King of the Mound: My Summer With Satchel Paige (18 page)

He was home.

HISTORICAL NOTES

I have done my best to be accurate, but many details from this season exist only in legend. One fact is indisputably wrong—Satchel Paige did face a young Joe DiMaggio, but it was in February of 1936. The cable from the Yankee scout who saw the game read: “DiMaggio all we hoped he’d be. Hit Satch one for four.”

In 1936, the year following this story, the National Baseball Congress refused to allow any integrated or all-black teams to play in its tournament. Neil Churchill served as the mayor of Bismarck from 1939 to 1946 and was prominent in the community until his death in 1969.

Satchel Paige’s dream of playing in the major leagues was realized on July 9, 1948, when he came into a game between the St. Louis Browns and the Cleveland Indians as a relief pitcher. Over the remainder of that season he compiled a 6–1 record with a stellar 2.48 ERA and two shutouts. He was forty-two years old.