As a member of the Society for American Baseball Research, I have accumulated some interesting history. One item I picked up was a 1948 booklet published by the Cleveland News that contained oral interviews with Satchel Paige, arguably the greatest pitcher of all time.<\/p>\n
Satchel, who got that nickname because as a young boy he could tote more satchels than any other bag handler at the Mobile, Alabama train depot, explains, \u201cI was called Satchel because first they saw the satchels \u2013 then they saw me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He tells the story of being a kid in a gang.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had the best sham battlin\u2019 crew in Mobile Bay and I was known as the straightest brick thrower in Mobile.<\/p>\n
\u201cY\u2019understand now, I didn\u2019t learn to be a brick thrower. It was born in me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was born with speed and control. I came into the world with both right from the start. Course I didn\u2019t realize I had a gift till I began to pitch professional baseball, but I shoulda known early. I shoulda known when I throwed my first brick.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the fellow I was throwin\u2019 at hid behind a tree or pole, I\u2019d get him anyhow, long as he left a little backside stickin\u2019 out. And if they hid complete I\u2019d wait \u2018til they did a little peekin\u2019, then wham, I got my man.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou won\u2019t believe it, but I learned my hesistation pitch throwin\u2019 bricks. If a man was throwin\u2019 at you, you wouldn\u2019t just stand there, you\u2019d duck. But if a man started to throw and you ducked, and then he stopped, where would you be?<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy you\u2019d be standin\u2019 there duckin\u2019 with your bare face, ready to be bongoed big as you please.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s exactly how I studied my hesitation pitch. I start my throw. The target ducks, I hesitate. He\u2019s still duckin\u2019. Wham, I got my man.<\/p>\n
\u201cYears later, after some of my pitchin\u2019 speed wore out, I remembered that old fooler hesitation pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I know I ain\u2019t shy, and I know you ain\u2019t goin\u2019 to believe what I say right now, but this is fact: When I went swimmin\u2019 with my gang, the Oakdale School crowd didn\u2019t throw no bricks at us. Those Oakdale boys knew I was the best brick thrower in Mobile.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo did the lady truant officer. I should remember her name \u2018cause she came \u2018round to my house so often. But I don\u2019t. All I remember is we called her Mrs. Police. She would come to our homes and report \u201cSo and so is down throwin\u2019 bricks at the mules and chickens.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHad to keep our arms sharp, y\u2019understand.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I never got in no serious trouble. Knocked a few fellows unconscious, but nothin\u2019 serious. I know there\u2019s lotsa head knots runnin\u2019 round Mobile right now that I helped raise. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I stang those fellows then, they didn\u2019t like me nohow.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnow what they say now? They show the knot and say, nice and proud, \u201cSee this lump\u2014Satchel grew it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cKeeps their hats from flyin\u2019 off.\u201d<\/p>\n
****<\/p>\n
[I]Coldeen is a longtime journalist in the CNMI and is currently the news director of KSPN2[\/I]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As a member of the Society for American Baseball Research, I have accumulated some interesting history. One item I picked up was a 1948 booklet published by the Cleveland News that contained oral interviews with Satchel Paige, arguably the greatest pitcher of all time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126621\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}