ninety feet of perfection.

If there’s one person that I’ve covered in 90 Feet of Perfection more than anyone else, I would assume it would have to be Satchel Paige with Ted Williams coming in not far behind in 2nd place. With posts such as “It’s a Satchel Paige kinda day,” “How old would you be…,” and “Rules for staying young” along with dozens of other Satchel related topics and photos over the last 2 years, I would say he is almost the unofficial mascot of the site in some ways. So with all that said, I have another all-Satchel Paige related post for you all. I hope you enjoy!
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For a few years now I have been looking for photos of Satchel Paige from 1961 during his time with the Portland Beavers. I have had ZERO luck in this and kind of assumed it wasn’t well documented. A few weeks ago while looking around on eBay I came across a Satchel Paige Portland Beavers bobblehead which I promptly purchased (photo HERE). When I received the bobblehead, it came in a box that had several photos on it including the photo above with Paige wearing his Beavers cap. Also by pure coincidence, the day the I received the bobblehead I discovered an article online entitled “Satchel Paige in Seattle” which also has a great photo of him with the Beavers.

I guess my search for old Satch during his days in Portland are now over.

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Satchel Paige poses for a photo in 1943 as a member of the Kansas City Monarchs. Since finding this photo, I have thought this was a very odd pose due to how he is holding his bat. I could not figure out how this could possibly be effective during an actual at-bat. Well, last week while watching a Mets game I saw Pitcher Chris Young hold the bat in a very similar way and he ended up laying down a perfect sacrifice bunt while doing so.

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1968. Satchel Paige converses with fellow pitching legends Dizzy Dean and Tom Seaver during his time as a “Pitching Coach/Trainer” with the Atlanta Braves. I would love to ask Seaver what he remembers of this interaction with Paige and if so, what was said. I certainly hope this was not just an interesting photo op.

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September 25th, 1965. Satchel Paige leaves the field at old Municipal Stadium in Kansas City after his last pitching appearance in the Major Leagues. The 59 year old Paige pitched 3 scoreless innings against the Red Sox as a member of the Kansas City Athletics. I would kill for an entire video of this entire pitching performance.

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Paige relaxes with his fellow members of the Miami Marlins bullpen. I’m incredibly fascinated with Paige’s time in Miami and have covered this era several times here on 90 Feet of Perfection. From 1956 to 1958, Paige pitched incredibly well and easily warranted a call up to the big leagues from the Phillies as the Marlins were their AAA affiliate. Unfortunately this never happened.

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1939. A very old photo of Paige as a member of the Kanas City Monarchs. What’s crazy to think about while looking at this photo is that Paige was 32 years old. This is an age when many ball players are starting  to decline in their skills and probably struggling to come to terms with the beginning of of the end of their Baseball careers. Paige was only getting started and essentially had 30 more years left in his incredible Baseball career.

~ by duaneharris19 on September 20, 2012.

Posted in Baseball
Tags: atlanta braves, baseball, boston red sox, chris young, cleveland indians, Dizzy Dean, Kansas City Athletics, kansas city monarchs, Major League Baseball, Miami Marlins, MLB, Municipal Stadium, Negro League Baseball, Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, new york mets, pacific coast league, PCL, philadelphia phillies, portland beavers, satchel paige, st. louis browns, ted williams, tom seaver