Satchel Paige Pitches First MLB Complete Game

On August 13, 1948, Hall of Famer Satchel Paige at age 42, pitches his first major league complete game.

Paige was an American baseball player whose pitching in the Negro leagues and in Major League Baseball (MLB) made him a legend in his own lifetime. Paige was unanimously chosen to be the first Negro-Leaguer in the Hall due to his pitching dominance during the ‘30s and ‘40s.

Paige was a right-handed pitcher and was the oldest rookie to play in the MLB at the age of 42. He played with the St. Louis Browns until age 47, and represented them in the All-Star Game in 1952 and 1953. He first played for the semi-professional Mobile Tigers from 1924 to 1926. He was also a five time Negro League All-Star in 1934, 1936, 1941, 1942 and 1943.

Paige began his professional career in 1926 with the Chattanooga Black Lookouts of the Negro Southern League, and played his last professional game on June 21, 1966, for the Peninsula Grays of the Carolina League. However, his last game in the MLB was on Sept. 25, 1965 for the Kansas City Athletics.

Paige’s career in the MLB featured 28 wins and 31 losses, with a 2.29 earned run average, while collecting 288 strikeouts. He was selected to the MLB All-Star game twice, the Negro League All-Star game five times. He was a World Champion in both the Negro leagues in 1942 with the Kansas City Monarchs and in the MLB in 1948 with the Cleveland Indians.

Paige was among the most famous and successful players from the Negro Leagues. While his outstanding control as a pitcher first got him noticed, it was his infectious, cocky, enthusiastic personality and his love for the game that made him a star. On town tours across America, Paige would have his infielders sit down behind him and then routinely strike out the side.

As a member of the Cleveland Indians, Paige became the oldest rookie in Major league Baseball and attracted record crowds wherever he pitched.

Paige was inducted into the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame in 1990 along with Frank H. Howard, Frank Bolling and Eddie Stanky.

In 1999, he ranked Number 19 on Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

On July 28, 2006, a statue of Satchel Paige was unveiled in Cooper Park, Cooperstown, New York commemorating the contributions of the Negro leagues to baseball.

In 2010, sportswriter Joe Posnanski, writing for Sports Illustrated, named Paige as the hardest thrower in the history of baseball.

He based this, in part, on the fact that: "Joe DiMaggio would say that Paige was the best he ever faced. Bob Feller would say that Paige was the best he ever saw. Hack Wilson would say that the ball looked like a marble when it crossed the plate. Dizzy Dean would say that Paige’s fastball made his own look like a changeup."

Posnanski further noted that: "For most of his career Satchel Paige threw nothing but fastballs. Nothing. Oh, he named them different names – Bat Dodger, Midnight Rider, Midnight Creeper, Jump Ball, Trouble Ball ­ but essentially they were all fastballs. And he was still unhittable for the better part of 15 years. One pitch. It's a lot like Mariano Rivera, except he wasn't doing it for one inning at a time. He was pitching complete games day after day. That had to be some kind of incredible fastball.... [he was] perhaps the most precise pitcher in baseball history—he threw ludicrously hard. And he also threw hundreds and hundreds of innings."

Paige would most likely be the most winningest pitcher of all-time if you put his numbers from the Negro leagues into account with those of his MLB career, but most of those records are lost or incomplete.

Jackie Robinson Makes Debut

On April 11, 1947, Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American to play in modern major-league baseball when he debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Robinson, as the first black man to play in the major leagues since the 1880s, was instrumental in bringing an end to racial segregation in professional baseball, which had relegated black players to the Negro leagues for six decades.

Jackie Robinson in 1950 as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The example of his character and unquestionable talent challenged the traditional basis of segregation, which then marked many other aspects of American life, and contributed, significantly to the Civil Rights Movement.

Robinson’s career featured playing time in over ten seasons. He played in six World Series and contributed to the Dodgers' 1955 World Championship.

He was selected for six consecutive All-Star Games from 1949 to 1954, was the recipient of the inaugural MLB Rookie of the Year Award in 1947, and won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949—the first black player so honored.

His career saw him put up great numbers hitting .311 batting average, 1,518 hits, 137 home runs, 734 RBIs and 197 stolen bases.

Robinson was one of only two players during the span of 1947–56 to accumulate at least 125 steals while registering a slugging percentage over .425 (Minnie Miñoso was the other).

Defensively, Robinson was an outstanding fielder throughout his ten years in the major leagues and at virtually every position he played.

After playing his rookie season at first base, Robinson spent most of his career as a second baseman.

He led the league in fielding among second basemen in 1950 and 1951.

Toward the end of his career, he played about 2,000 innings at third base and about 1,175 innings in the outfield, excelling at both.

Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.

In 1997, Major League Baseball "universally" retired his uniform number, 42, across all major league teams; he was the first pro athlete in any sport to be so honored. Since that time, Major League Baseball has adopted a new annual tradition, "Jackie Robinson Day," in which all players on all teams wear no. 42.

The movie poster for "42."

Robinson was also known for his pursuits outside the baseball diamond. He was the first black television analyst in Major League Baseball, and the first black vice-president of a major American corporation. In the 1960s, he helped establish the Freedom National Bank, an African-American-owned financial institution based in Harlem, New York. In recognition of his achievements on and off the field, Robinson was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.

Last year the movie “42” based on Robinson’s life and baseball career debuted.

Paige Sets MLB Record

On Sept. 25, 1965, Hall of Fame pitcher Satchel Paige becomes the oldest person to play in an MLB game.

At age 59 (or 60 depending on where you read it) Paige was brought in by the last-place Kansas City Athletics, who figured he could attract some fans. Satchel played the part of the old man in style, sitting in the bullpen in a rocking chair as a nurse rubbed his arm. Then he went out and shutout the Red Sox for three innings, striking out one and allowing a sole hit to Carl Yastrzemski. He exited to a standing ovation from the 9,289 faithful, with "The Old Gray Mare" playing in the background.

Paige continued to play minor league ball for several years before he became a Braves assistant in 1969. The position allowed him to qualify for pension, and Paige did most of his coaching from his living room in Kansas City.

Two years later, a special committee selected him as the first Negro League star to be inducted in the Hall of Fame. He was a Hall of Famer at age 65, even though he was only six years removed from pitching. But as Paige himself once said, "Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter."