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Satchel Paige

Baseball is an outdoor sport in which a pitcher pitches a hard, fist sized ball to the hitting area of a batter. The batter hits the hard ball with a tapered, smooth, cylindrical bat made up of wood or metal. The batsman scores by running counter-clockwise within the four markers called the bases arranged at the corners of a diamond. Baseball is sometimes called hardball to differentiate it from similar games such as softball.

Satchel Paige was born on Saturday, July 7, 1906 in Mobile, Alabama. He was 42 years old when he broke into the big leagues on July 9, 1948 with the Cleveland Indians. His nickname was Satchel. His height is six feet three and a half inches with a weight of 180 pounds. He has played his first game in 1948 and last game in 1965. He as made his debut in the Negro Southern League, pitching Chattanooga to a 5-4 win over Birmingham. He has pitched a 4-0 no-hitter against the Negro League Homestead Grays in Pittsburgh, with only a walk and an error spoiling a perfect game. In his next start, he had shutout the host Chicago American Giants by a score of 5–0 in 10 innings.

At the Yankee Stadium, he and Hilton Smith had combined to pitch a one-hit shutout over the New York Cubans. In the first game of the twin bill, the Philadelphia Stars conquered the Baltimore Elite Giants, 7–4. He had made his third appearance and 1st start and allows five hits in nine innings to beat the Sox, 5–0. He had been out of Major League baseball since last pitching for the Indians in 1949. He has made his final pro pitching appearance, going the first two innings for Peninsula against Greensboro. Former Negro Leagues President Satchel Paige was nominated for the Hall of Fame. On June 10th the Hall's new Special Committee on the Negro Leagues will formally select Paige for induction.

Unfortunately Satchel Paige died on July 6, 1982. He was a splendid defensive outfielder with a great throwing arm. He made tough plays look easy. He was a graceful player and was free of theatrics and he was positioned correctly all the time.

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