Life Lessons from Leroy "Satchel" Paige
Friday, February 20, 2026
“Ain’t no man can avoid being born average, but there ain’t no man got to be common.” – Leroy “Satchel” Paige
Born on July 7, 1906, in Mobile, AL, Leroy “Satchel” Paige went on to star in both the Negro Leagues and Major League Baseball. He played his first professional game with the Chattanooga Black Lookouts of the Negro Southern League in 1926 and played his last professional game with the Peninsula Grays of the Carolina League in 1966, two weeks shy of his 60th birthday.
In between those dates, Paige starred with some of the greatest Negro League teams of all time – including the Birmingham Black Barons, the Pittsburgh Crawfords, the Kansas City Monarchs, and the New York Black Yankees. He is widely considered the finest pitcher in Negro League history.
Prevented from displaying his pitching skills on the Major League level while in his prime due to segregation, Paige finally made his MLB debut with the Cleveland Indians in 1948 at the age of 41, becoming the oldest rookie in baseball history. That year, Paige went 6-1 with a stellar 2.48 ERA and helped lead the Indians to the World Championship.
After two years in Cleveland, Paige was traded to the St. Louis Browns where he pitched another three seasons and made two All-Star teams. Ol’ Satch finally hung up his spikes after the 1953 season at the age of 46… or did he?
In 1965, Oakland A’s owner Charlie Finley coaxed the 58-year-old Paige out of retirement as a publicity stunt, but Satchel surprised everyone by hurling three shutout innings, giving up a single hit while striking out one. Six years later, Paige became the first Negro League Committee electee to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
So, just how good was ol’Satch? Well, among his contemporaries, Joe DiMaggio said that Paige was the best pitcher he ever faced, and Hall of Famer Charlie Genringer said that "I never hit against anybody better." Bob Feller agreed with DiMaggio’s assessment and Dizzy Dean once admitted that Paige’s fastball made his own look like a changeup.
Not too shabby for the son of a domestic worker who spent five years at the Alabama Reform School for Juvenile Negro Law-Breakers in Mount Meigs for truancy and stealing. "I traded five years of freedom to learn how to pitch,” Paige said in 1971. “At least I started my real learning on the Mount. They were not wasted years at all. It made a real man out of me."
From being born “average” to becoming anything but “common”, we can all learn a lesson or two from the life of Leroy “Satchel” Paige.
“Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin…” Zechariah 4:10 (NLT)
“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:13 (BSB)
- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President
