Satchel

21st annual

Baseball in Literature and Culture conference -

April 1, 2016Ottawa, KS

agenda

“This is Satchel”Satchel Paige's "depth," and Buck O'Neil's, and (in this first season of my lifetime without Yogi Berra) also that of some other noteworthy baseball philosophers.

Phil Oliver

[email protected]

Middle Tennessee State University

My previous Baseball in Literature and Culture slideshows

● The Inevitable Last Pitch: Hub Fans Bid Rabbit Adieu (‘09)● From Gibson to McGwire: reflections from a Cardinals fan on childhood

indoctrination, adult disillusion, and the Steroid Era (‘10)● The Short and Incredible Career of Sidd Finch - Zen and Now (April 1, 2011)● Baseball and the Meaning of Life (‘12)● “Right” When They’re Wrong: Fallible Umpires and Infallible (Inexorable,

Inescapable) Rules (‘13)● Coming Home: reflections on time, memory, and baseball’s eternal return

(prompted by the revival of Nashville’s Sulphur Dell (‘14)● Spring Training and the Perennial Renewal of Life (‘15)

That was a long homestand for me, in Tennessee. I was ready for a road-trip. So here we are...

We used to have an uncharitable answer to that question, my old undergrad peers and I back in the ‘70s...

But let’s begin with a clean slate.

Buck O'Neil told Ken Burns a story about his roadtrip with teammate Satchel Paige, to visit a historical site of the slave trade.

“But let me tell you about a part of Satchel that no one ever hears about. On the road once, we were going to Charleston, South Carolina, and when we got to Charleston the rooms weren't ready. So Satchel said to me, "Nancy, come with me." I said, "Okay." I had an idea where we were going. We went over to Drum Island. Drum Island is where they auctioned off the slaves. And they had a plaque saying what had happened there. And we stood there, he and I, maybe ten minutes, not saying a word, just thinking. And after about ten minutes he said, "You know what, Nancy?" I said, "What, Satchel?" He said, "Seems like I've been here before." I said, "Me, too." I know that my great grandfather could have been there. My great grandmother could have been auctioned off on that block. So this was Satchel — a little deeper than a lot of people thought.” Shadow Ball

He said, “Seems like I’ve been here before.” I said, “Me too.” I know that my great grandfather could have been there. My great grandmother could have been auctioned off on that block. So this was Satchel-a little deeper than a lot of people thought.”

This was negro baseball

For nearly a half-century, from 1898 to 1946, black men were barred from the organized leagues by an unwritten rule, and behind this color line there developed a uniquely American spectacle called Negro baseball. Each year, black teams took to the road in early spring, and from then until late fall, they played a ballgame almost every day, meeting black teams and white teams in farm villages and big cities, on sandlots and in major-league stadiums. In the winter they went to Florida or California, Cuba or Mexico, and played some more. Negro baseball was played the year-round...

Was Satchel a philosopher? A pragmatist or transcendentalist, even?

Toting bags at the Mobile train station as a youngster “for a nickel or a dime each, the young Paige put his ingenuity to work and rigged up a pole and ropes to make a sling that enabled him to carry three or four bags at a time. His income soared…”

“To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically.”

“Whenever a dispute is serious, we ought to be able to show some practical difference that must follow from one side or the other’s being right.”

“The essence of Satchel Paige cannot be captured by dry statistics, and besides, most of the available figures are somewhat elusive, like the man himself.” But here’s a statistic you can’t ignore, even if you can’t quite believe it: “In 1961 he estimated that he had pitched in more than 2,500 games, winning about 2,000. Since he was barnstorming through 1967, perhaps a hundred games should be added…”

'Satchel': Confronting Racism One Fastball At A Time Fresh Air… npr

...with a 1-0 lead in the ninth, and two outs, his infield made three straight errors. The bases were loaded and Satchel was fuming. The crowd began to hiss, which made him madder still. "Somebody was going to have to be showed up for that," he wrote afterwards. "I waved in my outfielders. When they got in around me, I said, 'Sit down there on the grass right behind me. I'm pitching this last guy without an outfield...'"

Satchel PaigeLeroy Robert PaigePosition: Pitcher Bats: Right, Throws: Right Height: 6' 3", Weight: 180 lb.Born: July 7, 1906 in Mobile, Alabama, United States Died: June 8, 1982 in Kansas City, Missouri, United States (Aged 75.336)Major League Stats / View Player Bio from the SABR BioProject

“Depending on how he gripped the ball and how hard he threw it, Satchel Paige had pitches that included the bat-dodger, the two-hump blooper,

the four-day creeper, the dipsy-do, the Little Tom, the Long Tom, the bee ball, the wobbly ball, the hurry-up ball and the nothin’ ball.”

The numbers – at least the big league ones – do

not do justice to his legend.

The stories, however, keep alive the memory of a

man who became bigger than the game. Leroy

“Satchel” Paige was bigger than mere numbers.

Apocryphal stories surround Paige, who was

born July 7, 1906 in Mobile, Ala. He began his

professional career in the Negro leagues in the

1920s after being discharged from reform school

in Alabama. The lanky 6-foot-3 right-hander

quickly became the biggest drawing card in

Negro baseball – able to overpower batters with

a buggy-whipped fastball… HoF

“Satchel was a comedian. Satchel was a preacher. Satchel was just about some of everything. We had a good baseball team. But when Satchel pitched, we had a great baseball team. It was just that Satchel brought the best out in everybody. The amazing part about it was that he brought the best out in the opposition, too.”

1. Avoid fried meats, which angry up the blood.

2. If your stomach disputes you, lie down and pacify it with cool thoughts.

3. Keep the juices flowing by jangling around gently as you move.

6. Don't look back, something may be gaining on you.

4. Go very lightly on vices such as carrying on in society. The social ramble ain't restful.

5. Avoid running at all times.

Satchel’s Rules (for longevity, or staying young, or happiness…)

Sadly, Satchel - like Yogi - didn’t say everything he said. Those rules “sounded like the pitcher and were based on his ruminations during hours of interviews. The spirit was Satchel’s…” (Larry Tye)

And in fact, after the rules appeared in Collier’s in June 1953, he “gave out business cards with his rules on the back.” (Paul Dickson)

He definitely did espouse #5. In Out of My League George Plimpton quoted Satch: “I don’t generally like running. I believe in training by rising gently up and down from the bench.”

“#3 seems authentic too.

“Skidoodle is a game I invented some years ago to exercise without doing myself permanent harm. I throw the ball on one bounce to another man, he bounces it back at me. We jangle around. Nobody falls down exhausted.”

"Of course the stories about Satchel are legendary and some of them are even true." - Buck O'Neil

"(Satchel) was the best pitcher I ever saw." - Bob Feller

"Satch was the greatest pitcher in baseball." - Ted Williams

"Satchel was the toughest pitcher I ever faced. I couldn't do much with him. All the years I played there, I never got a hit off of him. He threw fire." - Buck Leonard

"The best and fastest pitcher I've ever faced." - Joe DiMaggio

"The best righthander baseball has ever known." - Bill Veeck

"He threw the ball as far from the bat and as close to the plate as possible." - Casey Stengel

Does "time begin on opening day"? For some of us, that is when it stops in the salutary sense of transcendence.Satchel Paige said that maybe he would "pitch forever," and in the sense of a naturalized concept of eternity maybe he did.

Buck O'Neil. Photo Credit: Buck O'Neil

INNING 5: SHADOW BALL(1930-1940)How did you get started playing baseball?

Every town had a baseball team — my town, Carrabelle, Florida, had a little local team and my father played on the baseball team and he would take me around with him to the baseball fields, and I loved it. I could catch the ball so the older fellows would like to throw the ball to me because I was kind of a little show. You know, here's a little boy catching the ball. So that started me wanting to play baseball.And after I left Carrabelle and moved to Sarasota... now I'm seeing the New York Giants, the Philadelphia Athletics, and the New York Yankees in spring training. I saw Babe Ruth, I saw John McGraw, I saw Connie Mack — I saw the great ballplayers of that era and now my eyes are wide open seeing these people play baseball at a level that I never imagined it could be.

https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/baseball/shadowball/oneil.html

It is a religion. For me. You understand? If you go by the rules, it is a right. The things that you can do. The things that you can't do, that you aren't supposed to do. And if these are carried out, it makes a beautiful picture overall. It's a very beautiful thing because it taught me and it teaches everyone else to live by the rules, to abide by the rules.

I think sports in general teach a guy humility. I can see a guy hit the ball out of the ballpark, or a grand slam home run to win a baseball game, and that same guy can come up tomorrow in that situation and miss the ball and lose the ball game. It can bring you up here but don't get too damn cocky because tomorrow it can bring you down there. See? But one thing about it though, you know there always will be a tomorrow. You got me today, but I'm coming back.

What has a lifetime of baseball taught you?

“Waste no tears for me. I didn’t come along too early. I was right on time.”

Sick on Easter, the holiday pagans like me celebrate as symbolic of spring and the return of life (whether Eostre existed or not). No fair.

But I wasn't too sick to continue my preparation for this week's conference with two wonderful books.

First, I finally gave overdue attention to Older Daughter's 2010 Christmas gift: We Are the Ship: the Story of Negro League Baseball, with its terrific dedication:

And, the best book about baseball that's really about life that I've read in a long time: The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America makes clear just why old Buck was such an inspiration to so many. My conference presentation started out being about Satchel Paige, on the strength of Buck's testimony that he was deeper than people knew. But it's going to end up more about Buck, who was not only deep with self-knowledge but wide with compassion. He was a humanist, a kind and caring man who seems to have had a Midas touch for the best in people.

When Buck was inexplicably snubbed by Cooperstown, not long before his death at nearly 95, he went there anyway to lead the posthumous induction of seventeen of his old friends. And then he got everybody in the place to hold hands and sing a little refrain about love.

Why wasn't he bitter and resentful over his exclusion, the way most of us would have been? Why didn't he snub Cooperstown? Think about this, son. What is my life all about? He'd led the examined life. He knew.

After Hall snub, Buck chose joy over anger

This was the day that Buck O’Neil turned crushing personal rejection into soaring public celebration — and he took us all along for the ride, complete with a postscript sing-along about loving one another that had everyone holding hands.Tears were plentiful.Remember: This was supposed to be O’Neil’s coronation. The Hall of Fame and Major League Baseball had put in place a procedure to induct and honor deserving members of the Negro Leagues. It was a worthy and genuine goal but, really, it was also a framework for finding a method to induct O’Neil. This was no secret.==http://buckoneil.com/articles/after-hall-snub-buck-chose-joy-over-anger/

You know what happened.Somehow, and this still seems inexplicable, a committee composed primarily of historians and authors deemed O’Neil as undeserving while embracing 17 others.The snub was unmistakable and cut deeply.The Hall had already invited O’Neil, in the belief he was a shoo-in for induction, to speak at the ceremony on behalf of all Negro League inductees. He wondered whether the rejection meant the invitation would be rescinded. Just the opposite. Officials at the Hall were amazed O’Neil remained willing to participate. This was the higher road.O’Neil quieted the standing ovation that greeted his introduction by telling everyone, “All right, sit down.” He then informed the crowd...

Speech at the at the National Baseball Hall of Famedelivered 30 June 2006

Alright, sit down. This is outstanding! I've been a lot of places. I've done a lot of things that I really liked doing. I hit the homerun. I hit the grand slam home run. I hit for the cycle...I shook hands with President Truman & with the other President and I hugged his wife, Hillary. So I've done a lot of things I liked doing. But I'd rather be right here, right now, representing these people that helped build a bridge across the chasm of prejudice… This is quite an honor for me. See, I played in the Negro Leagues...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtE2I6jsung

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/buckoneilbaseballhalloffame.htm

http://buckoneil.com/

“Honors an individual whose extraordinary efforts to enhance baseball’s positive impact on society has broadened the game’s appeal, and whose character, integrity and dignity reflect the qualities embodied by Buck O’Neil throughout his life and career.”

“He is a role model, a father, a mentor, a teacher, a sensei, a hero, a gentleman, a man. Buck never curses his fate. He knows that what he did as a player and manager paved the way for the rest of us.” — Hall of Famer Ernie Banks

“Buck O’Neil never met a stranger. Everybody was his friend.” Lou Brock

Hang on to your day 18

Moving is the secret of living, the opposite of dying 35

Looking for life- that’s the secret 61

Dying doesn’t scare him. Forgetting does. 77

Fathers & sons… you pass along wisdom. 79-80

It isn’t how long you live. It’s how well you live. 81

“I got too comfortable.” Comfortable was too close to dying. 122

Don’t rush, he said. Savor the details. Follow the turns. Go with the wind. 131

“People die. Baseball lives on.” 211

“Think about this, son. What is my life all about?” 266

I never mindedRiding the busBack in the old days.Other guys hated those rides.Complained the whole way..Said: “We ever going to get there?”I’d read the paperOr talk with somebodyOr just look out the window,Watch the trees.We’ll get there.We always get there.

John Jordan O’Neil Jr. was born on Nov. 13, 1911, in Carrabelle, Fla… nyt obit

John Jordan “Buck” O’Neil died on Oct. 6, 2006, at the age of 94…

O’Neil was 82 in 1994 when Burns, traveling across the country filming his 18 1/2-hour documentary series “Baseball,” found him.

O’Neil would laugh sometimes in those days, said his friend Bob Kendrick, director of the Negro Leagues Baseball museum. “Bob, I’ve been telling the same stories for 40 years, and nobody listened,” Kendrick recalled him saying.

But they were listening now…

In later years, when O’Neil wasn’t traveling to public appearances, he used to hang around the museum. Sometimes he’d sit in the lobby by himself for hours until someone came in. He would greet them with his big smile and offer a personal tour.

Then he would lead them through, telling his new friends stories about his old friends.

Buck O'Neil's legacy: Baseball and beyond

ED SMITH STADIUM: Ken Burns' Tribute to Buck O'Neil

http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/baseball/ https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/baseball/shadowball/oneil.html

"How can a you hit and think at the same time?"

"I always thought that record would stand until it was broken."

"In baseball, you don't know nothing."

"I never said most of the things I said."

more

"All pitchers are liars or crybabies."

"A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore."

"Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical."

"It ain't the heat, it's the humility."

"It gets late early out there."

"It's like deja vu all over again."

"Nobody goes there anymore because it's too crowded."

"You can observe a lot just by watching."

"You should always go to other people's funerals, otherwise, they won't come to yours."

There Will Never Be Another Yogi Berra, and Alex Rodriguez Is It ?!

“I can feel like I’m 15 when I’m talking baseball, watching baseball.”

In Spring, when I was a young man, my fancy turned always to the crack of the bat and the thrill of the grass. Still does, and did yesterday with Spring Training beaming on the radio from places like Fort Myers FL and Surprise AZ, and sunshine beaming brightly in my own backyard in the middle of Spring Break.

Baseball on the radio has always transported me, first when I was a kid listening to Harry Caray, Jack Buck and the Cardinals on KMOX 1120 AM, and ever since...U@d

Friday, March 25, 2016

Joe Garagiola

With the latest report of the NFL's negligence in addressing its brain injury problem, I turn happily to my sport. The 21st Baseball in Literature and Culture Conference is just a week away. It used to happen across the hall, a few steps from my office door. This year it's going to take a little longer to get there, at its new venue 600 miles away in Kansas. But I wouldn't miss it, my surest sign of Spring. I'm especially looking forward to revisiting the Negro Leagues Museum.

That's a lot of Kansas City, for an old St. Louisan like me, so I'm adding Yogi and his pal Joe Garagiola to the program. He just died at age 90, following his friend who also checked out at 90in September. I'd love to believe they'll both go on cracking wise on a heavenly Hill somewhere...

In my presentation I'm going to talk about the under-appreciated sagacity of the game's greatest wits, mostly Satchel Paige (who, like Yogi, didn't say everything he said) and Buck O'Neil (who did).

It was Joe, to whom Yogi instructed: "If you come to a fork in the road, take it."

It was Joe who stoked the legend of Yogi. "Not only was I not the best catcher in the major leagues, I wasn't even the best catcher on my street."

Unlike Yogi, Joe played for lots of teams ("I went through baseball as a player to be named later") including, naturally, the Cubs. "One thing you learned as a Cubs fan: when you bought you ticket, you could bank on seeing the bottom of the ninth."

His debut in the Cardinals broadcast booth with Buck and Caray was a couple of years before my time, but I caught him later on countless Games of the Week, and on the Today show. He came across as a regular guy, genuine, self-effacing, and deceptively simple, an ideal complement for Vin Scully's florid style. “Scully will describe the azure blue skies and the fluffy clouds and Old Glory blowing in center field, and he makes you feel like, ‘Let’s have a parade,’ ” he said. “He can put words together, and I’d come in and say, ‘All I know is the wind is blowing, and if the pitcher doesn’t have a good fastball or can’t spot it, he’ll be backing up third all day.’ ”

He received the Buck O'Neil Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.

He might have echoed Yogi's pithiest Socratic truth - "In baseball you don't know nothin'" - but he knew plenty.

Soul of the Game

Satchel Paige

A short 4 minute video that documents pitching great Satchel Paige. It has footage from both his Hall of Fame speech and of him warming up for his 1965 start with the Kansas City Athletics.

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone."

"On matters of race, on matters of decency, baseball should lead the way."

"The people of America care about baseball, not about your squalid little squabbles. Reassume your dignity and remember that you (players during the 1981 strike) are the temporary custodians of an enduring public trust."

The largest thing I've learned is the enormous grip that this game has on people, the extent to which it really is very important. It goes way down deep. It really does bind together. It's a cliche and sounds sentimental, but I have now seen it from the inside."

A. Bartlett Giamatti

Armchair Bk, SI, LOA, Burns, LH...