The All-Star Satchel Paige

By David Marasco

In his long career, Satchel Paige would pitch in a total of six All-Star games. The first five came while he was in the Negro Leagues in the form of the annual East-West game. The last came when he was at the age of 47, when he went as a representative of the St. Louis Browns.

The 1934 Negro National League season featured the second annual East-West game, and for the first time Satchel Paige took part. As he was playing for the Pittsburgh Crawfords, Satchel was on the Eastern squad. After five innings the game was still scoreless. The West's Willie Wells was able to start off the sixth with a double off of Harry Kincannon, and that brought Paige in from the bullpen. Paige threw only eleven pitches that inning. He managed to strike out Alex Radcliffe, and then both Turkey Stearns and Mule Suttles flew out to left. In the seventh Satchel retired the side in order. In the top of the eighth Satchel's teammate Cool Papa Bell led off with a walk. He stole second and then came home for the game's only run on a short blooper over second. This would be all that Satchel would need. The West was able to scratch out only two more hits against Satchel, in the eighth Willie Foster singled, but nothing came of it. In the ninth Mule Suttles sinlged, but Red Parnell then lined into a double play to end the game. The East took a gem by the score of one to nothing, with Satchel Paige picking up the win.

1936 saw the return of Satchel Paige to the East-West game. Satchel entered the game in the seventh inning, enjoying an eight to one lead. The press accounts of the time focussed on the prolific scoring of the Eastern squad, so not much can be reported of Satchel's performance. It is known that he gave up one run in three innings, and apparently that one run was the result of an outfielder overrunning a fly ball more than anything else. The East would win by a score of ten to two.

After an absence of five years, Satchel played in the East- West game again in 1941, this time for the West. While details of the situation are sketchy, Satchel is supposed to have pitched "against the advice of his physician." By the time he came into the game, the outcome was more or less certain, the East had an eight to one lead in the eighth. Satchel settled in and struck out Lennie Pearson and Pancho Coimbre. Bill Hoskins should have batted next, but he makes no appearance in the play-by-play account. The box score accounts for Satchel having given up a walk and a hit, but both of these are accounted for in the ninth. Either the East batted out of order by skipping Hoskins, or simply his achievements were not recorded properly. The next batter was Buck Leonard, one of the most powerful hitters in the Negro Leagues. Satchel was able to get him to pop out to second base. After the West had scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the eighth, Satchel went out to pitch the ninth. He got Monte Irvin to fly out to Jimmie Crutchfield in left, but then Roy Campanella beat out an infield hit to short. It would appear as if Campanella was later thrown out attempting to steal. Horacio Martinez walked, but Satchel was able to survive the ninth by getting Dick Seay to fly out to center. The East won that year by a final of eight to three.

In 1942 a good game was brewing at Comiskey Park. The East and West squads were tied at two a piece after six. In the break between innings, Satchel Paige came on the public address system. He claimed that he had been misquoted in a recent newspaper story as being against baseball integration. With that behind him, Satchel went out to pitch the seventh for the Western squad. The first man he faced was Lennie Pearson, batting for pitcher Dave Barnhill. Pearson lofted a fly ball to right that Ted Strong lost in the sun. The ball fell in for a double. The next hitter, Dan Wilson, laid down a perfect bunt to put runners at the corners. Sam Bankhead tallied the runner when he hit a sacrifice fly to center. After Satchel was able to get out of the inning, the West was able to get something going in the bottom half of the seventh. However, after Satchel himself got a hit, Leon Day came in to pitch for the East. He was able to stifle the bats of the West, allowing no hits over his tenure. The East added some insurance in the ninth when they picked up two more runs. Satchel would go down as the losing pitcher as the East beat the West by a score of 5-2.

Satchel's last East-West game came in 1943. Unlike the year before, this time Satchel was at the top of his game. He and Josh Gibson held out for bonus money. It wasn't until both received an extra $200 that they agreed to play. Satchel was given the start against the powerful East squad. He pitched the first three innings and allowed only a walk to the mighty Josh Gibson. He also tallied four strikeouts: Henry Kimbro, Buck Leonard, Sam Bankhead and Cool Papa Bell. He was so dominating that in his three innings only one ball left the infield, a short flyout by Lennie Pearson. When he was done with his arm, he used his bat, doubling to left in the third inning for what would turn out to be the West's only extra-base hit. At this point he was removed for a pitch runner. He was followed by Gread McKinnis, Theolic "Fire Ball" Smith and Porter Moss. This crew had managed to one-hit the powerful East squad until Smith gave up a home run to Leonard in the bottom of the ninth. Smith then allowed two more hits and with two outs West manager Frank Duncan put the game into the hands of Moss. Moss was able to induce a fly ball to centerfield from Vic Harris to end the game. With that victory, Satchel Paige became the only man to win East-West games for both the East and the West.

In 1944 Satchel declared that he wanted to have $10,000 from the East-West game donated to wounded World War II soldiers. He claims to have come up with this idea in the winter when he saw soldiers who were but "pieces of men" return from the war. Management stated that Satchel only brought up this idea when they refused him a percentage of the gate. In any case, many franchises in the Negro Leagues depended on a piece of the action from the East-West game for financial survival. A $10,000 donation was out of the question. Management stuck by their guns, and Satchel stuck by his. He boycotted the 1944 East-West game.

At his induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Ted Williams lobbied for the inclusion of Satchel Paige and other deserving Negro League players. However, in 1953, it was Captain Ted Williams of the U.S. Marine Corps who threw out the first pitch of the All-Star game in Cincinnati. Nearly 20 years after his first, Satchel would pitch in his last All-Star game. Satchel came in during the 8th inning, with his American League down by a score of three to nothing. The popular press reports that the crowd got a lot of laughs, indicating that Satchel was up to his old showboating tricks. However, whatever tricks he had as a pitcher did not work. After retiring Gil Hodges, Satchel faced another old Negro Leaguer, Roy Campanella. A dozen years earlier in the 1941 East-West game Campy had victimized Satchel for a hit. 1953 was no different as Campanella once again tallied off of Paige. Satchel was able to get Matthews to pop up for the second out, but then walked Duke Snider. Enos "Country" Slaughter, playing in his tenth All-Star game, singled to score Campanella. Murray Dickson, a pitcher, also singled to bring in another run. Going back to the top of the order, Paige was able to retire Pee Wee Reese for the last National League out. The Americans were able to score a run in the ninth, but lost the game by a score of five to three. No doubt that this was not Satchel's best performance, but he was at the time 47 years of age.

Cincinnati was the site of Satchel's last All-Star appearance. 1953 would also be the last year that Satchel would spend as a Major Leaguer. He bounced around baseball for another ten years, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1971.