Happy belated Birthday to the late and great Satchel Paige, by far the greatest pitcher in Negro League Baseball history and arguably one of the five-to-ten greatest pitchers in baseball history. While Paige did make it to the Major Leagues, the pure prime of his career was in the Negro Leagues playing for teams such as the Birmingham Black Barons, Pittsburgh Crawfords, and Kansas City Monarchs, just to name a few.

Career Statistics (1927-31;33-34; 36; 40-49; 51-53; 65)

124-82 W-L, 2.73 ERA, 1.101 WHIP, 1,751.2 IP, 1,501 SO

  • 6x Negro League All-Star
  • 2x MLB All-Star
  • Negro League World Series Champion (1942)
  • MLB World Series Champion (1948)

Early in his career, Satchel was famous for being a pure fastball pitcher. However, as his career wore on, he started experimenting and using different pitches from different arm angles. In 1933, in a game in Bismarck, North Dakota, Satchel debuted his “hesitation pitch,” using “a tricky delayed delivery with great effectiveness.” Satchel did everything you’d expect a Hall of Fame pitcher to do, leading his sport in pitching categories multiple times, such as Wins, ERA, WHIP, Innings Pitched, Shutouts, and Strikeouts.

Of all his success and the Dodgers having Jackie Robinson on the team in 1947 led Indians owner Bill Veeck to bring in Paige for a try-out on the same day he signed him to play for the Cleveland Indians. While Paige was 42 and past his prime, he pitched well for an older pitcher during his two years with the Indians and three years with the St. Louis Browns. In 1948, he won a World Series with the Indians. In 1965, twelve years since he last pitched professionally at 59, he appeared in one game for the Kansas City Athletics, pitching three innings and only giving up one hit facing ten batters. That made him the oldest pitcher to ever pitch in a game in baseball history.

Ultimately, when discussing Negro League baseball, the two players who instantly pop into your head are Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige. Paige was as dominant as he could’ve been in his league. In 1999, Paige was ranked 19th on Sporting News‘ list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players and was nominated as a finalist for the MLB All-Century Team. 

References:

  1. Satchel Paige Career Statistics via Baseball-Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/paigesa01.shtml
  2. Satchel Paige Pitching Style via Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satchel_Paige#Pitching_style