In 1971, Paige became the first electee of the Negro League Committee to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. ==Date of birth== While Satchel Paige was playing baseball, many ages and birthdates were reported, ranging from 1900 to 1908.
Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige (July 7, 1906 – June 8, 1982) was an American professional baseball pitcher who played in Negro league baseball and Major League Baseball (MLB).
His actual birthdate, July 7, 1906, was determined in 1948 when Cleveland Indians owner Bill Veeck traveled to Mobile, Alabama, and accompanied Paige's family to the County Health Department to obtain his birth certificate.
In 1971, Paige became the first electee of the Negro League Committee to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. ==Date of birth== While Satchel Paige was playing baseball, many ages and birthdates were reported, ranging from 1900 to 1908.
Paige's Selective Service records show that during the war his draft status evolved from 1-A (available to be drafted) to 2-A ("deferred in support of national health, safety, or interest") to the final 4-A (too old for service, even though when he registered he gave a birth date of 1908, two years younger than his actual birth date).
His tour has been described as "the most ambitious baseball undertaking since John McGraw and Charles Comiskey dreamed up their round-the-world junket in 1913." For his team, Feller recruited all-stars from both major leagues.
It was always baseball, baseball." On July 24, 1918, just 17 days after his 12th birthday, Leroy was sentenced to six years—or until his 18th birthday, whichever came first—at the Alabama Reform School for Juvenile Negro Law-Breakers in Mount Meigs, Alabama.
Lula and her children changed the spelling of their name from Page to Paige in the mid 1920s, just before the start of Satchel's baseball career.
Leroy was released from the institution in December 1923, seven months short of his 18th birthday.
His career spanned five decades and culminated with his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. A right-handed pitcher, Paige first played for the semi-professional Mobile Tigers from 1924 to 1926.
His career spanned five decades and culminated with his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. A right-handed pitcher, Paige first played for the semi-professional Mobile Tigers from 1924 to 1926.
He began his professional baseball career in 1926 with the Chattanooga Black Lookouts of the Negro Southern League and became one of the most famous and successful players from the Negro leagues.
With the fans and his own teammates howling, Paige struck out the final batter, winning the game. ==Negro leagues== ===Chattanooga and Birmingham: 1926–1929=== A former friend from Mobile, Alex Herman, was the player/manager for the Chattanooga White Sox of the minor Negro Southern League.
In 1926 he discovered Paige and offered to pay him $250 per month, of which Paige would collect $50 with the rest going to his mother.
In April 1926, shortly after his arrival, he recorded nine strikeouts over six innings against the Atlanta Black Crackers.
Partway through the 1927 season, Paige's contract was sold to the Birmingham Black Barons of the major Negro National League (NNL).
In his first big game in late June 1927, against the St.
He finished the 1927 season 7–1 with 69 strikeouts and 26 walks in 89 innings. Over the next two seasons, Paige went 12–5 and 10–9 while recording 176 strikeouts in 1929.
For the first time since 1927, the champions of the two leagues, Kansas City and Washington/Homestead, met in the Negro World Series.
He finished the 1927 season 7–1 with 69 strikeouts and 26 walks in 89 innings. Over the next two seasons, Paige went 12–5 and 10–9 while recording 176 strikeouts in 1929.
(Several sources credit his 1929 strikeout total as the all-time single-season record for the Negro leagues, though there is variation among the sources about the exact number of strikeouts.) On April 29 of that season he recorded 17 strikeouts in a game against the Cuban Stars, which exceeded what was then the major league record of 16 held by Noodles Hahn and Rube Waddell.
Jackson would "rent" Paige out to other ball clubs for a game or two to draw a decent crowd, with both Jackson and Paige taking a cut. ===Cuba, Baltimore, and Cleveland: 1929–1931=== Abel Linares offered Paige $100 per game to play winter ball for the Santa Clara team in the Cuban League.
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.
Paige continued to play, and the available statistics show a slip in performance in 1943, with a 6–8 record and a 4.59 run average (his highest average since 1929) reported for the Monarchs.
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.
With the Crawfords playing five future Hall of Famers, many Negro league historians regard the 1930s Crawfords as the greatest team in Negro league history. The next season, Greenlee organized a new Negro National League, which survived for 16 years.
Paige won one and lost one in the series and then returned to Birmingham. By the spring of 1931, the Depression was taking its toll on the Negro leagues, and the Black Barons had temporarily disbanded.
"It didn't hurt my pitching, but it sure didn't do me any good." ===Pittsburgh, California, and North Dakota: 1931–1936=== In June 1931, the Crawford Colored Giants, an independent club owned by Pittsburgh underworld figure Gus Greenlee, made Paige an offer of $250 a month.
He finished the winter with a 6–0 record and 70 strikeouts in 58 innings. In 1932, Greenlee signed Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston and Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe away from Cumberland Posey's Homestead Grays to assemble one of the finest baseball clubs in history.
In 1933, while playing integrated baseball in Bismarck, North Dakota, The Bismarck Tribune reported that Paige used "a tricky delayed delivery with great effectiveness," something that would later become known as Paige's famous "hesitation pitch." The idea came to me in a game, when the guy at bat was all tighted up waiting for my fast ball.
Paige was snubbed by other Negro league players and fans when he was not selected for the first ever East–West All-Star Game. The 1934 season was perhaps the best of Paige's career, as he went 14–2 in league games while allowing 2.16 runs per game, recording 144 strikeouts, and giving up only 26 walks.
In 1934 it was open, for the first time, to black players.
The 1934 tournament was Paige's first major exposure in front of the white press. Paige received his first East–West All Star Game selection in 1934.
27 years after winning the second-ever East-West All-Star Game, Paige was also the winning pitcher of the 1961 East-West Game, the next to last in the series. 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.
I had me a strikeout. In 1934, before a barnstorming match-up, Dizzy Dean was heard on the radio saying that "Satchel Paige has no clue how to throw a curve." In actuality, Paige had been practicing and perfecting his curveball in secret for many years.
During the mid-to-late 1970s he finally slowed down his traveling, making only occasional personal appearances at mostly minor league stadiums and banquets. In 1980, Paige was named vice-president of the Triple-A Springfield Cardinals, although it was mostly an honorary position. Paige was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2001. ==Personal life== On October 26, 1934, Paige married his longtime girlfriend Janet Howard.
Later, when Dean was a sports columnist for the Chicago Tribune, he called Paige "the pitcher with the greatest stuff I ever saw." In the spring of 1935, Greenlee refused Paige's request to raise his $250 per month salary, so Paige decided to return to Bismarck for the same $400 per month and late model used car that he got before.
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. In September, Paige could not return to the NNL because he was banned from the league for the 1935 season for jumping to the Bismarck team.
Buck O'Neil, who had batted against Paige in 1935 and 1936 and faced him again in a game against the parent Monarchs, recalled a dropoff in speed but an improvement in deception.
Wilkinson, owner of the independent Kansas City Monarchs, signed Paige on a game-by-game basis through the end of the season. That winter, a northern California promoter, Johnny Burton, hired Paige to front a team called the "Satchel Paige All-Stars", in a game to be held on February 7, 1936, in Oakland against a white all-star squad.
A Yankee scout watching the game wired the club that day a report that read, "DiMaggio everything we'd hoped he'd be: Hit Satch one for four." In 1936, Paige returned to Pittsburgh where Greenlee acquiesced to Paige's salary demands and gave him a $600-per-month contract, by far the highest in the Negro leagues.
Buck O'Neil, who had batted against Paige in 1935 and 1936 and faced him again in a game against the parent Monarchs, recalled a dropoff in speed but an improvement in deception.
Later in the game, the Negro league team pulled out a win. ===Dominican Republic: 1937=== In the spring of 1937 the Crawfords were training in New Orleans, and Paige was approached by Dr.
Six days later he struck out 18 Nashville Elite Giants, a number that was tied in the white majors by Bob Feller in 1938.
A week later a rematch was held at Yankee Stadium, and this time Paige beat Taylor handily. ===Mexico: 1938=== In 1938, Greenlee, who still held Paige's NNL contract, again made an unsuccessful attempt to sign Paige.
In a legendary game in Guayama, Paige walked off the mound because he saw a ghost standing next to him. A team that featured shortstop Perucho Cepeda and outfielder Tetelo Vargas, the Guayama Witch Doctors were the 1938–39 champions.
I couldn't lift it." He was examined by physicians in Mexico and in the United States; one expert told him that he would never pitch again. ===Kansas City Travelers: 1939=== With his arm injured, Paige suddenly found himself unemployable.
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.
And then he'd come up and throw you a change of pace and, oh, man." ===Puerto Rico: 1939–40=== In just one season, Paige left his mark on Puerto Rican baseball.
He arrived in Puerto Rico in late October, four weeks after the start of the 1939/40 winter season, and joined the Brujos de Guayama (the Guayama Witch Doctors).
In September 1939, they had won the semi-pro baseball "World Series" in Puerto Rico against the Duncan Cementeers.
Paige could throw a variety of curveballs at different speeds and arm angles. In late 1939, after Paige had recovered from the severe arm injury that jeopardized his career, he re-designed his pitching repertoire to take better care of his arm.
Paige helped his team win the league championship playoff series, winning two games against the San Juan Senadores. Puerto Rican pitcher Ramón Bayron recalled, "It took special eyes to see his pitches." Luis Olmo, who later played with the Brooklyn Dodgers, described Paige that winter as "the best I've ever seen." ===Kansas City Monarchs: 1940–1947=== Paige returned to the Travelers for the 1940 season.
Late in the 1940 season, Paige was promoted to the Monarchs.
By the early 1940s, Paige's estimated annual earnings were $40,000, which was four times the pay of the average player on the major league New York Yankees and nearly matched the pay of their top star, Joe DiMaggio. 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.
At his court date, on August 4, 1943, Paige's divorce was finalized with him paying a one time payment of $1,500 plus Howard's $300 attorney's fees. Paige married Lucy Maria Figueroa during his time playing in Puerto Rico in 1940, but because he was not divorced from his first wife, the marriage to Figueroa was not legal. In 1946 or 1947, Paige married LaHoma Jean Brown.
By the early 1940s, Paige's estimated annual earnings were $40,000, which was four times the pay of the average player on the major league New York Yankees and nearly matched the pay of their top star, Joe DiMaggio. 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.
In 1941, the Monarchs won their third consecutive Negro American League championship.
Louis Stars. On August 1, 1941, Paige made his first appearance in the East–West All Star Game in five years, collecting 305,311 votes, 40,000 more than the next highest player, Buck Leonard.
The Grays won 8–1, with Paige striking out seven (including Washington Senators star Cecil Travis) in five innings of work. In the 1942 East-West All-Star Game, Paige entered in the top of the seventh with the score tied 2–2.
Pitching the last three innings, he allowed three runs on five hits and was charged with the loss in the 5–2 game. ====1942 Negro World Series==== The Monarchs won the Negro American League pennant again in 1942.
Paige had pitched in all four official games in the Series (as well as one unofficial one), going 16 innings, striking out 18, and giving up eight hits and six runs. ====1943–1946==== Paige was the West's starting pitcher in the 1943 East-West All-Star Game, played before a record 51,723 fans in Comiskey Park.
Paige continued to play, and the available statistics show a slip in performance in 1943, with a 6–8 record and a 4.59 run average (his highest average since 1929) reported for the Monarchs.
The Monarchs' string of four straight pennants ended, as the Negro American League title was captured by the Birmingham Black Barons in 1943 and 1944 and by the Cleveland Buckeyes in 1945. Before the 1944 East-West All-Star Game—black baseball's most lucrative event—Paige grabbed headlines when he demanded that the owners contribute the receipts to the war relief fund, threatening a player strike if they did not accede.
The owners were able to turn the other players and fans against Paige, however, when they revealed that Paige had received $800 for participating in the 1943 game (in contrast to the $50 paid to the other players) and had demanded an extra cut for the 1944 game as well.
At his court date, on August 4, 1943, Paige's divorce was finalized with him paying a one time payment of $1,500 plus Howard's $300 attorney's fees. Paige married Lucy Maria Figueroa during his time playing in Puerto Rico in 1940, but because he was not divorced from his first wife, the marriage to Figueroa was not legal. In 1946 or 1947, Paige married LaHoma Jean Brown.
The Monarchs' string of four straight pennants ended, as the Negro American League title was captured by the Birmingham Black Barons in 1943 and 1944 and by the Cleveland Buckeyes in 1945. Before the 1944 East-West All-Star Game—black baseball's most lucrative event—Paige grabbed headlines when he demanded that the owners contribute the receipts to the war relief fund, threatening a player strike if they did not accede.
The owners were able to turn the other players and fans against Paige, however, when they revealed that Paige had received $800 for participating in the 1943 game (in contrast to the $50 paid to the other players) and had demanded an extra cut for the 1944 game as well.
Louis Browns, and Chicago White Sox, was watching the game and many years later described it as "the greatest pitchers' battle I have ever seen." Paige and Dean would continue to barnstorm against each other until 1945.
The Monarchs' string of four straight pennants ended, as the Negro American League title was captured by the Birmingham Black Barons in 1943 and 1944 and by the Cleveland Buckeyes in 1945. Before the 1944 East-West All-Star Game—black baseball's most lucrative event—Paige grabbed headlines when he demanded that the owners contribute the receipts to the war relief fund, threatening a player strike if they did not accede.
Paige was removed from the roster and the strike was averted when the owners agreed to raise the player payments (the East's team accepted $200 each, while the West's players agreed to $100). In 1946, many of the Monarchs' players, including Willard Brown, Connie Johnson, Buck O'Neil, Ford Smith, and Ted Strong, returned from military service, and the team led the NAL in both the first and second halves, capturing the league pennant.
O'Neil led the league in batting average, Brown in home runs, Johnson in wins, and Paige in total run average. ====1946 Negro World Series==== The Monarchs faced the Newark Eagles in the 1946 Negro World Series.
With Ford Smith pitching, the Monarchs lost 3–2, and the Eagles claimed the championship. ====Barnstorming with Feller: 1946–1947==== In late 1946, Bob Feller organized the first barnstorming tour to use airplanes to travel from site to site.
As his main opponent, he asked Paige to head a team of Negro league all-stars. Feller's team included 1946 American League batting champion, Mickey Vernon, at first base, Johnny Beradino at second, Phil Rizzuto at shortstop, and Ken Keltner at third.
At his court date, on August 4, 1943, Paige's divorce was finalized with him paying a one time payment of $1,500 plus Howard's $300 attorney's fees. Paige married Lucy Maria Figueroa during his time playing in Puerto Rico in 1940, but because he was not divorced from his first wife, the marriage to Figueroa was not legal. In 1946 or 1947, Paige married LaHoma Jean Brown.
Paige had pitched 42 innings and allowed 18 runs, or 3.86 per nine innings. After the 1947 season, Feller organized another all-star team for a barnstorming tour.
At his court date, on August 4, 1943, Paige's divorce was finalized with him paying a one time payment of $1,500 plus Howard's $300 attorney's fees. Paige married Lucy Maria Figueroa during his time playing in Puerto Rico in 1940, but because he was not divorced from his first wife, the marriage to Figueroa was not legal. In 1946 or 1947, Paige married LaHoma Jean Brown.
On town tours across the United States, Paige would sometimes have his infielders sit down behind him and then routinely strike out the side. At age 42 in 1948, Paige made his major league debut for the Cleveland Indians; to this day, this makes him the oldest debutant in major league history.
Also in 1948, Paige became the first player who had played in the Negro leagues to pitch in the World Series; the Indians won the Series that year.
His actual birthdate, July 7, 1906, was determined in 1948 when Cleveland Indians owner Bill Veeck traveled to Mobile, Alabama, and accompanied Paige's family to the County Health Department to obtain his birth certificate.
He left the game with a 1–0 lead, but Feller's team came back in the late innings to win 2–1. ==Major League Baseball== ===Cleveland Indians=== On July 7, 1948, Cleveland Indians owner Bill Veeck brought Paige in to try out with Indians player-coach Lou Boudreau.
On July 9, 1948, Paige became the oldest man ever to debut in the major leagues, at the age of 42 years and two days.
Larry Doby pinch-hit for Paige the following inning. Paige got his first big league victory on July 15, 1948, the night after he pitched in an exhibition game against the Brooklyn Dodgers in front of 65,000 people in Cleveland's Municipal Stadium.
Harridge did not want me to show up those boys who were young enough to be my sons." On August 3, 1948, with the Indians one game behind the Athletics, Boudreau started Paige against the Washington Senators in Cleveland.
Paige went the distance, shutting out the White Sox, 5–0, debunking the assumption that nine innings of pitching was now beyond his capabilities. The Indians were in a heated pennant race on August 20, 1948.
He made one appearance in the 1948 World Series.
The Indians won the series in six games. 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 innings.
The year 1949 was not nearly as good for Paige as 1948.
The year 1949 was not nearly as good for Paige as 1948.
Louis Browns from 1951 to 1953, representing the team in the All-Star Game in 1952 and 1953.
In his first game back in the major leagues, on July 18, 1951, against the Washington Senators, Paige pitched six innings of shutout baseball until the seventh when he gave up three runs.
Louis Browns from 1951 to 1953, representing the team in the All-Star Game in 1952 and 1953.
He ended the season with a 3–4 record and a 4.79 ERA. In 1952, Rogers Hornsby took over as manager of the Browns, and despite past accusations of racism, Hornsby was less hesitant to use Paige than Boudreau was four years before.
Louis Browns from 1951 to 1953, representing the team in the All-Star Game in 1952 and 1953.
Paige finished the year 12–10 with a 3.07 ERA for a team that lost ninety games. Stengel kept his word and named Paige to the 1953 All-Star team despite Paige not having a very good year.
Then, on August 14, 1955, Paige signed a contract with the Greensboro Patriots of the Carolina League. Veeck once again came to Paige's rescue when, after taking control of the Phillies' Triple-A farm team, the Miami Marlins of the International League, he signed Paige to a contract for $15,000 and a percentage of the gate.
This time, when Veeck left the team, Paige was allowed to stay on, for two more years. In 1957, the Marlins finished in sixth place, but Paige had a 10–8 record with 76 strikeouts versus 11 walks and 2.42 ERA.
Pitching this way allowed Paige to be a highly effective pitcher, even into his fifties. ==Post-playing career== After the 1957 season, Paige went to the Mexican state of Durango to appear in a United Artists movie, The Wonderful Country, starring Robert Mitchum and Julie London.
Paige's birth certificate is displayed in his autobiography. In 1959, Paige's mother told a reporter that he was 55 rather than 53, saying she knew this because she wrote it down in her Bible.
The following year, Paige finished 10–10, saying that he would not return to Miami in 1959.
In 1959, Paige returned to his barnstorm roots and signed a pitching contract with the Havana Cuban Stars who were owned by Dempsey Hovland.
Tobe Sutton, a hard-bitten cavalry sergeant of the Buffalo Soldiers. Late in 1960, Paige began collaborating with writer David Lipman on his autobiography, which was published by Doubleday in April 1962, and ran to three printings. In 1968, Paige assumed the position of deputy sheriff in Jackson County, Missouri, with the understanding that he need not bother to actually come to work in the sheriff's office.
27 years after winning the second-ever East-West All-Star Game, Paige was also the winning pitcher of the 1961 East-West Game, the next to last in the series. 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.
Paige was in and out of baseball, pitching sporadically, over the next decade. At the age of 55, in 1961, Paige signed on with the Triple-A Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League, pitching 25 innings, striking out 19 and giving up eight earned runs.
Tobe Sutton, a hard-bitten cavalry sergeant of the Buffalo Soldiers. Late in 1960, Paige began collaborating with writer David Lipman on his autobiography, which was published by Doubleday in April 1962, and ran to three printings. In 1968, Paige assumed the position of deputy sheriff in Jackson County, Missouri, with the understanding that he need not bother to actually come to work in the sheriff's office.
The film was based on the 1962 book, Maybe I'll Pitch Forever.
He failed to record a single decision in his stint with the Beavers. ===Kansas City Athletics=== In 1965, Kansas City Athletics owner Charles O.
He played his last professional game on June 21, 1966, for the Peninsula Grays of the Carolina League, two weeks shy of 60.
In the wake of Ted Williams' 1966 Hall of Fame induction speech urging the induction of Negro leaguers, and on the recommendation of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, Kuhn empowered a ten-man committee to sift through hundreds of names and nominate the first group of four Negro league players to go to the Hall of Fame.
Because Paige pitched in Greensboro in 1966, he would not have been eligible for enshrinement until 1971, as players have to be out of professional baseball for at least five years before they can be elected.
Tobe Sutton, a hard-bitten cavalry sergeant of the Buffalo Soldiers. Late in 1960, Paige began collaborating with writer David Lipman on his autobiography, which was published by Doubleday in April 1962, and ran to three printings. In 1968, Paige assumed the position of deputy sheriff in Jackson County, Missouri, with the understanding that he need not bother to actually come to work in the sheriff's office.
Jordan defeated Paige by the margin of 1,870 votes to 382 (83%–17%). In August 1968, the owner of the Atlanta Braves, William Bartholomay, signed Paige to a contract running through the 1969 season as a pitching coach/pitcher, although it was mainly done so that Paige could gain service time to receive a major league pension.
Jordan defeated Paige by the margin of 1,870 votes to 382 (83%–17%). In August 1968, the owner of the Atlanta Braves, William Bartholomay, signed Paige to a contract running through the 1969 season as a pitching coach/pitcher, although it was mainly done so that Paige could gain service time to receive a major league pension.
Paige did most 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. Bowie Kuhn replaced William Eckert as the Commissioner of Baseball in 1969.
During the mid-to-late 1970s he finally slowed down his traveling, making only occasional personal appearances at mostly minor league stadiums and banquets. In 1980, Paige was named vice-president of the Triple-A Springfield Cardinals, although it was mostly an honorary position. Paige was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2001. ==Personal life== On October 26, 1934, Paige married his longtime girlfriend Janet Howard.
In 1971, Paige became the first electee of the Negro League Committee to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. ==Date of birth== While Satchel Paige was playing baseball, many ages and birthdates were reported, ranging from 1900 to 1908.
Because Paige pitched in Greensboro in 1966, he would not have been eligible for enshrinement until 1971, as players have to be out of professional baseball for at least five years before they can be elected.
On February 9, 1971, Kuhn announced that Paige would be the first member of the Negro wing of the Hall of Fame.
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. Paige took a job with the Tulsa Oilers minor league team in 1973 as their pitching coach.
And he also threw hundreds and hundreds of innings. In an article in Esquire magazine in 1976, sportswriter Harry Stein published an article called the "All Time All-Star Argument Starter", a list of five ethnic baseball teams.
During the mid-to-late 1970s he finally slowed down his traveling, making only occasional personal appearances at mostly minor league stadiums and banquets. In 1980, Paige was named vice-president of the Triple-A Springfield Cardinals, although it was mostly an honorary position. Paige was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2001. ==Personal life== On October 26, 1934, Paige married his longtime girlfriend Janet Howard.
Paige, a choice Stein meant more out of sentiment than anything else, was the relief pitcher on his black team. On May 31, 1981, the made-for-television movie Don't Look Back aired, starring Louis Gossett Jr.
Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige (July 7, 1906 – June 8, 1982) was an American professional baseball pitcher who played in Negro league baseball and Major League Baseball (MLB).
Paige and LaHoma had seven children together; LaHoma also had a daughter from an earlier marriage. ==Death== Paige died of a heart attack after a power failure at his home in Kansas City on June 8, 1982.
During the mid-to-late 1970s he finally slowed down his traveling, making only occasional personal appearances at mostly minor league stadiums and banquets. In 1980, Paige was named vice-president of the Triple-A Springfield Cardinals, although it was mostly an honorary position. Paige was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2001. ==Personal life== On October 26, 1934, Paige married his longtime girlfriend Janet Howard.
He is buried on Paige Island in the Forest Hill Memorial Park Cemetery in Kansas City. ==Legacy== In 2010, sportswriter Joe Posnanski, writing for Sports Illustrated, named Paige as the hardest thrower in the history of baseball.
All text is taken from Wikipedia. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License .
Page generated on 2021-08-05