Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend

Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend Review

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.

Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend Feature

• ISBN13: 9780812977974
• Condition: New
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Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend Overview

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.

Through dogged research and extensive interviews, award-winning author and journalist Larry Tye has tracked down the truth about this majestic and enigmatic pitcher. Here is the stirring account of the child born to a poor Alabama washerwoman, the boy who earned his nickname from his enterprising work as a railroad porter, and the young man who took up baseball on the streets and in reform school before becoming the superstar hurler of the Negro Leagues.
In unprecedented detail, Tye reveals how Paige, hurt and angry when Jackie Robinson beat him in breaking the Majors’ color barrier, emerged at the improbable age of forty-two to help propel the Cleveland Indians to the World Series. (“Age is a case of mind over matter,” he said.  “If you don’t mind, it don’t matter.”)

Rewriting our history of baseball’s integration with Paige in the starring role and separating truth from legend, Satchel is a story as large as this larger-than-life man.
 

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