If You Were Only White

If You Were Only White

Author: Donald Spivey

Publisher: University of Missouri

Published: 2012-05-14

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 0826219780

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If You Were Only White explores the legacy of one of the most exceptional athletes ever—an entertainer extraordinaire, a daring showman and crowd-pleaser, a wizard with a baseball whose artistry and antics on the mound brought fans out in the thousands to ballparks across the country. Leroy “Satchel” Paige was arguably one of the world’s greatest pitchers and a premier star of Negro Leagues Baseball. But in this biography Donald Spivey reveals Paige to have been much more than just a blazing fastball pitcher. Spivey follows Paige from his birth in Alabama in 1906 to his death in Kansas City in 1982, detailing the challenges Paige faced battling the color line in America and recounting his tests and triumphs in baseball. He also opens up Paige’s private life during and after his playing days, introducing readers to the man who extended his social, cultural, and political reach beyond the limitations associated with his humble background and upbringing. This other Paige was a gifted public speaker, a talented musician and singer, an excellent cook, and a passionate outdoorsman, among other things. Paige’s life intertwined with many of the most important issues of the times in U.S. and African American history, including the continuation of the New Negro Movement and the struggle for civil rights. Spivey incorporates interviews with former teammates conducted over twelve years, as well as exclusive interviews with Paige’s son Robert, daughter Pamela, Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe, and John “Buck” O’Neil to tell the story of a pioneer who helped transform America through the nation’s favorite pastime. Maintaining an image somewhere between Joe Louis’s public humility and the flamboyant aggression of Jack Johnson, Paige pushed the boundaries of segregation and bridged the racial divide with stellar pitching packaged with slapstick humor. He entertained as he played to win and saw no contradiction in doing so. Game after game, his performance refuted the lie that black baseball was inferior to white baseball. His was a contribution to civil rights of a different kind—his speeches and demonstrations expressed through his performance on the mound.


Satchel

Satchel

Author: Larry Tye

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2009-06-09

Total Pages: 434

ISBN-13: 1588368475

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The superbly researched, spellbindingly told story of athlete, 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 reliable records or news reports survive about players in the Negro Leagues. Through dogged detective work, award-winning author and journalist Larry Tye has tracked down the truth about this majestic and enigmatic pitcher, interviewing more than two hundred Negro Leaguers and Major Leaguers, talking to family and friends who had never told their stories before, and retracing Paige’s steps across the continent. Here is the stirring account of the child born to an Alabama washerwoman with twelve young mouths to feed, the boy who earned the nickname “Satchel” from his enterprising work as a railroad porter, the young man who took up baseball on the streets and in reform school, inventing his trademark hesitation pitch while throwing bricks at rival gang members. Tye shows Paige barnstorming across America and growing into the superstar hurler of the Negro Leagues, a marvel who set records so eye-popping they seemed like 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, Tye reveals how Paige, hurt and angry when Jackie Robinson beat him to the Majors, emerged at the age of forty-two to help propel the Cleveland Indians to the World Series. He threw his last pitch from a big-league mound at an improbable fifty-nine. (“Age is 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 history of the integration of the sport, with Satchel Paige in a starring role. This is a powerful portrait of an American hero who employed a shuffling stereotype to disarm critics and racists, floated comical legends about himself–including about his own age–to deflect inquiry and remain elusive, and in the process methodically built his own myth. “Don’t look back,” he famously said. “Something might be gaining on you.” Separating the truth from the legend, Satchel is a remarkable accomplishment, as large as this larger-than-life man.


Maybe I'll Pitch Forever

Maybe I'll Pitch Forever

Author: LeRoy Paige

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 1993-01-01

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 9780803287327

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Satchel Paige was forty-two years old in 1948 when he became the first black pitcher in the American League. Although the oldest rookie around, he was already a legend. For twenty-two years, beginning in 1926, Paige dazzled throngs with his performance in the Negro Baseball Leagues. Then he outlasted everyone by playing professional baseball, in and out of the majors, until 1965. Struggle—against early poverty and racial discrimination—was part of Paige's story. So was fast living and a humorous point of view. His immortal advice was "Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you."


Don't Look Back

Don't Look Back

Author: Mark Ribowsky

Publisher: Da Capo Press

Published: 2000-03-16

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 9780306809637

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Some say Satchel Paige was the greatest pitcher ever—and and certainly his dazzling record of perhaps as many as 2,000 wins, first in the Negro Leagues and then in the integrated major leagues, ranks as one of the most remarkable athletic feats of the century. He also became famous for the advice he freely offered others, including the now legendary "Don't look back, something might be gaining on you." Mark Ribowsky gives the best picture yet of life in the Negro Leagues as he brings to life a man whose act as a lovable eccentric with a golden arm masked a decidedly darker side as womanizer, hard drinker, and contract jumper always on the lookout for number one.


Satchel Paige

Satchel Paige

Author: James Sturm

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Published: 2019-04-04

Total Pages: 100

ISBN-13: 1368046134

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Baseball Hall of Famer Leroy "Satchel" Paige (1906 - 1982) changed the face of the game in a career that spanned five decades. Much has been written about this larger-than-life pitcher, but when it comes to Paige, fact does not easily separate from fiction. He made a point of writing his own history . . . and then re-writing it. A tall, lanky fireballer, he was arguably the Negro League's hardest thrower, most entertaining storyteller and greatest gate attraction. Now the Center for Cartoon Studies turns a graphic novelist's eye to Paige's story. Told from the point of view of a sharecropper, this compelling narrative follows Paige from game to game as he travels throughout the segregated South. In stark prose and powerful graphics, author and artist share the story of a sports hero, role model, consummate showman, and era-defining American.


Pitchin' Man

Pitchin' Man

Author: Paige Satchel

Publisher: Gray & Company, Publishers

Published: 2012-05

Total Pages: 117

ISBN-13: 1938441060

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The first autobiography by Leroy “Satchel” Paige, one of the best and most colorful pitchers in the history of professional baseball. Based on interviews conducted by Cleveland sports writer Hal Lebovitz, this book was first released shortly after Paige joined the Indians in 1948 (days after his 42nd birthday and after 22 years playing with various Negro League, minor league and Puerto Rican League teams). Told in a casual first-person style, Paige's stories provide a snapshot from a bygone era of Major League baseball. Paige tells how he began his pitching career by throwing rocks (”We had a pretty rough gang down on the South Side of Mobile, near the Bay, where I was born and raised”). He describes his early years in baseball, starting at age 17 with the Chattanooga Black Lookouts in 1926, and addresses the controversy over varying claims about his age and the source of his nickname. He talks about ballplayers he had known, in particular Josh Gibson (”the best of all”) of the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays, and Bob Feller (with whom Paige barnstormed years before joining the Indians). Includes a foreword by Indians owner Bill Veeck and a note from Indians player-manager Lou Boudreau. With Paige's help, the Indians went on to win the 1948 World Series.


The Pitcher and the Dictator

The Pitcher and the Dictator

Author: Averell Smith

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2018-04-01

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 1496205499

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"How Satchel Paige spent one season playing for the dictator Rafael Trujillo's team in the Dominican Republic"--


Satchel Paige

Satchel Paige

Author: Lesa Cline-Ransome

Publisher: Turtleback Books

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780613553612

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For use in schools and libraries only. Examines the life of the legendary baseball player, who was the first African American to pitch in a Major League World Series.


Something to Prove

Something to Prove

Author: Rob Skead

Publisher: Carolrhoda Books ®

Published: 2014-01-01

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13: 1467742252

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In 1936, the New York Yankees wanted to test a hot prospect named Joe DiMaggio to see if he was ready for the big leagues. They knew just the ballplayer to call—Satchel Paige, the best pitcher anywhere, black or white. For the game, Paige joined a group of amateur African American players, and they faced off against a team of white major leaguers plus young DiMaggio. The odds were stacked against the less-experienced black team. But Paige's skillful batting and amazing pitching—with his "trouble ball" and "bat dodger"— kept the game close. Would the rookie DiMaggio prove himself as major league player? Or would Paige once again prove his greatness—and the injustice of segregated baseball?


King of the Mound

King of the Mound

Author: Wes Tooke

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Published: 2013-02-19

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 9781442433472

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Baseball legend Satchel Paige changes a boy’s life in this coming-of-age tale from the author of Lucky. When Nick is released from the hospital after suffering from polio, he is sure that his father will never look at him in the same way again. Once the best pitcher in youth league, Nick now walks with a limp and is dependent on a heavy leg brace. He isn’t sure he will ever return to the mound, never mind be the star he once was. When Nick starts working for Mr. Churchill, the owner of the semiprofessional team Nick’s dad plays for, he meets Satchel Paige, arguably the best pitcher in the world. Not allowed in the major leagues because of his skin color, Satchel teaches Nick that some things can be overcome with hard work and dedication, and that just because you’re down, you are most certainly not out. As Satchel and his unique teammates barnstorm toward a national baseball tournament, Nick wonders if he can really overcome what seems like the impossible and pitch again.