The Legendary Showdown: Satchel Paige vs. Josh Gibson in the Negro League World Series

forbes field pittsburgh pennsylvania september 10th 1942. it's the negro league world series

game two ninth inning the kansas city monarchs versus the washington homestead graves

with the monarchs leading 8-4 satchel paige is on the mound for the monarchs and the greys have a man on base

now a conventional pitcher would try to end this quickly but no one could ever call this legendary fastballer

conventional paige intentionally walks the next two batters loading the bases

meaning the next batter could be the grey's winning run this is a move that defies logic

considering the next batter is josh gibson a devastating hitter with a record that rivals any player of the era

including babe ruth now off the field paige and gibson are the best of friends but here they're opposing warriors and

living legends and the way paige sees it the crowd has come to see the best

go up against the best so that's what they're gonna give him and here's the pitch strike one

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historical stories while there are more modest accounts of what happened between satchel paige and

josh gibson that day one thing rings true they were both linchpins of the negro baseball league

an organization that existed because of and in spite of the racist segregation that defined the

first half of 20th century america baseball itself started in the late 19th century as an amateur sport popularized

by the civil war when men of all colors formed teams and played unfortunately like with many things that met at the

intersection of money and entertainment racism strangled that early culture the national association of baseball players

voted to exclude any club with a single black player in 1867 four years before the sport went

professional and amateur teams like these cincinnati red stockings adhered to this so-called

gentleman's agreement to exclude black players as well meaning black men many of them sons of sharecroppers who

had played the game since childhood found themselves without meaningful opportunities in the sport and anytime a

black man did manage to sneak across the color barrier they were met with harsh resistance

eventually they formed their own teams with the cuban giants being the first on record in 1885

and as more teams arose two centers chicago and the philadelphia new york axis became the league's major hubs then

in 1920 a player named rube foster founded the negro national league

considered by many to be the tsar of black baseball he nurtured it until his untimely death in 1930 then

left leaderless the league fell apart under the weight of the great depression a similar fate befell the eastern

colored league which was established in 1923 and it too was defunct by 1928. now these fallen leagues triggered an

influx of players to the negro southern league which limped along via exhibition taurus often referred to as barnstorming

due to their speed of going place to place but then in 1932 a black business owner named gus

greenlee resuscitated the negro national league which reformed in 1937 as the renamed

negro american league and in a stroke of marketing genius greenlee established an

east-west all-star game in 1933 where get this fans could pick the players for their

team's starting lineup yeah a real-life fantasy draft it became the biggest event in black baseball

surpassing the negro world series in its popularity but despite the popularity the monarchs

greys and pretty much every other negro league team that ever existed all played against the backdrop of

uncertainty life on the road could be harsh at the time but alongside tedious unair-conditioned bus trips

and poor food they also experienced deep racism they'd sometimes show up for a game and

be greeted by a clan rally and while touring in areas with no black owned hotels they'd sometimes go days without

showering and of course any meal that they ate was either served in the back of an

establishment or more often than not eaten on the team bus though on the other hand

black-owned hotels or local homeowners would often welcome the players with glee

feeding them the best food they could muster and during the off-season they'd be invited to play in cuba and

mexico which were free of segregation and where locals treated the players with respect so life in the negro

leagues meant taking the good with the bad this was the world that these players

navigated and where men like pitchers satchel page and heavy hitter josh gibson managed to

thrive by some accounts josh gibson's lifetime average was .384 the best in negro league history

and officially he hit 238 pitches though some say that true number is somewhere between

800 and a thousand as for paige who did actually strike out gibson in that negro world series we opened

this episode with his numbers were as tremendous as his longevity paige was born in 1906 and played his

first official game as a semi-professional in 1924 as a mobile tiger before going pro as

one of the chattanooga black lookouts in 1926. ever a showman paige would often insist

that his teammates retire to the dugout or have a seat in the infield while he would strike out all three batters up

for the inning and for those of you unfamiliar with the sport let's just say that's mighty

impressive in fact since paige gibson and many other players in the negro leagues were

such moneymakers soon there were men eager to integrate them into the white league

but because the first commissioner of baseball was a straight-up racist they couldn't accomplish that until he

passed away but when that happened brooklyn dodgers owner branch rickey began scouting black players

the question was who would be the first black man drafted to a white team would it be paige or would it be gibson

neither it turns out in a move that perplexed many including paige and gibson ricky picked monarch's

rookie jackie robinson to break baseball's color barrier the reasoning had less to do with

performance on the field and more about who they were as men despite his monster hitting gibson had

begun to exhibit erratic behavior and had taken up with the wife of a mobster and pages showboating on the

mound along with the fact that paige knew his worth were seen as negatives

so robinson it was not only did robinson come at a lower price than paige but as a younger man who'd served in the

military robinson was considered more malleable and they also thought he was more likely

to silently shoulder the death threats name-calling and other indignities that would come with breaking baseball's

color barrier plus since robinson was engaged to a black woman ricky believed that would

quell white fears that robinson might use his newfound glory to pursue white women so robinson was

signed in the autumn of 1945. sadly predictions about the pressures that would be leveled against robinson

quickly became true robinson was called names at bat and at times refused admission into

hotels the rest of his white teammates were staying at despite all this he played well after

spending a controversial 1946 season with a dodgers minor league affiliate in segregated florida he went on to play

nine years with the dodgers and despite the hate targeted at him he left a legacy

that opened doors for countless black baseball legends and helped to birth america's civil rights movement

with the national league now opening the doors the american baseball league followed suit three months later by

signing newark eagle's second baseman larry dobby to the cleveland indians many believed

josh gibson would have landed somewhere too but sadly he died of a brain tumor shortly after robinson's signing

satchel paige joined dobie on the indians in 1948 becoming at 42 the oldest rookie ever

signed his pitching played a large part in the indians winning the pennant in 1948

but no longer in his prime page also suffered considerable ups and downs as did the entire negro league losing

their best players to the majors and along with that their audience the league sputtered along before

finally being shut down in 1960 and while negro league superstars helped usher in an

era of baseball that included african-american greats like willie mays hank aaron reggie jackson and derek

jeter most of the league's progenitors disappeared into obscurity though conciliation came to a handful of

players in their twilight years as they were formally inducted into a major league team in 2008

but more significantly major league baseball retroactively accepted the statistical records

for all 3 400 negro league players into their official records bestowing major league status upon them

though mostly posthumously even today and even in a pandemic major league baseball pulls in billions

of dollars and that most definitely wouldn't have been the case if the negro league hadn't boosted fandom

and fostered pride in the sport that would go on to become america's pastime and baseball fans the world over owe

these players a debt of gratitude for their willingness to endure the racism of the era

and for their deep personal sacrifices all for a sport that they loved at a time when it didn't love them back

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