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At the baseball-ancient age of 42, Satchel Paige achieved his goal of pitching in the majors.
It came at a crucial juncture.
The Cleveland Indians were in the thick of the 1948 American League pennant race and needed their old rookie to win.
When he and those '48 Indians were done, they were champions of the world.
Paige (1906-82) was that rare baseball player who, in a sport defined by statistics, transcended them. He spent most of his career in the Negro Leagues and other pro loops when record keeping was often incomplete.
What speaks louder than his stats was what sluggers said about facing Paige in exhibition games while baseball was segregated.
Cheers
"Satch was the greatest pitcher in baseball," said Red Sox hitting machine Ted Williams, as quoted in "Satchel Sez" by David Sterry and Arielle Eckstut.
Paige's Keys
First Negro League pitcher elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, in 1971.
Overcame: Impoverished beginnings and segregation in baseball.
Lesson: Keep a great attitude while continuing to pursue what you want.
"You have to believe in yourself. When you believe, you do."
The Yankee Clipper, Joe DiMaggio, said Paige was "the best and fastest pitcher I've ever faced."
Bob "Rapid Robert" Feller, who with Ol' Satch armed the '48 Indians, said "Paige was the best pitcher I ever saw."
Paige stands out as a colorful, American icon, but when it came to pitching, he had a serious message. "I ain't no clown," he said, as quoted by Larry Tye in "Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend." "I ain't no end man in no vaudeville show. ... I'm a baseball pitcher, and winning baseball games is serious business."
Paige helped pave the way for Jackie Robinson's integration into Major League Baseball in 1947, and in July of the next year he signed with Bill Veeck's Indians.
Paige won six critical games down the stretch for Cleveland, while fans flocked to see the old Negro League legend. He finished the regular season with a 6-1 record and 2.48 earned run average, with two shutouts and a save.
The Indians won the American League pennant and beat the Boston Braves in the World Series, where Paige pitched a scoreless two-thirds of an inning.
"Paige seemed to embrace big moments and enjoyed the spotlight," said Raymond Doswell, vice president of curatorial service at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo. "He was charismatic and entertaining, confident in his abilities. Confidence made him unafraid of failure."
Despite his grand feats in the Negro Leagues and barnstorming against the best white players, Paige felt pitching in the majors was his real test, "a pressure situation that would give him the chance to ... prove that he was truly one of the best," Norman Macht wrote in "Satchel Paige."
Paige's career spanned five decades. SatchelPaige.com states that some called him the greatest pitcher in Negro Leagues history after such feats as 64 straight scoreless innings and 21 straight wins.
Some of the most accurate records that Tye cites show Paige going 103-61 in the Negro Leagues, 56-7 in the California Winter League, 35-2 in the North Dakota League and 23-11 in the Latin Leagues. In the minor leagues, Paige went 31-22 for the Miami Marlins from 1956 to 1958, when he reached the age of 52. "Age is a case of mind over matter," Paige said. "If you don't mind, it don't matter."
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