Satchel Paige
Legendary pitcher who dominated the Negro leagues and made history in MLB at age 42.
When Paige debuted for the Cleveland Indians in 1948, he was 42 years old, which made him the oldest person to debut in any professional sport.[1]
Quick Facts
- Position
- Pitcher
- Born
- 7 July 1906
- Birthplace
- Mobile, Alabama, U.S.
- Died
- 8 June 1982
- Place of death
- Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.
- Debut league
- NgL
- Debut year
- 1927
- Debut team
- Birmingham Black Barons
Facts from the source article.
Life and work
Paige was born Leroy Robert Page in Mobile, Alabama, and his family changed the spelling to Paige in the mid-1920s.[2] The SABR BioProject states his nickname originated when another kid yelled, "You look like a walking satchel tree"[3] At age 12, Paige was sentenced to the Alabama Reform School for Juvenile Negro Law-Breakers for truancy and stealing.[4] The SABR BioProject notes that coach Edward Byrd taught him the fundamentals of pitching there.[3]
The National Baseball Hall of Fame notes that Paige bounced from team to team seeking the best paycheck, often pitching hundreds of games yearly.[5] Paige was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971 as the first electee of the Committee on Negro Baseball Leagues.[5]
What the cited sources add
The SABR BioProject reports that Paige's personal records claimed he pitched in more than 2,500 games and won about 2,000.[3] The National Baseball Hall of Fame notes that Paige said, "Age is a question of mind over matter"[5] The SABR BioProject describes Paige's distinctive pitching pose: left leg held skyward, right arm stretched behind him.[3] The National Baseball Hall of Fame records that Paige's stints with the Pittsburgh Crawfords were interrupted by seasons in North Dakota and the Dominican Republic.[5]
References
- Wikipedia, "Satchel Paige" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Tye 2009, pp. 24–29, 272.; National Baseball Hall of Fame, Satchel Paige Retrieved April 16, 2015 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Satchel Paige" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Tye 2009, pp. 3–4, 6. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "Satchel Paige (SABR BioProject)", Society for American Baseball Research. facts only, no text reused. sabr.org
- Wikipedia, "Satchel Paige" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Satchel Paige (SABR BioProject)", Society for American Baseball Research (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- National Baseball Hall of Fame, Satchel Paige Retrieved April 16, 2015. facts only, no text reused. baseballhall.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Satchel Paige (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
More in Sports Figures
Elsewhere in Historical Figures
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced