Where does Satchel come from?

I've heard several stories, not rumors, several versions of what...

You mean me?

The name.

Hall of Famer Satchel Page on the Dick Cavett Show, ABC Late Night, 1970.

Well, when I was a kid, I used to take my mother's stockings and unravel them and make balls out of them. See, I know you don't know nothing about this. You could unravel them in there, but we could just go around and round and round and make a ball out of it, and then we'd take it and sew it, and I would have all the baseballs, and I'd'd have two or three gloves and I had them in a little

thing like it was a such and if they didn't let me play a way I want them then I'd take my bag and go home

and they started to call him this. I want to tell you the story of Leroy Page and some may say who

but when I say satchel Paige, everybody knows Satchel page. And you might be

familiar with his Major League career. Some of you more astute may be even familiar with his

Negro League's career. And we will talk about those in future episodes of Black Diamonds. But there's a third

aspect to Satchell's career that might just blow your mind. And that's Satchell Page, the

barnstorming legend. Now understand that the Negro leaguers were heralded barnstormers.

And for those of you who may be hearing that term for the first time,

barnstorming in this instance means that they were taking baseball to towns and areas around the globe that had not

seen professional baseball. And even if they had, they had not seen this brand of baseball.

So the Negro Leagues would take professional baseball into Canada. They were oftentimes

the first Americans to play in many Spanish-speaking countries,

and believe it or not, it was a touring team of Negro Leaguers that introduced professional baseball

to the Japanese going all the way back to 1927. Throughout the 1930s and 40s, Satchel Page and Hall of Famer Dizzy Dean made history with a series of barnstorming matchups going head to head across the country, black teams versus white teams. This is years before integration and pulling in over $1,000 a day. In 1946, Hall of Famer Bob Feller organized a

barnstorming tour of exhibition games with Stan Musial and Phil Rizzuto against Negro

League All-Stars like Satchel, Hilton Smith, Buck O'Neill, and a litany of other great stars.

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