If You Were Only White: The Life of Leroy "Satchel" Paige

6 - How the West Was Won

95 6 How the West Was Won Paige took his baseball pitching talent and high-riding celebrity status on the road, selling his services to the highest bidders. He moved from place to place and team to team, wherever they showed him the money. Playing out West in interracial contests against whites, browns, and various ethnic and religious groups, Paige became much more than just a baseball player. He became a baseball ambassador for improved race relations. It was not his life’s work to break down the barriers of Jim Crow as much as it was his drive and determination to be the best at what he did. Through his prowess on the mound he attracted huge audiences of baseball fans of every race and ethnicity who awed at his ability. Paige was becoming the flash point at which the lie of black inferiority and white superiority collided for all to see. He was symbol and substance all rolled into one, and they loved him out West. He donned the uniform of Tom Wilson’s Philadelphia Giants, a team composed of all-stars from throughout black baseball. The team played primarily in the California Winter League. The California Winter League dated back to 1899 and consisted primarily of teams in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The Southern California area soon won out and became the host arena for league play. What made the California Winter League so unique was that it permitted interracial baseball competition, something strictly forbidden in the South and many other regions of the United States. The league boasted various ethnic teams: white, black, Hispanic, Native American, and Japanese. This is not to suggest that the teams themselves were integrated. 96 “If You Were Only White” On numerous occasions you found a black or Hispanic player on one of the other ethnic groups’ teams. Blacks and whites on the same team, however, was strictly taboo. Despite the interdiction of Kenesaw Mountain Landis, commissioner of Major League Baseball, whom Paige and other Negro Leaguers never liked, in an effort to thwart the interracial baseball games in 1927, coupled with the challenges of the Great Depression, the California Winter League survived. The Joe Pirrone (white) all-stars versus Tom Wilson’s (black) all-stars was the hottest ticket in town whenever the two teams met. In 1931 Tom Wilson added a new pitcher to the illustrious roster of his Philadelphia Giants Negro All-Star Team: Satchel Paige, a promising hot pitcher who was already gaining a reputation for attracting fans to the ballpark . The Philadelphia Giants rolled through the Winter League that season with Paige leading the way on the mound. They were undefeated November 6 when they took on the White King Soapsters in a doubleheader at White Sox Park. The White King Soapsters became victim number six and seven, with Paige leading the way in the first game, striking out ten of them. These victories were making Paige feel very good about himself; better still, he was making money. He topped that performance on December 2 in what many called “the greatest game ever played at White Sox Park.” The Philadelphia Giants led the league with fourteen wins against one loss when Paige took on Lefty Nielsen and the Planters of San Diego in what became a fantastic pitching duel that kept the spectators on the edge of their seats, with neither pitcher giving up a base on balls. Nielsen struck out five of the Philadelphia Giants. Paige answered the call and struck out thirteen of the Planters. The Giants scored the only run of the game in an early inning when the catcher for the Planters, with lightning-fast Cool Papa Bell at bat, missed the ball. In the brief time that it took him to retrieve it, Bell sprinted safely to first base. Bell then proceeded to steal second. When Vic Harris singled to right, the fleet-footed Bell scored from second base. At the end of the contest, the racially mixed crowd of several thousand cheered its appreciation of a well-played game of thrilling baseball that featured the clutch hitting of Harris, the incredible base running of Cool Papa Bell, and the one-hit scoreless mound work of Paige.1 The first season for Paige in the California Winter League could not have gone much better. He enjoyed the competition, the racial climate, and the pay. Despite his first-year success in the league, Paige kept his celebrity status well in check...