Never Look Back - Baseball History - Leroy "Satchel" Page
Never Look Back New Year resolutions come and go -- except for me. Many years ago – none of your business how many -- I adopted a set of good intentions propounded by the legendary African-American baseball player Leroy Paige. He was best known as “Satchel” – a nickname he acquired as a young boy carrying luggage for nickels at the Mobile, Ala., train station. I had the pleasure of interviewing the renowned star when he earned a living barnstorming the country with a back-up team from the old Negro League. At that time, I was a rookie sportswriter for the Flint (Mich.) Daily Journal and relegated to the least assignments – black baseball players so regarded prior to World War II. There aren’t many of us old baseball fans around to recount the feats of Satch who may have been the greatest pitcher of all time. My evaluation of Satchel is hard to prove because he played the game before blacks were accepted in the major leagues. * * * There were many professional Negro baseball teams in my days of sports writing. Black players were famous in big cities where there was a population of African-Americans large enough to support a team. In addition to Paige, there was Cool Papa Bell, Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston who often back-flipped to catch a fly ball, Jody Johnson and Pop Lloyd – just to mention a few. They played for such teams as the St. Louis Stars, East St. Louis Cubs, Chicago American Giants, Kansas City Monarchs, Washington Homestead Grays, Birmingham Black Barons and Pittsburgh Crawfords. Though not nearly as well paid as their white counterparts -- $60 a month plus eats and lodging was typical – Negro League players played heads-up often-unorthodox baseball. A few stars such as Paige and Gibson drew $125 a week. After the World Series, pick-up teams of white major league players toured Negro League towns to play exhibition games. In these contests, African-American teams regularly trounced the white stars. The opportunity to learn new tricks was the principal reason major leaguers went barnstorming in the Negro League. * * * Satchel brought the Kansas City Monarchs to Flint to play the leading team of the pro-competent Industrial League. The Monarchs, with Paige on the mound, walloped our local boys -- but with a grace and skill that brought fans to feet many times. He had an accurate fastball with which he could nip the corners. Opposing batters claimed it disappeared on its way to the plate. His curve had drop that made grown men cry. It was like rolling a ball off a table. To show off in exhibition games, Satchel would pitch an inning while seated in a rocking chair on the mound, or call in the outfield to sit behind him while he fanned out the side. Once Gibson led off the first inning with a single and then razzed Satchel. Irritated, Satchel waved his teammates to the dugout, ignored Gibson who sauntered to third and then struck out the next three batters. Satchel’s most devastating pitch was the “hesitation.” In some mysterious manner, he could pause in mid-delivery for a millisecond. It was just enough to confound the best batters. He let me swing against that pitch in the exhibition warm up. I struck out on three throws and quit for the day. * * * Breakthrough for blacks aspiring to the major leagues came in 1947. Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson for the old Brooklyn Dodgers. Thereafter, the Negro League faded for lack of good players. Satchel was signed up by the Cleveland Indians in 1948 as the oldest rookie ever to play major league baseball. He racked up a 6-1 record with a 2.48 ERA that year to help the Indians win the American League pennant. He pitched one inning in the 1949 World Series won by Cleveland. Satch retired a couple a couple years, then came back to play a season with the St. Louis Browns. However, the great Paige was then somewhere in his late forties – an old man by baseball standards. He professed not to know his age. With much of youthful speed gone from his fast ball, he relied on breaking stuff, including the hesitation speech. He did right well until they outlawed the hesitation. Satch was dropped from the roster but played in the 1952 and 1953 All Star games. Twelve years later, at the dubious age of 59, Satchel pitched three innings for the Kansas City Athletics to become the oldest player to pitch in a major league game. Roy Campanella chaired a committee to select some players from the old Negro League for a special section of the Baseball Hall of Fame. The committee concluded two years of work without making any recommendations. It was too difficult to choose from the hundreds of candidates. Nevertheless, the first African-American to be enshrined at Cooperstown – on the basis of record, not skin color – was Satchel Paige in 1971. He died in 1982. Sometimes I wonder if he had any regrets that the color barrier was not broken before his prime, instead of in his declining years. But then I dig out the clipping of that interview of so long ago and re-read the sage advice he gave a young sportswriter for a long and happy life – pearls of wisdom I adopt every January as my road map for the coming year: 1. Avoid fried meats which angry up the blood. 2. If your stomach disputes with you, lie down and pacify it with cool thoughts. 3. Keep the juices flowing by jangling around gently as you go. 4. Go light on the vices, such as carrying on in society. The social ramble ain’t restful. 5. Avoid running at all times. 6. And, finally, the admonition that made Satchel Paige immortal: Never look back. Something may be gaining on you. January 16, 2000 . Click here to see this article on Lindsey Williams's website . Lindsey Williams is a Sun columnist who can be contacted at: LinWms@earthlink.net or LinWms@lindseywilliams.org Website: http://www.lindseywilliams.org with over a thousand of Lin's Editorial & At Large articles written over 40 years. Also featured in its entirety is Lin's groundbreaking book "Boldly Onward," that critically analyzes and develops theories about the original Spanish explorers of America. (fully indexed/searchable) |
Other Baseball Betting Articles
John Rocker: White Pinata John Rocker is always entertaining. He was entertaining as a player during his short stint. He was entertaining entering a ballgame running in like a wild boar. He was also quite entertaining taking on various fans in verbal exchanges. Finally, he is entertaining during interviews. Of course, that is his downfall.Rocker is back in the new ...Four Little-Known Baseball/Softball Training Secrets, PART 1 *************Train for POWER*************Baseball and softball are not games of strength, but of EXPLOSIVE POWER. Just how strong do you have to be to pick up a 5 oz baseball, or a 30 oz bat? On the other hand, propelling that 5 oz ball 90+ mph, or hitting a ball 400+ feet with that 30 oz bat requires tremendous power - th ...Baseball's Favorite Teams - Los Angeles Lakers Part 2 As the Minneapolis Lakers, the team was dominate over the NBA and was recorded as the first basketball dynasty. The franchise won five championships in six years (running from 1949 to 1954, with the exception of 1951). The team moved to Los Angeles in 1960, where they continued to play future Hall-of-Famers, including Wilt Chamberlain. Howeve ...Building a Batting Cage Batting cages are mostly used by baseball or softball coaches and players for practice. There are several types of batting cages, including indoor, outdoor, portable, and tunnel batting cages. Completely enclosed batting cages need more space. There is a simple net behind the batsman.Weather is an important factor in choosing a batting c ...Marked Cards As many master the art of cheating in card games, it has become a common affair in every card game. It is a matter of wonder that there are guides that teach cheating. Many experienced players of cards know by themselves the ways of cheating. They just need to get updated about the changes in trends and also the newer modes of cheating in card g ...Washington Nationals Handicapping: 2006 Season Preview The record books are going to show the Nationals as a very average 81-81 team with poor hitting in 2005. Their ballpark is very pitcher friendly so their pitchers seemed sensational and hitters seemed horrendous. A pitching friendly park allows them to stay in games.In their wins, they had an average margin of victory of 2.8 runs while in ...A Little Insight On Online Sports Betting Who bets on sports online? People who get an adrenaline rush from betting on the odds of winning or losing. Sports betting online, can be an addiction. Not one where you have to be placed in a mental institution or take pills, but one that can drive you to spend everything you have on betting. The lottery is the same way, every week you buy a ti ...Basics of Baseball Betting While football and basketball are the most popular sports to bet on, baseball could be the easiest for beginners once you understand how to read the money line. Money line gambling is the primary wagering option for baseball bettors, which involves betting on the straight-up game outcome with no consideration for a point spread. Oddsmakers use t ...NBA Basketball Betting Do you want to know a little secret? NBA basketball betting can make you a lot of money. NBA basketball is a game that has helped turn sports betting losers into happy sports bettors with larger bankrolls. It’s really no secret to winning sports bettors—NBA basketball is the easiest game to make money at. The game itself gives sports bettors ...Jose Canseco's Juiced Up Career Jose Canseco is a famous former Major League Baseball player that has gained recent popularity due to the book he released in 2005, which detailed steroid use of some of the biggest names in baseball. Jose Canseco does admit that he himself used steroids for many years while playing in Major League Baseball and injecting the steroids into many ...Play Omaha Poker There are many types of Omaha poker. Use your favorite Internet search engine and the words Omaha poker for the search criteria, click search and see what comes up. By doing a little research you will notice to play Omaha poker you need to learn the language. For example, you have nut hands, straightforward nut hands and just your hands. I don’t ...Tampa Bay Devilrays Handicapping: 2006 Season Preview When people think about slum teams in baseball, they think of the Devil Rays. They average about 65 wins a season over the past 7 seasons. This is 97 losses. So you can imagine always betting against them, right?I would beg to differ. The past two seasons at home, these Devil Rays were 81-80 (+15 units). They are so bad on the road that t ...Vintage Baseball Gloves In the early days, players were expected to take the field without protective gear such as a baseball glove. But later, for protection, the players started using baseball gloves to prevent bone contusions and tissue damage.Baseball gloves used by great players are in great demand. A vintage baseball glove is a unique gift idea for those w ...Slots A slot machine is a game of pure chance in which a person inserts a coin into a slot and pulls a lever or presses a button. The reel located in the center of the machine spins round, and if you are lucky the machine will let you know that you are a winner, and then you collect. The object of the game is to try and hit a winning combination of sy ...Horse Betting Placing a bet on football always seemed easier to me, so that’s what I would do. Even now we’ll only put money down on horses once in a while.There are a few different types of wagering when it comes to horses. The most common, the one you see Moe betting on all the time on The Simpsons, is what is called standard betting. Basically, you ...Always Play To Win There are a number of people involved in the world of gambling but surprisingly, these people are still unable to turn valuable knowledge into a consistent stream of gambling profits. Sadly, they will never be able to.They just want to play to “have fun”. Fair enough you may think, but what is so fun about losing money? Furthermore, what ...Top Poker Affiliate Profits With a poker affiliate program you can earn up to 25% affiliate commission and no fees or bonuses are deducted from your earnings, that is why the poker affiliate payouts are considered the most lucrative and the top poker affiliate profits available anywhere on the net.What does that mean? The top poker affiliate profits mean more money ...Poker Psychology - The Secret Of Winning Big Poker psychology is important because it separates average players from truly the great ones.The person, who wins big simpy has a better psychology than his or her opponents and getting it right can make you huge money.In poker (unlike other casino games) you don’t have to have the best hand to win, all you need to do is make peopl ...Bet Large and Win Small in Craps If you decide to use this system you need to have a sizeable bankroll and incredible discipline to walk away when you realise a small win. For the purposes of this article and example buy in of $2,000 is used.The Horn Bet numbers are not always considered the “winning way to play” and the horn bet itself carries a house edge of over 12%. ...Doc's 2006 March Madness Preview: Washington D.C. Regio Scandal. Demagogic leaders. Unpredictability. Amazing inefficiency and ineffectiveness. Gratuitous nudity. Bad suits, worse accents, and more glad-handing than any Normal Human could stomach.Yup, the teams that comprise the Washington, D.C. Region fit this town better than a Bill Clinton condom. Wait, he didn't use condoms…Here is ...What Makes a Great Online Sportsbook All sportsbooks were not created equal. The Internet has given us unprecedented choice when it comes to betting on sports online. I am going to list a few of my must-have items for online sportsbooks. Does your current sportsbook have these features? If not, perhaps it's time to check around for a new sportsbook.Feature One: Security ...New York Mets & The History of Shea Stadium In the 1950s, New York lost both the Giants and the Dodgers and rumors stated that the teams left, in part, due to the fact that they wanted a new stadium. This left New York with only one remaining baseball team. By 1960, National League owners were ready to award new baseball franchise teams to New York with one of the requirements being the ...Poker Websites Most online casinos will have some kind of poker game. The way to tell if an online casino is reputable is by the number of games it offers. At any given online casino, you are more than likely to find video poker and even tournament play. If you are interested primarily in playing poker, you should look into playing at a poker-only site. ...Albert Pujols New Home Run Record Sets Pace While the eyes of fans focus on Barry Bonds, Albert Pujols is Major League Baseball's newest record setter. It was in the year 1956 that the great Mickey Mantle set the pace for the fastest 19 home runs in MLB history. This record was broken 45 years later in the year 2001 by Luis Gonzalez of the Arizona Diamond backs.There is however, a ...Internet Sportsbooks Betting on sports has certainly come a long way since the days of placing bets with back alley bookies. Now you can place bets from the safety and comfort of your own home by betting with internet sportsbooks. These websites provide you with the opportunity to bet on many different sporting events from football to horse racing. Of course not all ...The Curse of the Big Hurt Last year, about this time and in October, the South Siders, the Chicago White Sox, were enjoying a trip to the World Series and a championship, after that.Across town, the Cubs were living out more of their wretched days without a trip to the Series in what could turn out to be a hundred years, when all is said and done.The Cubs, ...
|
