76 years ago today, 42-year-old Satchel Paige became the first Black pitcher in the American League when he made his debut for Cleveland against the St. Louis Browns. He entered in relief of the struggling (but future Hall of Famer) Bob Lemon in the fifth inning, with Cleveland trailing 4-1.
He pitched two scoreless innings for the hold that evening, then spent the rest of the 1948 season b!tch slapping the American League.
Paige appeared in 21 games down the stretch for the eventual AL Pennant winners in 1948, throwing 72.2 innings total over seven starts and 14 relief appearances. For you old school folk, he went 6-1 with a 2.88 ERA. Of the 66 pitchers who threw a minimum of 70 innings in 1948, Paige’s winning percentage was the highest and his ERA was the second best.
Not a fan of pitchers wins and ERA? Me neither. So let’s dig deeper…
Among those 66 pitchers in the 1948 American League, Paige finished first in FIP, and second in both K/BB ratio and ERA+. (Did I mention he was 42 years old? In fact, many people believe he was actually older, but that’s a conversation for another day.)
If you’re curious, Cleveland would go on to win the 1948 World Series, with Paige becoming the first Black pitcher to appear in a NL/AL World Series.
I could rant about this all day, but fortunately for both of us, time doesn’t permit that today, so I’ll leave you with this:
“Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball” by Luke Epplin, chronicles the amazing story of how Paige, Larry Doby, Bill Veeck and Bob Feller came together and won a World Series. It’s absolutely one of my favorite baseball books – highly recommended.
If you want a deeper dive on Paige himself (which I also highly recommend), check out Larry Tye’s “Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend”.
Did I miss anything? Let me know. Leave a comment below and/or yell at me @mybaseballpage1 on Twitter and/or the “My Baseball Page” on Facebook.
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