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If You Were Only White: the Life of Leroy "Satchel" Paige

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If You Were Only White: the Life of Leroy “If You Were Only White” Sports and American Culture Series Roger Launius, Editor University of Missouri Press Columbia and London “If You Were Only White ” The Life of Leroy “Satchel” Paige Donald Spivey Copyright ©2012 by Donald Spivey University of Missouri Press, Columbia, Missouri 65201 Printed and bound in the United States of America First paperback printing, 2013 All rights reserved 5 4 3 2 1 17 16 15 14 13 Cataloging-in-Publication data available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-0-8262-2014-1 (pbk.) This paper meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, Z39.48, 1984. Design and composition: Jennifer Cropp Printer and binder: Thomson-Shore, Inc. Typefaces: Minion and Optima In tribute to all who struggled and soared in the Negro Leagues Contents Acknowledgments ix Warm-ups: A Prelude xiii 1. Without a Satchel 1 2. On the Mount 18 3. “If You Were Only White” 37 4. Turning the Paige 58 5. Blackballing the Great Depression 71 6. How the West Was Won 95 7. Baseball Diplomacy 120 8. The Fugitive 137 9. Lazarus 166 10. Double V 184 11. Integration 204 12. Center Stage in the White Arena 223 13. Ninth Inning 244 14. Extra Innings 258 Notes 283 Bibliography 319 Index 335 Acknowledgments When the research for this project began in earnest twelve years ago, I had no idea that it would take so long or that the debts owed to so many would be so great. I have been privileged to receive support everywhere I ventured in search of sources on the life of Leroy “Satchel” Paige. The sheer mention of his name still opened doors. I could not begin to thank every individual and institution that assisted in this project, and I hope that I can be forgiven for omitting a name or two that I may have forgotten or misplaced given the long duration of this project. There are two names that I will never forget, for without them this study’s richness would have been terribly diminished.They shared with me can- did thoughts and recollections about the times, the places, the events, and the people. I will be forever grateful to Theodore Roosevelt “Double Duty” Radcliffe and John “Buck” O’Neil. They opened up to me and, as they said, as never before. Their insider knowledge of Satchel Paige and black baseball was and is unrivaled. I continue to smile every time I think about my conversa- tions with them. These two legends of the Negro Leagues are gone now but never forgotten. Other Negro Leaguers and associates were likewise generous with their time and kind enough to travel down memory lane to help bring the era to life for which I am beholden to: Hank Aaron, Samuel Allen, George Altman, Jimmy Armstead, Otha Bailey, Ernie Banks, William Barnes, Herbert Barnhill, William Bell, Joseph Black, William Blair, Robert Boyd, William Breda, Sherwood Brewer, Clifford Brown, Ernest Burke, William “Ready” Cash, Henry Clark, James Cohen, James Colzie, Charlie Davis, Ross Davis, Felix Delgado, Wesley Lewis Dennis, Eugene Doby, Larry Doby, ix x Acknowledgments Joseph Douse, Mahlon Duckett, James Dudley, William Dumpson, Melvin Duncan, Henry Elmore, Lionel Evelyn, William Felder, Albertus Fennar, Wilmer Fields, John Gibbons, Louis Gillis, Harold Gordon, Harold Gould, Willie Grace, Acie Griggs, Arthur Hamilton, Charles Harmon, Isaiah Harris, Lonnie Harris, Willie Harris, Wilmer Harris, J. C. Hartman, John Head, Neil Henderson, Joe Henry, Francisco Herrera, Carl Holden, Ulysses Holliman, Gordon Hopkins, Cowan Hyde, Monte Irvin, James Ivory, Verdell Jackson, Clarence Jenkins, James “Pee Wee” Jenkins, Sam Jethroe, Clifford Johnson, Curtis Johnson, Donald Johnson, Ernest Johnson, Louis Johnson, Mamie Johnson, Ralph Johnson, Thomas Fairfax Johnson, Cecil Kaiser, Larry Kimbrough, Willie James Lee, Larry LeGrande, William Lindsay, William Little, Anthony Lloyd, Lester Lockett, Carl Long, Ernest Long, Lee Mabon, Raydell Maddix, Josef Marbury, Rendon Marbury, Frank Marsh, Edward Martin, Henry Mason, Willie Mays, Nathaniel McClinic, Clinton McCord, Walter McCoy, William McCrary, Ira McKnight, John Miles, Minnie Minoso, Jesse Mitchell, John Mitchell, James Moore, Robert Motley, Emilio Navarro, Don Newcombe, Orlando O’Farrill, Andrew Porter, Merle Porter, William Powell, Henry Prestwood, Marvin Price, Charlie Pride, Mack Pride, Henry Robinson, James Robinson, William Robinson, Jesse Rogers, Thomas Sampson, James Sanders, Ed Scott, Joseph Scott, Robert Scott, Pedro Sierra, Al Smith, Eugene Smith, George Smith, Quincy Smith, Alfred Surratt, Ron Teasley, Donald Troy, Thomas Turner, William “Cool Breeze” Van Buren, Ernest Westfield, Eugene White, Davey Whitney, Jimmy Wilkes, Clyde Henry Williams, Eli Williams, Eugene Williams, Willie Young, and Jim Zapp. Talking with the great Bob Feller, Satchel Paige’s leading barnstorming competitor from the white Majors after World War II, was an educational ex- perience in itself for which I am truly appreciative. Acquiring a grasp on Paige’s family life to capture the full Satchel Paige would have been absolutely impossible without the help of the Paige family. Robert Leroy Paige and Pamela Paige O’Neal graciously allowed me into their homes and into their memories and their reflections on life with their fa- mous father. To be the first researcher granted such exclusive access is, I must tell you, deeply satisfying personally, professionally, and intellectually. Satchel Paige was an icon of the African American community and countless others who saw him play. To be able to gain knowledge of the other Satchel Paige to share with the reader is both an honor and a privilege. My sincere thanks to the staffs of research centers and libraries far and wide and especially to those of the A. Bartlett Giamatti Research Center, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown, New York; Alabama Department of Youth Services, Mount Meigs Campus, Sandy Douglas espe- cially; Alabama State Archives, Montgomery, Alabama, Norwood Kerr in par- xi Acknowledgments ticular; National African American Archives and Museum, Mobile, Alabama; Biblioteca José M. Lázaro, Universidad de Puerto Rico, San Juan; Black Archives, Miami, Florida; Chicago Historical Society; Lansdale Library, University of Baltimore; Library of Congress; National Archives II, Maryland; Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City, Missouri; Newberry Library, Chicago; Richter Library Special Collections, University of Miami; Schomburg Collection on Black Culture, New York Public Library; Special Collections University of Virginia Library; University of Georgia Special Collections; Connecticut Historical Society; and the public libraries of Mobile, Alabama; Kansas City, Kansas; Kansas City, Missouri; Memphis, Tennessee; Birmingham, Alabama; Newark, New Jersey; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and the City of Chicago; and to the uni- versity libraries of the University of Chicago, University of California at Los Angeles and at Berkeley, University of Memphis, University of Pennsylvania, Tulane University, and Williams College. My debt is incalculable for the research assistance I have received over the years as this study commenced and when many sources were not digitized, which meant reading virtually every document that might prove valuable, some of them in foreign languages. I could have never completed this mo- mentous journey without the extraordinarily capable and diligent aid of Aldo Regalado, Chanelle Rose, Cecile Houry, Douglas Kraft, and Ameenah Shakir. The longest-standing assistance and support have come—as it always does— from Diane Spivey, who took time away from her own research and writing to help with mine. All I can say to her is again, thank you. I am beholden to my colleagues in the former Center for Research on Sport in Society at the University of Miami: Jomills Braddock, Robin Bachin, Marvin Dawkins, Jan Sokol-Katz, and Lorrie Fleishman. That was a marvel- ous group to work with, and our time spent in the pursuit of excellence in sport scholarship warms my heart just thinking about it. For those who read and critiqued various chapters I offer once more a heart- felt thank-you, to David Wiggins, Elliott Gorn, Gerald Early, Guido Ruggiero, James Grossman, Jules Tygiel, Mark Naison, Michael Bernath, Richard Crepeau, Steven Riess, and Sydelle Kramer, and for either constructive advice or timely encouragement my indebtedness is warmly extended to Edmund Abaka, Gregory Bush, Harvey Schwartz, Henry Louis Gates, Hermann Beck, Howard Lindsey, Jeffrey Ogbar, Jeffrey Sammons, Joe Trotter, John Hope Franklin, Keith Wailoo, Lawrence Glasco, Monique Bedasse, Randy Roberts, Raymond Mohl, Roger Buckley, Thabiti Asukile, Vincent Thompson, and Whittington Johnson. A special Hall of Fame salute is owed to Larry Lester for lending his prodigious knowledge of the history of the Negro Leagues to the project. My never-ending gratitude to Frederic Jaher, professor emeritus of history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who read the xii Acknowledgments entire manuscript and gave me sage advice, as he has done throughout my ca- reer. I have had the fortune to work with several superb copy editors over the years but none more capable and helpful than Annette Wenda. Thanks and praise are owed to the University of Missouri Press for its long-term commit- ment to the project. Finally, I wish I could say to the many readers, fellow scholars, and countless fans of Satchel Paige that I have captured and been able to convey every crucial point of his remarkable historical journey. What I can say, without hesitation, is that I have given it my very best swing, and that I alone am responsible if I failed to touch each base and to make it all the way to home plate. Warm-ups: A Prelude Fans started streaming into the ballpark at nine in the morning for a game that would be played ten hours later. The attendance broke all previous re- cords for a night game with a capacity crowd of 72,434. Concessionaires start- ed running out of food and beverages before the game started.
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