Reviews for Satchel : the life and times of an American legend
Choice
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
How does one write a story about a man who even during his glory days was as much myth as he was real? How does one find the true John Henry or Paul Bunyan ... or Satchel Paige? Tye attempts to track down and come to terms with Leroy "Satchel" Paige, who was one of the two most famous black players (Josh Gibson was the other) before the integration of the Major Leagues. The problem with writing about Paige is that he was the master of self-invention, a man for whom "truth" was like clay, something to be molded and altered and reshaped to create something beautiful. Even some of the most basic facts of his life are contestable--and in the end most are not even important. What is important is the fact that Paige has been remembered not only as a baseball player but also as an African American icon, a voice from the Jim Crow era that challenged the most fundamental stereotypes that whites held of blacks. This reviewer cannot imagine a better book on Paige or another one that so beautifully captures what it was like to be a black man in the Negro Leagues. Summing Up: Essential. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates; general readers. R. W. Roberts Purdue University
Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
It would be hard to write a better account of the life and times of Satchel Paige than Mark Ribowsky's Don't Look Back (1994). Larry Tye's Satchel might be better researched his thorough account of Paige's Major League debut at age 42 with Bill Veeck's 1948 Cleveland Indians is one example but Ribowsky's book is a better read, and it also makes a stronger case for Paige as the cultural phenomenon he was. Still, Tye details the pitcher's impoverished childhood, his early athletic prowess, and the circuitous, even tragic (though financially rewarding) career path Paige was forced to take in the absence of the Major League contract he deserved from the beginning. And Tye doesn't sugarcoat the damage Paige's fame and fortune wreaked upon his loved ones, not to mention upon himself. A supplement, but only that, to the still-definitive Ribowsky biography.--Moores, Alan Copyright 2009 Booklist
Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
A fine biography of the legendary baseball Methuselah. In 1945 Brooklyn Dodger's general manager Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson, breaking a color barrier that had held for more than 75 years. Though revolutionary, Rickey's selection overlooked a generation of Negro Leagues superstars, none bigger than Satchel Paige (190682), quite possibly the greatest pitcher ever. After a lengthy Negro Leagues career, tours barnstorming against the likes of Dizzy Dean and Bob Feller and seasons played in Cuba, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, by 1944 Paige had become the biggest attraction and the highest paid player in the game. Starting out as a blazing fastballer, he later developed an array of pitches that baffled hitters and delighted fans. He matched his on-field showmanship with a larger-than-life persona as a comic and aphorist. Along the way, he also developed a reputation as a contract jumper, crazy driver, mad fisherman, womanizer and all-around fast liver who bridled at Jim Crow's rules. Although Paige had proven that white fans would come to see a black ballplayer, his age and reputation disqualified him as the impeccable figure Rickey needed for the tricky role of "first." Journalist and biographer Tye (Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class, 2004, etc.) conducted more than 200 interviews with Paige's former teammates to reconstruct this amazing career, in which the facts, including such basics as Paige's birth date, the spelling of his last name and the origins of his sobriquet, require careful sifting from the mistakes, misinformation and myth. Tye never quite convinces us that Paige consciously constructed "a brilliantly defiant parody" in order to combat racism, but he's correct that Paige knew his value and put himself first in a way that anticipated the superstars of today's game. Well past his prime, Paige finally got a shot at the Majors with three teamsincluding an appearance for the Kansas City Athletics at age 59and a plaque in Cooperstown in 1971. An authoritative treatment of a true baseball immortal. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Leroy "Satchel" Paige is a poster child for the tragedy of segregated baseball. He could have dominated major league pitching but got a chance with the Indians only at the end of his career. Paige could have been the star to break baseball's color line, but Jackie Robinson got first crack as a "safer choice." While there are stacks of biographies about Robinson, this is the first attempt at a full, major biography of Paige. Tye, a journalist, is more noted for his labor histories, such as Rising from the Rails, about black rail porters. However, he's a passionate baseball fan with a strong interest in the history of segregated America. Why has so little been written about Paige? One factor is the difficulty of getting reliable information. Paige was well known for embellishing stories. Tye masterfully weaves primary and oral sources together to create a credible biography of a talkative yet elusive subject. We can hope that his occasional sloppiness when it comes to sports facts (e.g., he refers to Joltin' Joe Dimaggio as "Jumpin'" Joe) will have been corrected for publication because this is an important book about a neglected figure in baseball history. Recommended for all readers in sports as well as 20th-century America.-Randall Schroeder, Ferris State Univ., Big Rapids, MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Tye, a Boston Globe reporter and author of The Father of Spin, offers the first biography on Satchel Paige, the premier pitcher of the Negro Leagues. Having interviewed more than 200 veteran fellow players of the Negro and Major Leagues, he is able to flesh out the Satchel Paige persona. Through Paige's hardscrabble years in Jim Crow Alabama to his time with the all-black Monarchs, one of the powerhouses in segregated "colored" ball, Tye dissects Satchel's mastery of pitching, his accuracy, power and velocity, and signature pitch, the sizzler. Satchel was among the peerless Negro Leaguers, who beat the white big leaguers more than 60% of the time; he struck out some of the biggest sluggers, like Ralph Kiner, Rogers Hornsby and even Joe DiMaggio, who got one hit off of Satchel and was signed by the Yankees immediately. He became one of four black athletes signed up in the late 1940s, with the Cleveland Indians, three years after Jackie Robinson joined the Dodgers (the two men were bitter rivals). This is the definitive biography of a black showman-athlete, and as Tye makes the case, one of the finest pitchers ever, who finally was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
