Ted Williams<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0… “Satch was the greatest pitcher in baseball.”<\/p>\nIn his prime, Paige\u2019s fastball was reportedly measured (by the primitive technology of the day) at 103 mph.\u00a0 As for control, in a 1953 article published in Colliers<\/i>, author Richard Donovan shared a story of Paige placing a matchbox on a stick near home plate and then knocking it off on thirteen of twenty pitches. \u00a0That is the stuff of which legends are made.<\/p>\n
Further, as a hurler-for-hire and perhaps baseball\u2019s highest-paid gate attraction (Paige would pretty much take the mound for any team that could afford him), Satchel regularly pitched more than 100 games a year (and, at times, two in a day).<\/p>\n
In 1948, Cleveland Indians owner Bill Veeck signed the 42-year-old Paige to a major league contract \u2013 in what some called a pure publicity stunt.\u00a0 Sporting News<\/i> writer J.G. Taylor Spink, in fact, asserted that “To bring in a pitching rookie of Paige’s age is to demean the standards of baseball.” \u00a0Paige, as he almost always did, got the last laugh, noting “I demeaned the big leagues considerable that year. I won six and lost one.”<\/p>\n
Paige pitched in 21 games in 1948, with seven starts, three complete games, two shutouts, one save and a 2.48 ERA.\u00a0 For his six-year MLB career (all after age 42), Paige went 28-31, 3.29 with 32 saves.\u00a0 Did the over-40 Paige belong in the big leagues?\u00a0 Here\u2019s what Casey Stengel had to say, “If we don’t get ahead in the first six innings, the Browns bring in that damned old man, and we’re sunk.”<\/p>\n
Satchel Paige … The Life and Times of an American Legend<\/em> by Larry Tye and Maybe I’ll Pitch Forever<\/em> by Leroy Satchel Paige are good places to start.) In the meantime, here are some of philosopher Paige\u2019s words to live by:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
About Life<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n “Work like you don’t need the money. Love like you’ve never been hurt. Dance like nobody’s watching.”<\/p>\n
“Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don\u2019t mind, it doesn\u2019t matter.”<\/p>\n
“Ain\u2019t no man can avoid being born average, but there ain\u2019t no man got to be common.”<\/p>\n
“Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.”<\/p>\n
“You win a few. You lose a few. Some get rained out. But you got to dress for all of them.”<\/p>\n
About Baseball<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n “I never threw an illegal pitch. The trouble is, once in a while I would toss one that ain\u2019t never been seen by this generation.”<\/p>\n
“Just take the ball and throw it where you want to. Throw strikes. Home plate don\u2019t move.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On this day (September 25) in 1965, Leroy “Satchel” Paige got up out his rocking chair in the bullpen and took the mound for the Kansas City Athletics (against a tough Boston Red Sox line up) \u2013 making Paige (at a generally accepted 59 years, 2 months and 18 days of age) the oldest player […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
![\"satch1\"](\"https:\/\/baseballroundtable.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/satch1.jpg\")
<\/a>On this day (September 25) in 1965, Leroy “Satchel” Paige got up out his rocking chair in the bullpen and took the mound for the Kansas City Athletics (against a tough Boston Red Sox line up) \u2013 making Paige (at a generally accepted 59 years, 2 months and 18 days of age) the oldest player \u00a0ever to appear in a major league game.\u00a0 I say generally accepted since, like much of the Satchel Paige legend, his birth date (officially listed at July 7, 1906) is difficult to document. \u00a0\u00a0There are a few facts<\/b><\/span> about Paige, however, that will never be in doubt.\u00a0 He loved and lived to pitch, he was one of the greatest, if not the greatest<\/i>, hurlers to ever take the mound; and he was also one of baseball\u2019s biggest and brightest personalities.<\/p>\n