WHO WAS SATCHEL PAIGE?
Was his ostentatious pitching style and often eccentric personal life merely a public persona or was it something much more complex? And where does the pitcher fit in the sweep of American history? Larry Tye examines these questions in his welcomed biography, “Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend.” Paige was born into a large family in Mobile in July 1906. His mother worked as a domestic and his father worked odd jobs and tended to the well-appointed gardens and lawns of the city’s elite. The Page family (Satchel later changed the surname to Paige) had a hard life, as did most blacks in the Port City in the early 20th century. Satchel’s childhood saw some of the most violent times in south Alabama’s often troubled racial history. Young Satchel stayed close to the family home and entertained himself by playing neighborhood baseball, nurturing his natural talent.
