Sport: Satchel the Great

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In the midst of a torrid political campaign, some years ago, in a Central American country, Pitcher Leroy ("Satchel") Paige and his barnstorming Negro team arrived in town. One of the candidates, a longtime aficionado of beisbol and Satchel, made his rival a sporting proposition: let the election turn on the game; he would bet on Satchel, and whoever won the bet would win the election. The bet was made. Satchel won in a breeze, but. didn't stick around for thanks: he detected the flash of machetes from the defeated candidate's supporters.

It is characteristic of Satchel Paige, hero and narrator of this tale, that he does not remember when or where the episode took place. He is hazy about his age, his won-lost record, and the number of no-hitters he has pitched. Last week, when the Cleveland Indians signed him up, Paige became the first Negro pitcher in the American League.*

Born, but When? Satchel has been around the game so long that his memory—and his arm—ain't what they used to be. But he still makes the modest claim that he is the "world's greatest pitcher." Satchel† Paige was born in Mobile, Ala., 39, 43 or more probably 45 years ago, son of a landscape gardener and a mother who hated baseball. He was one of a family of nine—or sixteen. This mathematical inexactitude did not trouble Cleveland's President Bill Veeck last week. For all Veeck cared, Satchel might be "two or three decades" older than the next man—as long as he could pitch. Bob Feller had told Veeck that Paige was the relief man the league-leading Indians so desperately needed.

Satchel Paige figures that in 50-odd years he has pitched at least 2,000 games. Record books in the Negro leagues are mostly blank or spotted pages, but even the authenticated feats of the long (6 ft. 3 in.) and languid Satchel are almost as incredible as the legend.

In 1933, Satchel pitched in 42 games, won 31, lost four. In 1936 he pitched (and won) five games in one week. His idolizing Negro fans expect him to play in every game. Satchel once pitched a no-hitter in Pittsburgh, drove all night to Chicago, shut out another team in twelve innings next day. Pitching for the Kansas City Monarchs in the 1942 Negro World Series, Showoff Satchel purposely passed a man to get Catcher Josh Gibson (Negro baseball's Babe Ruth) at bat, then forced him to send up a pop fly.

In exhibitions against white teams, Paige has faced and humbled the best. He struck out Rogers Hornsby five times in one afternoon. Joe DiMaggio nicked Satchel for one slim single in five games (said Joe: "Best pitcher I ever saw"). After dropping a 13-inning, 1-0 pitching duel to Paige, Dizzy Dean paid Satchel a dizzying tribute: "Me and Satch could win 60 games in one season." (To a reporter, Satchel Paige once confided the secret of his success: "Diet. I eat only fried foods.")

Born with Control. Playing summers in the U.S. and winters in Central and South America, Satchel Paige earned $36,000 one year, and spent it in handfuls (he has a white Lincoln, a red Cadillac, a red jeep, a pallid station wagon and an arsenal of over 20 shotguns). Lately he has pitched only in three-to five-inning stints. Some of Satchel's speed is gone, but not his control ("I was born with control").