroad porter, the young man who took up
baseball on the streets and in reform school, inventing his trademark
hesitation pitch while throwing bricks at rival gang members.
Tye shows Paige barnstorming across America and growing into the
superstar hurler of the Negro Leagues, a marvel who set records so eye-
popping they seemed like misprints, spent as much money as he made,
and left tickets for “Mrs. Paige” that were picked up by a different woman at
each game. In unprecedented detail, Tye reveals how Paige, hurt and
angry when Jackie Robinson beat him to the Majors, emerged at the age
of forty-two to help propel the Cleveland Indians to the World Series. He
threw his last pitch from a big-league mound at an improbable fifty-nine.
(“Age is a case of mind over matter,” he said. “If you don’t mind, it don’t
matter.”)
More than a fascinating account of a baseball odyssey, Satchel rewrites
our history of the integration of the sport, with Satchel Paige in a starring
role. This is a powerful portrait of an American hero who employed a
shuffling stereotype to disarm critics and racists, floated comical legends
about himself–including about his own age–to deflect inquiry and remain
elusive, and in the process methodically built his own myth. “Don’t look
back,” he famously said. “Something might be gaining on you.” Separating
the truth from the legend, Satchel is a remarkable accomplishment, as
large as this larger-than-life man.
Personal Review: Satchel: The Life and Times of an American
Legend by Larry Tye
With impeccable scholarship and a meticulous understanding of American
history, author Larry Tye delivers a definitive exploration of Satchel Paige
in Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend (June 2009,
Random House).
Delving into the myths, legend and actual facts surrounding arguably the
greatest professional pitcher ever, Tye paints an incredible portrait that
began on July 7, 1906, when Leroy Robert Paige was born in Mobile,
Alabama, and will forever be a part of pop/sports culture, though he
passed away on June 8, 1982, after battling emphysema for a number of
years.
"I ain't ever had a job. I just always played baseball," says Paige, which
adeptly summarizes an amazing career on the diamond at a time when the
only ball was white, through the re-integration of Major League Baseball to
1968, when the Atlanta Braves took a major step to right a wrong that
would have left the superstar who gave so much without a pension.

But before Paige became the iconic ace on the mound, he had early
brushes with truancy, which did not destroy the care and concern from his
mother, Lula Paige. Mentors like Edward Byrd, Alex Herman, Big Bill
Gatewood brought him an understanding in the art of pitching. Paige went
from being released from reform school (1923), to playing semi-pro ball in
Mobile (1924) to signing his first pro contract in 1926.
And it was then that Paige's cunning strategy on the field, quick wit and
unique charm disarmed racists and made him one of the greats in the
various manifestations of the Negro Leagues and barnstorming tours with
MLB (white) players. The tours with Dizzy Dean became huge draws and
fueled the growing fascination of the right-hander who was already larger-
than-life.
"Satchel actually had been challenging Jim Crow ever since he took his
pitching on the road," writes Tye, "and he did that from the beginning. They
called freelance play like that barnstorming, to distinguish it from formal
league games."
Paige was the ultimate free agent, with his services being "rented out" by
his team to other clubs and playing winter ball in the Caribbean. He was
also accused of skipping out on contracts when better offers came his way.
Before he was the "Yankee Clipper," Joe DiMaggio - the Pacific Coast
League's Most Valuable Player - proved he belonged in MLB in February
1936 after facing Paige, who was asked to pitch in the exhibition game by
the New York Yankees. "DIMAGGIO ALL WE HOPED HE'D BE. HIT
SATCH ONE FOR FOUR," is the post-game report from a Yankee scout to
management.
Tye places particular emphasis on the 1930s, which was a decade of great
triumphs and a hideously hard fall from the summit of sports. Franchise
owner Neil Churchill brought Paige to Bismarck, North Dakota, in 1933 and
1935 to play on his integrated club. In one of the greatest pro games ever,
more than 27,000 fans in Yankee Stadium in 1934 watched a spectacular
duel between Paige and Stuart "Slim" Jones. And owner J.L. Wilkinson of
the Kansas City Monarchs removed Paige from the scrap heap in 1938
and 1939 when arm woes appeared to have destroyed his career.
The 1945 re-integration of MLB by Jackie Robinson with the Brooklyn
Dodgers, Paige's July 7, 1948, signing with the Cleveland Indians and
stints with the St. Louis Browns and - in 1965 - Kansas City A's are
packaged well with the 1971 induction into the National Baseball Hall of
Fame & Museum. And upon reflection in the twilight years, Paige tackled
numerous issues surrounding the hateful treatment of NLB players, racism
and the slights he personally felt in any number of venues.
"It happens to lots of leading men as they fade into supporting roles.
Loneliness sets in, along with sadness," Tye writes. "There is more time to

remember all you have achieved and to wonder why others have forgotten.
There are endless hours to tally who stood by you, and who failed to.
Satchel had suffered enough real indignities to keep anyone thinking for a
long time."
The victories and defeats on the field of play by Paige are chronicled in
four pages of pitching statistics. But what Tye proves beyond a shadow of
a doubt is the biggest win of them all came when Jim Crow couldn't get the
bat off its shoulder when Paige fired three blazing fastballs for called
strikes.
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