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78-655: In 1926 the team purchased the contract of Satchel Paige from the semi-pro Mobile Tigers . On May 1, 1926, Paige made his Negro minor league debut. When Satchel Paige joined the team they were called the Chattanooga White Sox . This article about a baseball team in Tennessee is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Negro league baseball team article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Satchel Paige Leroy Robert " Satchel " Paige (July 7, 1906 – June 8, 1982)

156-431: A "Near Riot." Paige improved and matured as a pitcher with help from his teammates, Sam Streeter and Harry Salmon, and his manager, Bill Gatewood . He finished the 1927 season 7–1 with 69 strikeouts and 26 walks in 89 1 ⁄ 3 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

234-490: A "squeezed lemon." Paige returned to his hotel room. He recalled that the next morning, "My stomach got sick with the pain that shot up my right arm. Sweat popped out all over me. The pain wouldn't quit. I tried lifting my arm. I couldn't. I just sat there, sweating, hurting enough to want to cry, getting sicker in the stomach and getting scared—real scared. My arm. I couldn't lift it." He was examined by physicians in Mexico and in

312-565: A $ 600-per-month contract, by far the highest in the Negro leagues. In games for which complete box scores are available, Paige went 5–0, allowed 3.21 runs per game, and struck out 47 in 47 2 ⁄ 3 innings. 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. The team included Paige, Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, Leroy Matlock, Buck Leonard, Felton Snow , Bill Wright and Sammy Hughes . They swept

390-578: A Negro all-star team organized by Tom Wilson, called the Philadelphia Giants, to play in the California Winter League . This was the first of nine winters that he played in a league that provided ongoing competition between elite black and white baseball players, including major and minor league players. On October 24 Paige won his first California game 8–1, allowing five hits and striking out 11, including Babe Herman four times. He finished

468-606: A game or two to draw a decent crowd, with both Jackson and Paige taking a cut. Abel Linares offered Paige $ 100 per game to play winter ball for the Santa Clara team in the Cuban League . Gambling on baseball games in Cuba was such a huge pastime that players were not allowed to drink alcohol, so they could stay ready to play. Paige—homesick for carousing, hating the food, despising the constant inspections and being thoroughly baffled by

546-710: A half-season with the Cleveland Indians. Each pitched three innings and gave up one hit, with Feller striking out eight and Paige seven. Later in the game, the Negro league team pulled out a win. In the spring of 1937 the Crawfords were training in New Orleans , and Paige was approached by Dr. José Enrique Aybar, dean of the University of Santo Domingo , deputy of the Dominican Republic 's national congress and director of

624-496: A hundred miles an hour. But now he's throwin' maybe ninety—which is still more than the average guy ... He was the best and, actually, he was so deceptive! You'd look at that big ol' slow arm movin' and— chooo —that ball's just right by you. And then he'd come up and throw you a change of pace and, oh, man." In just one season, Paige left his mark on Puerto Rican baseball . He arrived in Puerto Rico in late October, four weeks after

702-593: A lob, Paige "threw that baseball so hard that he knocked the mitt off my hand." Modern sports medicine specialists suggest that Paige suffered from a partially torn rotator cuff in his shoulder caused by repetitive stress. Paige's recovery was assisted by the Monarch's long-time trainer, Frank "Jewbaby" Floyd, who was sent by Wilkinson to work with Paige. Floyd worked with massage, hot and cold water, ointments, and chiropractic . He had Paige rest his arm by pitching fewer innings and playing other positions. By late fall his team

780-496: A new Negro National League , which survived for 16 years. Despite Greenlee's efforts to control his biggest star, Paige followed his own schedule and was often late to games that he was scheduled to pitch. In August, he jumped the Crawfords, accepting an offer from Neil Churchill 's North Dakota semi-pro team, the Bismarcks (sometimes known as the "Bismarck Churchills" today), of $ 400 and a late model car for just one month's work. It

858-406: A page in a book," whereas Paige explained, "My folks started out by spelling their name 'Page' and later stuck in the 'i' to make themselves sound more high-tone." The introduction of the new spelling coincided with the death of Paige's father, and may have suggested a desire for a new start. According to Paige, his nickname originated from childhood work toting bags at the train station. He said he

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936-722: A second-string barnstorming team called the Travelers, which was now renamed the Satchel Paige All-Stars. Paige would pitch when he could and play first base when he could not. Managed by Newt Joseph , the team also included Byron "Mex" Johnson , but otherwise it mostly functioned as a minor-league team staffed by marginal, aging, or young players. Playing throughout Kansas, Missouri, the Dakotas, Illinois, and even Utah, large crowds turned out to see Paige throw an inning or two, relying on junkballs. Paige recalled, "Everybody'd heard I

1014-571: Is a juvenile corrections facility of the Alabama Department of Youth Services located in the Mount Meigs community, and in the city of Montgomery, Alabama ; the campus serves as the agency's administrative headquarters. The 780-acre (320 ha) campus, which can house 264 boys, is next to Interstate 85 North and about 15 miles (24 km) east of Downtown Montgomery . Since 2015, the separate J. Walter Wood Treatment facility for 24 girls

1092-725: Is also located in the Mount Meigs Campus. In 1888, Cornelia Bowen was recommended by Booker T. Washington to establish a school for boys and girls in Mount Meigs area. Cornelia Bowen graduated from the Tuskegee Institute in 1885, a member of the first graduating class, and led the Mount Meigs Colored Institute until her death in 1934. In 1908, the State Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, of which Bowen

1170-621: The Alabama Reform School for Juvenile Negro Law-Breakers in Mount Meigs, Alabama , owing to his truancy in school along with his tendency to steal. The person who taught Paige to pitch while in reform school was the Reverend Moses Davis. It was Davis, who was also a trustee of the school, who devoted the long hours coaching the boys in baseball, and it was he who struck the deal with the sporting-goods store in Montgomery to secure

1248-576: The Brooklyn Dodgers , described Paige that winter as "the best I've ever seen." Paige returned to the Travelers for the 1940 season. 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. In late June, the NNL and NAL leaders met to discuss

1326-583: The California Winter League , Paige faced Dean in front of 18,000 fans in Los Angeles, with Dean's team including major league stars like Wally Berger . The two teams battled for 13 innings, with Paige's team finally winning 1–0. Bill Veeck, future owner of the Cleveland Indians, St. 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. Later, when Dean

1404-601: The Crawford Colored Giants , an independent club owned by Pittsburgh underworld figure Gus Greenlee , made Paige an offer of $ 250 a month. On August 6, Paige made his Crawford debut against their hometown rivals, the Homestead Grays . Entering the game in the fourth inning, Paige held the Grays scoreless and had six strikeouts and no walks in five innings of relief work to get the win. In September, Paige joined

1482-577: The Dragones , a baseball team operated by Rafael Trujillo , dictator of the Dominican Republic. Aybar hired Paige to act as an agent for Trujillo in recruiting other Negro league players to play for "Los Dragones." Aybar gave Paige $ 30,000 to hire as many players as he could. Paige recruited five of his Crawfords teammates—Cool Papa Bell, Leroy Matlock, Sam Bankhead , Harry Williams and Herman Andrews—as well as Josh Gibson, who had recently been traded to

1560-572: The Hampton Institute Camera Club , known for its illustrations of Paul Laurence Dunbar 's poetry, staged a photo sale for the benefit of the Mt. Meigs school. The sale raised funds for four five-dollar scholarships for day students. A Hampton graduate managed the Mt. Meigs school, which was considered "an outgrowth" of Hampton. Famous residents included baseball legend Leroy Satchel Paige , from 1918 to 1923. Earlier in its life, its capacity

1638-490: 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 . Paige faced Chet Brewer before a crowd of 11,120. Paige won the pitchers' duel 2–1, striking out 12 Monarchs for a tournament total of 44 strikeouts in 28 innings. The 1934 tournament was Paige's first major exposure in front of

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1716-678: The Negro Southern League and became one of the most famous and successful players from the Negro leagues. 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 debut for the Cleveland Indians ; to this day, this makes him the oldest debutant in National League or American League history. Additionally, Paige

1794-594: The Newark Eagles for $ 5,000, but they could not sign him either. Paige instead went to play in the Mexican League . Jorge Pasquel , a Mexican baseball executive and businessman, and his four brothers wanted the Mexican League to compete with the major leagues. Their plan to do that was to hire the best Negro league players who were ignored by the big leagues, then raid big league teams and field integrated clubs in

1872-813: The St. Louis Browns from 1951 to 1953, representing the team in the All-Star Game in 1952 and 1953. He played his last professional game on June 21, 1966, for the Peninsula Grays of the Carolina League , two weeks shy of 60. In 1971 , Paige became the first electee of the Negro League Committee to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. While Satchel Paige was playing baseball, many ages and birthdates were reported, ranging from 1900 to 1908. Paige himself

1950-668: The All-Stars won the Denver Post tournament. In late September, Paige faced a team of Negro league all-stars at the Polo Grounds . Despite striking out eight and allowing only two runs, he lost when the opposing pitcher, Johnny "Schoolboy" Taylor, tossed a no-hitter. A week later a rematch was held at Yankee Stadium , and this time Paige beat Taylor handily. In 1938, Greenlee, who still held Paige's NNL contract, again made an unsuccessful attempt to sign Paige. Greenlee then sold his contract to

2028-564: The Bible. Anyway, she was in her nineties when she told the reporter that, and sometimes she tended to forget things." Paige was born Leroy Robert Page to John Page, a gardener, and Lula Page (née Coleman), a domestic worker, in a section of Mobile, Alabama, known as Down the Bay. 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. Lula said, "Page looked too much like

2106-541: The Black Barons, Paige threw hard but was wild and awkward. In his first big game in late June 1927, against the St. Louis Stars , Paige incited a brawl when his fastball hit the hand of St. Louis catcher Mitchell Murray. Murray then charged the mound and Paige raced for the dugout, but Murray flung his bat and struck Paige above the hip. The police were summoned, and the headline of the Birmingham Reporter proclaimed

2184-580: The Guayama Witch Doctors were the 1938–39 champions. In September 1939, they had won the semi-pro baseball "World Series" in Puerto Rico against the Duncan Cementeers. On November 5, Paige pitched a shutout against rival Santurce , which featured player-manager Josh Gibson, by a lopsided score of 23–0. In a December game against Mayagüez , Paige set a league record by striking out 17. He ended

2262-559: The Homestead Grays. Other Dominican teams were also recruiting Negro league players. Greenlee and his fellow owners banned Paige and the other jumpers from the organized Negro leagues, but failed to dissuade the players. In the Dominican Republic, the American players were shadowed by armed guards. Although the purpose of the guards was to protect the players, the players were fearful that Trujillo would unleash them in anger if his team lost

2340-519: The Kansas City Monarchs' ace pitcher. Bismarck swept the tournament in seven straight games. 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. J. L. Wilkinson , owner of

2418-528: The Mount. They were not wasted years at all. It made a real man out of me." After his release, Paige played for several Mobile semi-pro teams. He joined the semi-pro Mobile Tigers , for which his brother Wilson was already pitching. He also pitched for a semi-pro team named the "Down the Bay Boys", and he recalled an incident in the ninth inning of a 1–0 ballgame when his teammates made three consecutive errors, loading

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2496-590: 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 . Six days later he struck out 18 Nashville Elite Giants , a number that was tied in the white majors by Bob Feller in 1938. Due to his increased earning potential, Barons owner R. T. Jackson would "rent" Paige out to other ball clubs for

2574-537: The United States; one expert told him that he would never pitch again. With his arm injured, Paige suddenly found himself unemployable. He looked for work as a manager or coach, but was unsuccessful. One ballclub owner was willing to give him a chance to play ball again—J.L. Wilkinson of the Monarchs. Wilkinson offered him the modest opportunity to play, not for the Negro American League Monarchs, but for

2652-422: The bases for the other team with two outs. Angry, Paige said he stomped around the mound, kicking up dirt. The fans started booing him, so he decided that "somebody was going to have to be showed up for that." He called in his outfielders and had them sit down in the infield. With the fans and his own teammates howling, Paige struck out the final batter, winning the game. A former friend from Mobile, Alex Herman ,

2730-400: The championship. 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 . The Dragones won the first four, with Paige contributing two of them. The Águilas came back to win the next two and still had a chance to win the championship if they won

2808-573: The competition, with a 29–2 record, 321 strikeouts, and only 16 walks. In Wichita, Ray "Hap" Dumont was establishing a new national baseball tournament, the National Baseball Congress . Dumont invited 32 semi-pro teams, paying $ 1,000 for Paige and his Bismarck teammates to attend. The tournament was held at Lawrence–Dumont Stadium in Wichita, Kansas and offered a $ 7,000 purse. Churchill added yet another Negro league star to his team—Chet Brewer,

2886-493: The country. In 1934 it was open, for the first time, to black players. Greenlee leased Paige to the Colored House of David , a prominent barnstorming team of white men who represented a religious commune and wore beards. Their manager was Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander . Paige pitched shutouts in his first two starts, striking out 14 and 18. The final, championship game was his third start in five days and he faced

2964-609: The country. Paige lost the opener to the New York Black Yankees in a pitching duel with Jesse "Mountain" Hubbard, but he got even with them by beating them twice that season, including Paige's first Negro league no-hitter in July. Paige went 10–4, allowing 3.19 runs per game and striking out 92 in 132 2 ⁄ 3 innings. In the midst of the Depression, Cum Posey's new East–West League had collapsed by mid-season, and Greenlee

3042-455: The final two games. In Paige's memoirs, he recalled finishing the game with two shutout innings to hold onto a 6–5 win while soldiers looked on "like a firing squad." In reality, however, Paige did not enter the game until there was one out in the ninth inning, with his team leading 8–3. He proceeded to give up three runs on three hits before he got the third out on a great throw by Bankhead. Paige had an excellent season overall, however, leading

3120-410: 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. On July 4, Paige threw his second no-hitter, this time against the Homestead Grays. He struck out 17, and only a first-inning walk to future Hall of Famer Buck Leonard and an error in

3198-438: The first pitch, then went to third on a wild pitch. DiMaggio then hit a hard hopper to the mound that Paige deflected; DiMaggio beat the second baseman's throw to drive in the winning run. 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

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3276-491: The fourth inning prevented it from being a perfect game . Leonard, unnerved by the rising swoop of the ball, repeatedly asked the umpire to check the ball for scuffing. When the umpire removed one ball from play, Paige hollered, "You may as well thrown 'em all out 'cause they're all gonna jump like that." The Denver Post conducted an annual baseball tournament (sometimes known as the "Little World Series") that attracted semi-pro and independent professional teams from across

3354-640: 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. The opposing team included a number of major league players out of the Bay Area , including Ernie Lombardi , Augie Galan , Cookie Lavagetto , and Gus Suhr , as well as Pacific Coast League star Joe DiMaggio , who

3432-651: The language—went 6–5 in Cuba. He left Cuba abruptly before the end of the season, with several stories told about the circumstances. Paige told one version in which the mayor of a small hamlet asked him, in Spanish, if he had intentionally lost a particular game. Paige, not understanding a word the man said, nodded and smiled, thinking the man was fawning over him, and then had to flee from the furious mayor. Another version, also told by Paige, says that when he called on an attractive local girl at her home, she and her family interpreted his attentions as an official engagement and sent

3510-600: The larger gate when Paige pitched, the Monarchs' owners could also insist on a larger share of the receipts from their road games. Wilkinson and Paige each kept a share of the fees. 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. Alabama Reform School for Juvenile Negro Law-Breakers 32°22′43″N 86°5′5″W  /  32.37861°N 86.08472°W  / 32.37861; -86.08472 The Mount Meigs Campus

3588-455: The league with an 8–2 record. Paige and the other players returning from the Dominican Republic faced a Negro league ban for jumping their teams. In response, they formed a barnstorming team called "Trujillo's All-Stars", which was later known as the "Satchel Paige All-Stars." Wilkinson evaded the ban by having promoter Ray Dean schedule games between the All-Stars and the House of David . In August,

3666-473: The name of international baseball. With this goal, they hired Paige for $ 2,000 per month to play for the moribund Club Agrario of Mexico City , to create a rivalry for Club Azules of Veracruz , a powerhouse bunch led by Martín Dihigo . Back in the states, Greenlee, out $ 5,000, declared Paige "banned forever from baseball." Pitching in Venezuela, Paige felt pain in his right shoulder. After he arrived in Mexico,

3744-418: The pain developed into the first major injury of his career. He tried to pitch through the pain, and managed to beat Dihigo in their first match-up in early September, allowing one run in eight innings. Two weeks later they faced off again, and this time Paige could barely lift his arm. He managed to go six-plus innings in a game that Paige's team ultimately lost 10–3. One sportswriter wrote that Paige looked like

3822-511: The police to enforce it, leading Paige to flee the island with police in pursuit. A third version, told by the general manager of the Santa Clara Leopards, says that he left Cuba in haste after legal charges were brought against him regarding an amorous incident with "a young lady from the provincial mulatto bourgeoisie." When Paige returned to the United States, he and Jackson revived their practice of renting him out to various teams. In

3900-700: The rest of the summer, going 7–4. In September he was leased to the Chicago American Giants of the NNL for a home-and-home series with the Houston Black Buffaloes of the Texas–Oklahoma League. 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. Few teams could afford Paige, but Tom Wilson, who

3978-477: The season with a 19–3 record, a 1.93 ERA , and 208 strikeouts in 205 innings. The 19 wins and 208 strikeouts set league single-season records that have never been broken. 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

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4056-432: The second game featuring a faceoff between Paige and Jones. Paige recalled driving all night from Pittsburgh and parking near the stadium, then falling asleep in the car. A batboy found and woke him, and he got into uniform just in time for his scheduled start. In a game that was sometimes described as the greatest game in Negro league history, Paige and Jones battled to a 1–1 tie that was called because of darkness. A rematch

4134-478: 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. In September, a four-team charity benefit doubleheader was played at Yankee Stadium , with

4212-601: The situation and reached an agreement that allowed Paige to advance to the Kansas City Monarchs and let the Manleys keep the players they had recruited in violation of the inter-league rules. Late in the 1940 season, Paige was promoted to the Monarchs. On September 12, Paige made his debut with the Monarchs against the American Giants and pitched a five-inning darkness-shortened complete game. The Monarchs won 9–3 and Paige struck out ten. Because of Paige's strong gate appeal, there

4290-594: 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, as a Southerner, found that he was an outsider on the Black Sox, and his teammates considered him a hick. Moreover, he was the team's number two pitcher behind Laymon Yokely , and Paige did not like being overshadowed. In midsummer Paige returned to Birmingham, where he pitched well

4368-563: The start of the 1939–40 winter season, and joined the Brujos de Guayama (the Guayama Witch Doctors). The town of Guayama is widely known for its Santería , Palo , and other spiritualist religious practices. 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 ,

4446-473: The team's first uniforms. Davis was African American, as was the entire teaching staff at Mount Meigs, including the school's founder, Cornelia Bowen, a graduate of Tuskegee Institute . Paige was released from the institution in December 1923, seven months short of his 18th birthday. He summed up his years of incarceration: "I traded five years of freedom to learn how to pitch. At least I started my real learning on

4524-416: The tournament in seven games to win the $ 5,000 prize, with Paige winning three of them. In the title game against an overmatched semi-pro team from Borger, Texas , Paige pitched a 7–0 shutout, striking out 18. The Negro league all-stars then barnstormed, playing a series against a team of major leaguers led by Rogers Hornsby . One match-up featured Paige facing the 17-year-old Bob Feller, who had just finished

4602-474: The white press. Paige received his first East–West All Star Game selection in 1934. Playing for the East, Paige came in during the sixth inning with a man on second and the score tied 0–0, and proceeded to strike out Alec Radcliffe and retire Turkey Stearnes and Mule Suttles on soft fly balls. The East scored one run in the top of the eighth and Paige held the West scoreless the rest of the way, giving him his first All-Star Game victory. 27 years after winning

4680-423: 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. Paige took the mound when the Crawfords opened the season on April 30 in their newly built stadium, Greenlee Field , the first completely black-owned stadium in

4758-401: Was 312 boys. There was controversy, in April 2008, when parent Glenn Herrmann said authorities surrounded his Randolph County home and accused him of helping his son break free at the Mount Meigs Campus. In 2012, the infamous Chalkville Campus facility for girls aged 12 to 18 was destroyed by a tornado and in 2015 the new J. Walter Wood Treatment facility for them was inaugurated at

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4836-402: Was 59 years old when he played his last major league game, which is also a record that stands to this day. Paige was the first black pitcher to play in the American League and was the seventh black player to play in Major League Baseball. 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. He played with

4914-416: Was Paige's first experience playing with an integrated team in the United States. He helped Bismarck beat their local rivals in Jamestown , who were also featuring a Negro league ace pitcher, Barney Brown. Paige was unapologetic when he returned to Pittsburgh in September to help the Crawfords win the second-half championship. Paige was snubbed by other Negro league players and fans when he was not selected for

4992-618: Was a fastballer and here I was throwing Alley Oops and bloopers and underhand and sidearm and any way I could to get the ball up to the plate and get it over, maybe even for a strike. But even that made my arm ache like a tooth was busting every time I threw. And the balls I was throwing never would fool anybody in the Negro leagues, not without a fast ball to go with them." Sometime that summer Paige's fast ball returned. Paige's catcher, Frazier "Slow" Robinson, recalled that one afternoon Paige told him, "You better be ready because I'm ready today." Paige then surprised him when, with Robinson expecting

5070-509: 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. Churchill added other Negro league players to the team—pitchers Barney Morris , and Hilton Smith , catcher Quincy Trouppe , and pitcher/catcher Double Duty Radcliffe. Paige dominated

5148-476: Was able to obtain many of the best players in black baseball. By the end of the season, Greenlee had signed to contracts Cool Papa Bell , John Henry Russell , Leroy Matlock , Jake Stephens , "Boojum" Wilson, Jimmie Crutchfield , Ted Page , Judy Johnson , and Rap Dixon . 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

5226-428: Was an American professional baseball pitcher who played in Negro league baseball and Major League Baseball (MLB). 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

5304-426: Was considerable demand by outside teams to lease Paige's services to pitch for a single game. With infrequent league games, Wilkinson booked Paige to pitch for small-town teams or other Negro league teams at rates ranging from a third of the total receipts to a fixed fee $ 250 to $ 2,000 per game, plus expenses. Wilkinson purchased a Douglas DC-3 airplane just to ferry Paige around to these outside appearances. Because of

5382-468: Was making his last stop as a minor leaguer before joining the New York Yankees . Other than Negro league catcher, Ebel Brooks, Paige's team was composed of local semi-pro players. Despite the imbalance in talent, Paige kept the game to a 1–1 tie through nine innings, striking out 12 and giving up one run on three hits. In the bottom of the tenth inning, he struck out two more, then gave up a single to Dick Bartell , bringing up DiMaggio. Bartell stole second on

5460-400: Was moving the Nashville Elite Giants to Cleveland as the Cleveland Cubs , thought he could. Playing in the same city as a white major league team, Paige recalled, "I'd look over at the Cleveland Indians' stadium, called League Park ... All season long it burned me, playing there in the shadow of that stadium. "It didn't hurt my pitching, but it sure didn't do me any good." In June 1931,

5538-422: Was not making enough money at a dime a bag, so he used a pole and rope to build a contraption that allowed him to cart up to four bags at once. Another kid supposedly yelled, "You look like a walking satchel tree." A different story was told by boyhood friend and neighbor Wilber Hines, who said he gave Paige the nickname after he was caught trying to steal a bag. At the age of 10, Paige was playing "top ball", which

5616-561: Was playing well against major Negro league teams. 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. 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. "He could still throw hard. Not as hard as he had thrown, but you're talkin' about somebody thrown' ninety-eight,

5694-530: Was president, established a second school on the grounds of the institute. After much lobbying of Congress, in 1911, the women were successful in convincing the state to take over the operation of the reformatory. In 1911, the school became the Alabama Reform School for Juvenile Negro Law-Breakers . The name was changed to the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children in 1947, and to the Alabama Industrial School in 1970. On March 27, 1915,

5772-516: Was scheduled, and this time Paige and the Crawfords beat Jones and the Stars 3–1. That fall, Paige faced off against major league star Dizzy Dean , who that season had won 30 regular season games plus two more in the World Series , in several exhibition games. In Cleveland, Paige struck out 13 while beating Dean 4–1, although for that game Dean was playing with a minor league team. Later, while playing in

5850-534: Was special. 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). According to Paige's first memoir, his contract was for $ 450 per month, but in his second he said it was for $ 275. Pitching for

5928-480: 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. He also agreed to pay Lula Paige a $ 200 advance, and she agreed to the contract. The local newspapers—the Chattanooga News and Chattanooga Times —recognized from the beginning that Paige

6006-628: Was the source of many of these dates. 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. 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. Paige wrote in his autobiography, "Seems like Mom's Bible would know, but she ain't ever shown me

6084-445: Was what got him into baseball. "Top ball" was a kids' game that used sticks and bottle caps instead of baseballs and bats to play a variation of the diamond sport. Satchel's mother, Lula, would even comment on how Paige would rather "play baseball than eat. It was always baseball, baseball." On July 24, 1918, just seventeen days after his 12th birthday, Paige was sentenced to six years—or until his 18th birthday, whichever came first—at

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