Baseball Way Back: When Satchel Paige stepped on the World Series stage
If you get a chance, go to YouTube and look for the radio clip of Game 5 of the 1948 World Series, when Cleveland Manager Lou Boudreau calls on the legendary Satchel Paige to pitch.
Every time I listen, I get goose bumps hearing announcer Mel Allen tell the radio audience, “Lou Boudreau goes to the mound. That’s all for Christopher. It’s gonna be Satchel Paige. So Russ Christopher was unable to get anybody out, and here’s the announcement about the appearance of Satchel Paige. Listen.”
The public address announcer can then be heard: “Your attention, please. Number 29, Satchel Paige, pitching for Cleveland.”
At that point, you can hear a roar from the crowd, as the announcer repeats, “Paige, number 29, pitching for Cleveland.”
The moment is electric, made even more powerful because there is no picture, save the one painted by the announcer and the listener’s imagination.
To the mind’s eye, in that moment, it is as though Odysseus had stepped from the pages of “The Odyssey” or a character from mythology had somehow come to life.
Here was the storied Paige, whom Bill Veeck had signed earlier that year when the ageless reliever was well past his prime, on Major League Baseball’s biggest stage, after MLB had, until Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, denied him the opportunity to face his white peers.
During Paige’s 1948 campaign, the 42-year-old hurler went 6-1 with a 2.48 ERA.
Prior to his signing with Cleveland, he had cemented his legend in the annals of the Negro Leagues, with exploits that included games in which he would call in all his infielders and outfielders to watch as he faced hitters one-on-one.
Today, we have the benefit of online newspaper archives to validate the tales of his dominance.
An item in the July 29, 1930 edition of The Birmingham News, with the headline, “Satchel Paige had too much speed for Caps,” tells us, “Satchel Paige was right Monday against the Louisville Black Caps, mowing down 10 of them in winning behind the Black Barons, 4 to 1.
“The elongated right-hander started off by fanning three in the first inning and retired the side in order in the eighth and ninth. Hughes’ wallop was responsible for the visitors’ lone run — it was a drive into deep left field.”
Paige’s entrance on Oct. 10, 1948 at Cleveland Stadium was poetic, overshadowing the prosaic situation of the game itself.
When he manned the mound in the top of the seventh with one out, Cleveland starter Bob Feller and relievers Ed Klieman and Christopher had been touched for five runs, as the then-Boston Braves broke a 5-5 deadlock en route to an 11-5 win over the then-Indians, who entered the game leading the series 3-1.
It was remarkable that Cleveland had not used a reliever in the series until Game 5, with Feller, Bob Lemon, Gene Bearden and Steve Gromek all having thrown complete games.
Thus, Paige was brought in to stop the bleeding. He retired Warren Spahn on a sacrifice fly — caught in center field by Larry Doby, the first Black player in the American League — that scored Mike McCormick with the 11th run and then induced Tommy Holmes to ground out to end the inning.
Prior to retiring Holmes, Paige ran into some controversy. Paige, known for his hesitation pitch, committed a balk, sending base runner Eddie Stanky from first to second.
Paige had already earned a visit from home plate umpire George Barr during Spahn’s at-bat, prompting Allen to enlighten the radio listeners, “There always was, during the course of the season, a great deal of discussion about Satchel’s style of delivery, in so far as his windup was concerned, the hesitation pitch, and it was ruled illegal in the American League.
“That is to say, he would go into his windup, come to a stop up over his head, take that stride forward with his foot, and delay a second before he threw.”
Just think about how Paige beat the odds to make his World Series debut. The mere act of stepping on the rubber was a triumph, not only over the forces of racial discrimination that deprived MLB fans of seeing him in his prime — not to mention other legends like Josh Gibson and Cool Papa Bell.
It was also a victory over Father Time himself — certainly Satchel could teach us a thing or two in this era of ageism.
Paige would continue to pitch through 1953 with both Cleveland and the St. Louis Browns. Then, at age 59, he came out of retirement to make one start for the Kansas City A’s in 1965, pitching three scoreless innings against the Boston Red Sox on Sept. 25. He only yielded one hit, to Carl Yastrzemski.
One of his pet sayings was, “Don’t look back. Something may be gaining on you.” Fortunately, through the miracle of the internet, we do get to look back and appreciate the unique talent and personality that Satchel Paige brought to the game.