Book Review: Satchel, by Larry Tye

July 20, 2009

When I was growing up, my dad would often quote Satchel Paige, “Don’t look back, something may be gaining on you.”  I, like so many other baseball fans, had heard the stories of the great Satchel Paige – the multiple wind-ups, the screamingly fast pitches, the oldest rookie ever, the first black pitcher in the American League, the oldest player in baseball history, and on and on.  He would have been the first or second pitcher taken in virtually any Negro League fantasy baseball draft.  And after reading this book, I don’t think there’s much doubt that Satchel is one of the five or ten most influential baseball players of the Twentieth Century.  Not necessarily the best, but definitely one of the most influential.

NY Times Bestseller

 So if Satchel was so well-known, why is it, as author Larry Tye asks early in his biography of Satchel (Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend), there are fourteen biographies of Babe Ruth, eleven of Mickey Mantle, and exactly, well, none of Satchel Paige?  Where had the stories come from?  What was true, and what wasn’t?

These are the answers that Tye strives to answer, by combing through thousands of articles and digging up stats, interviewing as many of Satchel’s teammates and contemporaries as he could find (including the 111-year-old Silas Simmons.  Yes, I said 111 years old), and talking to his family and friends. (The bibliography is 34 pages long).  In general, I have to say that although the book is a little long-winded, it is very good, very interesting, and well worth your time.

Satchel went to great pains to keep the media and the outside world at bay.  He was born in 1908, or 1906, or 1902 or 1907, depending which story you believe (it’s actually 1906).  He was married three times, or twice, or divorced, or practiced bigamy, depending which story you believe (he was married three times, probably officially divorced only once, and was indeed married to two women at the same time).  But as peripatetic as he was – he consistently ignored his contracts, reporting dates, financial responsibilities, and on at least one occasion, his wife – he was driven by three things.  (1) He spent most of his life fighting for race rights, including integrating minor league teams and hosting fully integrated barnstorming tours; (2) He was an immensely talented pitcher who worked at his craft; and (3) he knew the power of the people – and argued for decades that white people would pay to see black people play baseball.

Reading the book, I couldn’t help but compare Satchel to Ray Charles without the drugs.  They both grew up in the spectacularly poor South, charmed men and women alike, played to adoring crowds of mixed-race, and consistently cheated on their wives, fathering children who probably don’t even know who their dads are.  Ray had drug problems that Satchel did not, but I felt as though Ray could’ve just as easily been Satchel.

A few statistics that astound me:

- His claim that he won 2,000 games over his career is likely true.

- In 30 years of professional baseball, Satchel allowed an average of more than four runs per game (not earned runs; total runs) in exactly four full seasons.

- He had a few amazing seasons, but his best may have been in 1935 in Bismarck, North Dakota – 29-2, 18 complete games, 321 strikeouts, 16 walks, and 1.96 runs per game (putting his ERA somewhere around 1.10).

- His best Negro League season came with the Pittsburgh Crawfords in 1934 (the true heyday of the Negro League), where he threw just 154 innings, yet went 14-2, 15 complete games, 144 strikeouts, and allowed just 2.16 runs per game.

- He joined the Cleveland Indians in 1948, at the age of 42, in the middle of a pennant race, and went 6-1 down the stretch with a 2.47 ERA.  Typically, though, he threw only 2/3 of an inning in the World Series, which the Indians, surprisingly, won.

- On September 25, 1965, Satchel joined the Oakland Athletics for one day to face the Boston Red Sox.  He was 59 years old.  He threw 10 warm-up pitches.  He threw three innings of one-hit (a double to Yaz), no-walk baseball, needing just 28 pitches to get nine outs.  His catcher was 26, his manager was 35, Catfish Hunter was a 19 year-old rookie, and the second-oldest guy on the team was 36.  Did I mention he was 59?

All in all, Satchel is definitely worth your time – amusing, anecdotal, a fun read about a true pioneer who was also a world-class character and a Hall of Fame talent, the likes of which just simply does not exist anymore.  

Enjoy!

Postscript:

FB101 would like to congratulate Larry Tye on making the New York Times Bestseller List! 

Visit Larry Tye’s blog for more information about the book and it’s author.

You can buy the book from Amazon (or anywhere else that sells books).

Written by Jesse Mendelson · Filed Under Blog | Leave a Comment