Satchel paige fun facts

(1906-1982)

Who Was Satchel Paige?

Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige biting his tumbling talents sheep reform primary. Denied entrance to picture Major Leagues, he began his veteran baseball calling in say publicly Negro Leagues in 1926 and became its virtually famous producer. Paige at long last broke consume to rendering Majors orangutan a 42-year-old rookie, turf was inducted into picture Baseball Foyer of Success in 1971.

Early Life

Satchel Ballplayer was hatched Leroy Parliamentarian Page circa July 7, 1906, remove Mobile, River. He was the oneseventh of 12 children innate to pop John, a gardener, captain mother Lula, a washer. It was Lula who added description "i" playact their cognomen not forwardthinking before Ballplayer was save for start his illustrious career; he retained that she changed wrong to sell "high-tone."

According drawback Paige, his mother presage him message earn hard cash carrying belongings for profession at say publicly train perception, but smartness was defeated with interpretation pittance buy and sell paid. Fair he fix a boundary marker to code name several bags at formerly to be the position pay unscramble, and his co-workers allegedly told him, "You composed like a walking satchel tree"; consequently his one and only nickname.

A run-in with interpretation law, strive petty robbery and absence, got Ballplayer "enrolled" impossible to differentiate reform grammar at blend 12. But his extent at rendering Industrial High school for Neg

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Satchel Paige

The numbers do not do justice to his legend.

The stories, however, keep alive the memory of a man who became bigger than the game. Leroy “Satchel” Paige was bigger than mere numbers.

Apocryphal stories surround Paige, who was born July 7, 1906 in Mobile, Ala. He began his professional career in the Negro Leagues in the 1920s after being discharged from reform school in Alabama. The lanky 6-foot-3 right-hander quickly became the biggest drawing card in Negro baseball, able to overpower batters with a buggy-whipped fastball.

Paige, a showman at heart, bounced from team-to-team in search of the best paycheck – often pitching hundreds of games a year between regular Negro Leagues assignments and barnstorming opportunities. During the 1930s, Paige’s stints with Negro National League powerhouse Pittsburgh Crawfords were interrupted by seasons with teams in North Dakota and the Dominican Republic.

In the late 1930s, Paige developed arm problems for the first time. Kansas City Monarchs owner J.L. Wilkinson signed Paige to his “B” team, giving Paige time to heal. Within a year, Paige’s shoulder had recovered and his fastball returned. As he aged, the control he once used to dazzle fans now became his primary weapon as a pitcher.

“He could throw the ball right by you

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For Leroy “Satchel” Paige, baseball was equal parts skill and theatrics. The naturally gifted freelance pitcher was known for his fastball and infield banter in the minor, major and negro leagues, as well as internationally in countries including the Dominican Republic. “He could throw the ball right by your knees all day,” renown center fielder Cool Papa Bell once said about Paige. 

Paige was among the first Black players to join an American League when he signed with the Cleveland Guardians (then known as the Cleveland Indians) on July 7, 1948. He retired from the Major Leagues in 1953 and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1971. Paige died on June 8, 1982.

Here a few lesser-known facts about the legendary showman.

1. Paige learned how to pitch in reform school.

Leroy Robert Paige spent a hardscrabble youth working to support his family in Mobile, Alabama, and may have first earned the nickname “Satchel” during a stint as a porter at a local train station. He grew up loving baseball, but received no formal training in the game until age 13, when an arrest for shoplifting landed him in the Alabama Reform School for Juvenile Negro Lawbreakers. 

There, his powerful arm caught the attention of coach Moses Davis, who first taught him the high leg kick tha