Time to
add the one and only Satchel Paige to my long-running WTHBALLS custom
"Classic Baseball" set, always a fun player to have in any checklist:
The stories of Paige in his prime are endless, and while most are
embellished beyond any scope of reality, the man was an incredible
pitcher that many Major League stars who opposed him during his prime
went out of their way to say so.
On the Major League level, Paige made his debut in 1948 with
Cleveland at the ripe old age of 41, going 6-1 with a 2.48 earned run
average over 21 games, seven of which were starts.
The following season he went 4-7 with a 3.04 E.R.A., but ended up
missing all of 1950 before coming back to pitch three more years with
the St. Louis Browns, going a combined 18-23 with a couple of shutouts
and 26 saves over 126 games, 13 of which were
starts.
We're talking about a man who was 46 years old at the end of that run!
Move ahead twelve years, in 1965, and Paige took the mound at the
age of 58 as a promotional stunt with the Kansas City A's, yet still
managed to pitch three innings, giving up a sole hit with no walks, with
a strikeout thrown in for good measure! Hilarious!
In those six truncated seasons in the Majors, Paige went a combined
28-31 with a 3.29 earned run average, 288 strikeouts and two shutouts
over 179 games and 476 innings.
But it was his legendary status in the Negro Leagues that made him a baseball immortal within the halls of Cooperstown.
