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

8 - The Fugitive

137 8 The Fugitive The uppity-Negro complex was the proverbial line in the sand of blackwhite race relations throughout much of the history of the United States and a guiding principle during Paige’s lifetime. Blacks, like Satchel Paige, who defied conventional norms could find themselves at the mercy of white authority . In Paige’s case, however, the difference was that the authority he defied was black rather than white. After all of the furor from the Negro Leagues owners, according to Paige, when he and his teammates returned to the United States in July 1937, it was like they had never left. The Negro Leagues owners were previously talking about what they would do to him, how he was banned forever from Negro Leagues ball, and that he would never play another game in the United States. The so-called ban against him was, at best, short-lived. Paige found that the threatening owners quickly “smiled real pretty at me.” “They wanted me so bad they developed the shortest memories you ever saw anywhere around about me jumping the Crawfords. Through that summer there were all the jobs I wanted and more, so many I couldn’t get anywhere close to taking care of them.”1 He was back again as the star of stars. Actually, he had never vacated the throne; he just left the States for a short while. He was proving repeatedly that he was Negro Leagues Baseball and that it needed him just as much or more than he needed it. He was getting offers to play everywhere. In his hurry to make gigs, Satchel Paige many times showed up late. It was also true that he missed more than one game because he overbooked himself, changed his mind, or just plain forgot.2 138 “If You Were Only White” In some respects he was becoming, in the old adage, bigheaded. An incident occurred that punctuated the notion that his uppityness, while he kept his attitude in check among his fellow players, was beginning to carry over to his public life. The incident became a touchstone for Paige, a reminder that defying baseball owners was one thing, but disrespecting his public admirers was intolerable. Paige was eating at a restaurant when he was told by one of the waiters that some old friends of his from Mobile, Alabama, were in the lobby and inquiring whether he was there. They wanted to see him and to say hello. Paige told the waiter to tell them that he had already left. Later, leaving the establishment, he ran into the folks from Mobile, who questioned him on whether he had tried to avoid them and was too important to give a few minutes to those from his old stomping grounds. He told them that the waiter had made a mistake and that he had been there all the time and that of course he had time for his folks from Mobile, but at that particular moment he had a meeting downtown and was in a hurry. He gave his fellow Mobilians the short end of the stick and continued his quick exit. He told them, “You get a hold of me later, hear?” Paige ducked out and never thought anymore about it. It was some years later that he rethought his behavior that day and vowed to never act that way again. “It took me a lot of years before I found out it was a mighty little man who did things that way.” He was indeed capable of making mistakes . He was also capable of learning from them.3 The joyous reality for Negro Leagues Baseball fans was that Paige was back in the country. He was barnstorming with his Trujillo All-Stars team, also commonly known as Satchel Paige’s All-Stars. They won the Denver Post Tournament and then were scheduled to come to Chicago in August 1937. Paige told people a lavish story about how he and his teammates fled dictator Trujillo and the Dominican Republic, yet he and his team were known as the Trujillo All-Stars, with the name Trujillo actually on their team uniforms. In fact, the Chicago Defender ran an article stating that “Satchel Paige’s All-Stars, representing the Dominican Republic, after winning the Denver Post Tournament last week and annexing the $3000 prize that goes with the triumph, invaded Chicago this week.” The team did not represent the Trujillo government. It was a marketing ploy that Paige...