Book Review: Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow by James Sturm and Rich Tommaso

Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow written by James Sturm and art by Rich Tommaso

Satchel Paige played baseball from the 1920s to the 1960s. His fame came from two skills: his amazing abilities as a pitcher and his theatrical style of playing the game. His career started before professional baseball was integrated. He played in the Negro leagues, though he often switched teams and played lots of exhibition games. Those exhibition games included playing against white teams. Paige even had his own all-star team that crisscrossed the country. He was immensely popular and made lots of money even before he started playing for the Cleveland Indians in 1948 (Jackie Robinson started playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947). His pitching style was flamboyant and effective. The crowds loved him; the batters feared him. He lived a life that contributed to breaking down race barriers in America.

This book is a bit of bait-and-switch. The main character in the book is Emmet Wilson, an African American player who played in the Negro leagues and was injured in a game against Paige. His injury put him out of baseball permanently, which forced him to go back to the sharecropping life his family led before baseball. Even minor players in secondary leagues made a lot more money than someone working the fields in the agrarian South. His experience as a share-cropper was pretty horrible. His son was in and out of school because pay for the school teacher was on-again, off-again. The local government didn't see the value in educating those people. The specter of lynchings and other abuses haunted Emmet and his family. He never wanted to talk about baseball, even though Paige was the talk of the South. He found little consolation in anything, not even church. Then Satchel Paige's team came to town to play against the locals, including the landowners for whom Emmet worked. Emmet reluctantly went to the game because his son wanted to see his baseball idol so much. The game was close-fought, though Paige didn't show up until the eighth inning (probably other playing commitments). Even so, he wowed the crowd and inspired father and son to dream for and work towards a better future by being better men.

The story is unexpected with the focus on Emmet but that works to the storytellers' advantage. Seeing the extreme poverty and suffering through Emmet's eyes is revelatory and moving. The book still has plenty of baseball stories and gives a good idea of Paige's personality. The book includes notes at the end and a bibliography for further reading about Paige and the segregated South.

Highly recommended, though be warned it is not a biography of Satchel Paige.