Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend-Fast Shipping

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The superbly researched, spellbindingly told story ofathlete, showman, philosopher, and boundary breaker Leroy “Satchel” Paige

“Among the rare biographies of an athlete that transcend sports . . . gives us the man as well as the myth.”—The Boston Globe

Few reliablerecords or news reports survive about players in the Negro Leagues. Through doggeddetective work, award-winning author and journalist Larry Tye has tracked down thetruth about this majestic and enigmatic pitcher, interviewing more than two hundredNegro Leaguers and Major Leaguers, talking to family and friends who had never toldtheir stories before, and retracing Paige’s steps across the continent. Here is thestirring account of the child born to an Alabama washerwoman with twelve young mouthsto feed, the boy who earned the nickname “Satchel” from his enterprising work asa railroad porter, the young man who took up baseball on the streets and in reformschool, inventing his trademark hesitation pitch while throwing bricks at rival gangmembers.

Tye shows Paige barnstorming across America and growing into the superstarhurler of the Negro Leagues, a marvel who set records so eye-popping they seemedlike misprints, spent as much money as he made, and left tickets for “Mrs. Paige”that were picked up by a different woman at each game. In unprecedented detail, Tyereveals how Paige, hurt and angry when Jackie Robinson beat him to the Majors, emergedat the age of forty-two to help propel the Cleveland Indians to the World threw his last pitch from a big-league mound at an improbable fifty-nine. (“Ageis a case of mind over matter,” he said. “If you don’t mind, it don’t matter.”)

More than a fascinating account of a baseball odyssey, Satchel rewrites our historyof the integration of the sport, with Satchel Paige in a starring role. This is apowerful portrait of an American hero who employed a shuffling stereotype to disarmcritics and racists, floated comical legends about himself–including about his ownage–to deflect inquiry and remain elusive, and in the process methodically builthis own myth. “Don’t look back,” he famously said. “Something might be gaining onyou.” Separating the truth from the legend, Satchel
is a remarkable accomplishment,as large as this larger-than-life man.