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SATCHEL:The Life and Times of an American Legend by Larry Tye

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36 views2 pages

SATCHEL Summary

SATCHEL:The Life and Times of an American Legend by Larry Tye

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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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THE DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY OF SATCHEL PAIGE, AN ALL-AMERICAN STORY

ABOUT THE GREATEST PITCHER EVER TO THROW A BASEBALL

“Knowing Satchel Paige is knowing nobody like him. This is a superb book about an outstanding
man.”
— Yogi Berra

“It takes nothing away from Jackie Robinson to note, as Larry Tye does in this important new book, that
Satchel Paige—he of a fastball of historic proportions—is an overlooked pioneer in the integration
of baseball, and of America itself. This engaging biography sheds light not only on Paige but on the game
and the country he helped change forever.” — Jon Meacham, author of American Lion

“Satchel is a wonderful book. Larry Tye, with his deep research and clear writing, does not just baseball
fans but all of America a great service by showing us the real Leroy Paige and why he deserves
his legendary status on and off the mound.”
— David Maraniss, author of Clemente and When Pride Still Mattered

SATCHEL
The Life and Times of an American Legend
By Larry Tye
Random House Hardcover • On Sale June 9, 2009

“Having known Satchel when I was a young ballplayer, I’m reminded of the man who took over the game
with both his superior pitching and his dynamic personality. This book is a must-read that captures the
essence of one of the greatest legends in baseball history, Satchel Paige.”
— Dusty Baker, Manager, Cincinnati Reds

“First, make a list of, say, the five athletes of all time you'd want to invite to the house for a night of beer
and nonsense. Second, if you haven't picked Leroy (Satchel) Paige, one of the others has to go. (Good-bye
Wilt, Arnie, Whomever.) Third, get up the cash for this book and Satchel's there. Larry Tye delivers him
in fine, robust prose, living and breathing, riding the buses and breaking off outrageous curve balls and
figuring out the complexities of segregated America. Great stuff.”
— Leigh Montville, author of The Big Bam, The Life and Times of Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Biography
of An American Hero, and The Mysterious Montague, A True Tale of Hollywood, Gold and Armed
Robbery

Leroy “Satchel” Paige is that rare American icon who has never before been captured in a biography
worthy of him. Now, at last, there is a superbly researched, irresistibly readable life of the sensational
athlete, showman, philosopher, and boundary breaker.
Larry Tye’s SATCHEL: The Life and Times of an American Legend (Random House; On Sale June 9,
2009) is the stirring story of a man born to an Alabama washerwoman with twelve young mouths to feed.
Earning the nickname Satchel from his enterprising work as a railroad porter while still a child, Paige took
immediately to baseball in reform school and on the streets, where he invented his trademark hesitation
pitch while throwing bricks at rival gang members. Growing into the superstar hurler of the Negro
Leagues, Paige set records so eye-popping they seemed like misprints.

Although few reliable records survive about players in the shadow world of black baseball, Larry Tye has
tracked down the truth about this majestic and enigmatic pitcher through dogged detective work. He
interviewed over two hundred Negro and Major Leaguers, talked to family and friends who never told
their stories before, and retraced Satchel’s steps across the continent. In unprecedented detail, Tye reveals
how Paige, hurt and angry when Jackie Robinson beat him into the Majors, would emerge at the age of
forty-two to help propel the Cleveland Indians to the World Series. He threw his last pitch from a Major
League mound at an improbable fifty-nine.

SATCHEL is a powerful portrait of an American hero who employed a “shuffling” stereotype to disarm
critics and racists, who comically invented facts—including his own age—to deflect inquiry and remain
elusive, and who, in the process, methodically built his own myth. More than a saga of a baseball
odyssey, this book rewrites our history of the integration of the sport, with Satchel Paige in a starring role.

About the Author


Larry Tye was a prize-winning journalist at the Boston Globe and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard
University. An avid baseball fan, Tye now runs a Boston-based training program for medical
journalists. He is the author of The Father of Spin, Home Lands, and Rising from the Rails, and co-
author, with Kitty Dukakis, of Shock. He lives in Lexington, Massachusetts. www.larrytye.com

SATCHEL:The Life and Times of an American Legend


By Larry Tye

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