Satchel Paige and the 1948 Pennant Race

Introduction

Although not as well known as other famous pennant races (1951 and 1993 in the National League, for example), the 1948 American League pennant race stayed tense and exciting down to the last day of the season.¹ On August 29, with five weeks left in the season, the Red Sox led the pack, but the Yankees, Indians, and Athletics (of Philadelphia at the time) were all within three games. The race continued tight down the stretch, with Boston and Cleveland ending the season having identical 96-58 records.² This necessitated a one- game playoff in Boston. The Indians’ victory in that game sent them on to the World Series against Boston’s National League franchise, the Braves, and prevented a historic subway series in Boston. The Indians took the Series in six games to capture their first title since 1920. Unfortunately for Clevelanders, that 1948 championship was also the last time the Indians won the World Series.

The Indians acquired Satchel Paige on July 7, 1948. He registered six wins against just one loss throughout the rest of the season. Is it correct to argue that Paige was vital to the Indians’ championship based on this impressive record? More broadly, since Paige was one of the early African Americans to play in the American League, what impact did his presence have on baseball in general? These questions are important because of who Paige was and the status of the integration of baseball at the time. In pure baseball terms, Bill Veeck (the owner of the Indians) wanted Satchel on the team because of his pitching ability. Veeck needed Paige’s arm to help the Indians win the pennant. But in addition, Veeck believed that Satchel’s status as an elder statesman of the African American baseball community and the Negro Leagues meant that Paige would put fans in seats and help his bottom line.

This article explores Paige’s impact on the pennant race by closely examining his pitching statistics after he joined the Indians. Satchel’s impact from a broader perspective is considered by looking closely at the attendance figures in the seven games that Paige started for the Indians during August and September. We will see that Paige boosted attendance, sometimes dramatically, every time he started.

A brief biography

Leroy Robert Paige was born on July 7, 1906, in Mobile, Alabama. He got the nickname Satchel as a boy, and it stuck for the rest of his life. In spite of the legend that nobody really knew how old he was at any point in his career— because he cited multiple birthdays when asked about his age—his birth certificate contains the date given here. Paige was a tall, lanky pitcher who threw the ball extremely hard, and he quickly became the star player on every team he played for.

Paige started his career in 1924, playing for the local semipro team, and by 1927 he made his major league debut with the Birmingham Black Barons. Over the next twenty years he played on a series of Negro League clubs, including the Baltimore Black Sox, the Nashville Elite Giants, the Cleveland Cubs, the Pittsburgh Crawfords, and the renowned Kansas City Monarchs. Josh Gibson, one of the most feared sluggers in the Negro Leagues, was his teammate with the Crawfords. Paige was the main attraction on all these teams, and fans came out to see him pitch. In 1936 Chester Washington of the Pittsburgh Courier wrote, “He may prove to be the Moses who will help lead Negro baseball into the promised land of economic prosperity. At any rate, when Satchel comes to town, watch the turnstiles click.”³

Paige played for the Monarchs from 1939 to 1947. For most of his tenure with the team he played alongside another well-known Negro Leaguer, Buck O’Neil, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2022. During the 1945 season, a then-unknown rookie, Jackie Robinson, played shortstop behind Satchel. The Monarchs came in first in the Negro American League three times while Paige was on the team, winning the Negro League...