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Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend |  | Author: Larry Tye
Publisher: Random House
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
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Seller: atlanta-book-company
Rating:  33 reviews
Sales Rank: 127681
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 416
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.4
ISBN: 1400066514
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.357092
EAN: 9781400066513
ASIN: 1400066514
Publication Date: June 9, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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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Showing reviews 1-5 of 33
 A great read about baseball, the negro leagues and a life July 11, 2010
Brooklyn (Brooklyn, NY)
This work is more than just a biography of a great pitcher but also the biography of a nation when baseball was the only game in town and when opportunities were limited not by a person's ability but by the color of one's skin. The author begins his story by displaying for the reader the heartbreaking poverty and un-just conditions that Satchel Paige grew up in. Throuhgout the book we see a man that has to struggle with the limits put upon him by society and his continuous triumphs in the segregated world that he lived in. In addition, the book delivers on its promise and is a great sports biography of one of baseball's greatest pitchers. Throughout the book we see how Satchel's exploits on and off the field both captivated, mystefied and at times infuriated his opponents and his allies. The reader is taken on a wild tour of Paige's barnstorming adventures with white baseball players such as Bob Feller and other baseball greats. In addition, we learn that Paige despite being limited by the color of his skin was one of baseball early free agents, selling his services across the United States, the Caribbean and Mexico to the highest bidder. It is a great read not just for the baseball fan but those that want to know about what it was like to African-American in the United States during the first half of 20th century. An epic and illuminating work, I urge all those that have an interest in the Negro Leagues, American History or even the Civil Rights movement to pick it up.
 Disappointing April 6, 2010
T. Jenkins (West of Medical Center, South of Highland)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Having more than a passing interest in the Negro leagues, I sat down and anxiously tore into what I'd hoped would be more than just another fawning half-hearted attempt to justify the exclusion of talented figures such as Mr. Paige from the professional ranks. I say professional ranks loosely as I would argue that the talent level combined with the unconscionable work, travel and social conditions the Negro leaguers routinely endured required a greater concentration of skill and discipline than their counterparts in the Majors. Nonetheless I quickly became disenchanted as the author fell into a pattern of building the case why Satchel should have been the first to integrate the majors while ignoring time and again personality flaws that made him a fan favorite yet did little to endear him to the owners and controllers of the negro league franchises. A funny thing it is indeed to read how Satchel railed against the negro league owners and complained of their frugality while openly seeking the favor of the major league owners and managers who refused to have anything to do with him outside of the off season sideshow. In essence, good ole Satch was good for a few laughs and a little extra doe in the off season yet I seriously doubt his absences, tardiness and overall unpredictability would have been tolerated had the call to integration come in the mid 30s instead of late 40s.
Again contradictions and selfishness were the theme of Satchel's career as he expressed no concern for the fans he disappointed or the teammates whose paydays he risked when he decided to pursue other avenues despite scheduled obligations elsewhere. Again this is an aspect of the the Paige story that the author either chooses to ignore or never considers. While Mr. Tye never fully addresses Satchel's misdeeds, he wastes no effort in recounting for us the shortcomings of Josh Gibson both those confirmed and those that are and probably will always remain a matter of speculation. This is one of the more disappointing aspects of the book. Somehow the author misses the irony of arguing how deserving Satchel was of breaking the color line despite a career based on unpredictability. He also intimates that Satchel's success in building a loyal white fan base somehow was instrumental in the fight for civil rights. I would argue Satchel's antics actually had the opposite effect. In all due respect to Mr. Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry "the real stepin fetchit" who unlike Paige knew when to cut the act and conduct himself as a man of strength and character. I suppose we can chock this up to the three years Perry spent studying at St. Joseph's College in Montgomery, Alabama. Nonetheless, you get the point. While Satchel shuffled and skipped out on his obligations, he was reinforcing the long held notion that black men were childlike and irresponsible.
We are best served viewing Satchel as a tremendous baseball talent, yet when it comes to professionalism, morality and the civil rights struggle lets not fall into the trap of hero worship and falsely construct an image of Satchel that is historically inaccurate.
Missing Era March 28, 2010
Charles A. Parr (Carbondale, Il United States)
This exceptional book is not only an empathetic biography of a great American hero and character, it captures an Era that was invisible to most of "white" America. I whole heartedly recommend this book for all readers, not just baseball fans.
Paige's struggle for acceptance February 2, 2010
M.S. Hennessy (Seattle, WA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
There are several thorough and quite competent reviews of Satchel that truly provide insight into the book and a peek into its subject. What more can another reviewer add to the 29 predominantly favorable reviews currently presented here? I thought about that as well and still I felt that I could provide at least, a tidbit into why a prospective reader should delve into reading Larry Tye's work.
Being an American history buff, and an avid baseball fan, I had perceptions of Satchel that were, in part, based on historical facts. I was very familiar with Paige's Major League statistics and his limited performance during his brief MLB tenure. Having visited the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown on a few occasions seeing Satchel's plaque, I wanted to learn more about him and the other Negro League notables. Being a dyed-in-the-wool Dodgers fan, I had a biased perspective of MLB's integration and didn't fully understand the Negro League experience from a personal point of view.
Larry Tye, tasked with undertaking a monumental task of research, interviews and writing, provides and incredible piece that seemingly gives the reader much more than a glimpse into the experiences from a player's perspective. Exactly what it was like to grow up in African American (not a term used back in the early 20th century) in the Deep South as well as in Jim Crow America, I will never know, but Tye gives the reader a taste of what Satchel Paige endured.
This work does spend some time addressing the almost mythical statistic-accumulation this hurler amassed during his career, but this work is truly about the struggles Mr. Paige dealt with. From his meager beginnings in Mobile to his incarceration as a youth (which became a turning point for his life), to his dead-arm troubles in the late 1930s, and his personal relationships, Satchel is an assembly of anecdotes, quotes, news articles, and Paige's own recollections that sheds a great deal of "qualified" light various aspects of his life.
As was addressed earlier, Satchel is a work that extends beyond the realm of baseball fans or Negro League aficionados. It is a deep dive into the fabric of Leroy "Satchel" Paige and who he was to those close to him, his fans, his opponents and to Paige himself.
Satchel is an in-depth story that deals with the single most important goal of Satchel Paige: his acceptance as the best pitcher who played the game.
 A look back January 27, 2010
Johnny Heering (Bethel, CT United States)
Leroy "Satchel" Paige was one of the most colorful and most talented pitchers in baseball history. This is a very well researched and well written book about his life. Larry Tye does a good job of seperating the myths from the facts regarding Satchel. If you are interested in baseball history, you will probably enjoy this book.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 33
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