Satchel Paige was forty-two years old in 1948 when he became the first black pitcher in the American League. Although the oldest rookie around, he was already a legend. For twenty-two years, beginning in 1926, Paige dazzled throngs with his performance in the Negro Baseball Leagues. Then he outlasted everyone by playing professional baseball, in and out of the majors, until 1965. Struggle-against early poverty and racial discrimination-was part of Paige's story. So was fast living and a humorous point of view. His immortal advice was "Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you."
That inimitable personality is recalled in an introduction by John B. Holway, the author of Voices from the Great Black Baseball Leagues (1992). David Lipman's afterword describes the last twenty years of Paige's life, including the proud moment in 1971 when he became one of the first three great players from the Negro Leagues to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
