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The Life and Times of an American Legend
Random House
June 2009
On Sale: June 9, 2009
416 pages
ISBN: 1400066514
EAN: 9781400066513
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Biography
He is that rare American icon who has never been captured
in a biography worthy of him. Now, at last, here is the
superbly researched, spellbindingly told story of athlete,
showman, philosopher, and boundary breaker Leroy “Satchel”
Paige. 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.
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