Tag: Satchel Paige

Quote of the day

November 25, 2019

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.

~Buck O’Neil

Buck O'Neil
Wikipedia

“Glory,” by Yusef Komunyakaa

June 21, 2019

This piece by Yusef Komunyakaa was published originally in Magic City in 1992.  It serves as a nod to black baseball as well as a depiction of baseball as play in juxtaposition to the working lives of black Americans.  Life is hard for these young men, but the game provides them with an outlet to help them get through it all.

*

Most were married teenagers
Working knockout shifts daybreak
To sunset six days a week–
Already old men playing ball
In a field between a row of shotgun houses
& the Magazine Lumber Company.
They were all Jackie Robinson
& Willie Mays, a touch of
Josh Gibson & Satchell Paige
In each stance and swing, a promise
Like a hesitation pitch always
At the edge of their lives,
Arms sharp as rifles.
The Sunday afternoon heat
Flared like thin flowered skirts
As children and wives cheered.
The men were like cats
Running backwards to snag
Pop-ups & high-flies off
Fences, stealing each others’s glory.
The old deacons & raconteurs
Who umpired made an Out or Safe
Into a song & dance routine.
Runners hit the dirt
& slid into homeplate,
Cleats catching light,
As they conjured escapes, outfoxing
Double plays. In the few seconds
It took a man to eye a woman
Upon the makeshift bleachers,
A stolen base or homerun
Would help another man
Survive the new week.

“Rules for Staying Young,” Satchel Paige

February 2, 2019

Like Casey Stengel and Yogi Berra, pitcher Satchel Paige was known for his one-liners .  The “Rules for Staying Young” are a set of these one-liners that were quoted so often while he was alive they were carved into his gravestone.

*

Avoid fried meats which angry up the blood.

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

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

Go very light on the vices, such as carrying on in society — the social ramble ain’t restful.

Avoid running at all times.

And don’t look back.  Something might be gaining on you.

“Poem for My Father,” by Quincy Troupe

June 10, 2018

This piece was published in 1996 in Avalanche, a collection of poetry by Quincy Troupe.  It is not only a piece from a son to his father, but also a great tribute to the Negro Leagues.

*

for Quincy T. Trouppe Sr.

father, it was an honor to be there, in the dugout
with you, the glory of great black men swinging their lives
as bats, at tiny white balls
burning in at unbelievable speeds, riding up & in & out
a curve breaking down wicked, like a ball falling off a table
moving away, snaking down, screwing its stitched magic
into chitlin circuit air, its comma seams spinning
toward breakdown, dipping, like a hipster
bebopping a knee-dip stride, in the charlie parker forties
wrist curling, like a swan’s neck
behind a slick black back
cupping an invisible ball of dreams

& you there, father, regal, as an african, obeah man
sculpted out of wood, from a sacred tree, of no name, no place, origin
thick branches branching down, into cherokee & someplace else lost
way back in africa, the sap running dry
crossing from north carolina into georgia, inside grandmother mary’s
womb, where your mother had you in the violence of that red soil
ink blotter news, gone now, into blood graves
of american blues, sponging rococo
truth long gone as dinosaurs
the agent-oranged landscape of former names
absent of african polysyllables, dry husk, consonants there
now, in their place, names, flat, as polluted rivers
& that guitar string smile always snaking across
some virulent, american, redneck’s face
scorching, like atomic heat, mushrooming over nagasaki
& hiroshima, the fever blistered shadows of it all
inked, as etchings, into sizzled concrete
but you, there, father, through it all, a yardbird solo
riffing on bat & ball glory, breaking down the fabricated myths
of white major league legends, of who was better than who
beating them at their own crap
game, with killer bats, as bud powell swung his silence into beauty
of a josh gibson home run, skittering across piano keys of bleachers
shattering all manufactured legends up there in lights
struck out white knights, on the risky edge of amazement
awe, the miraculous truth sluicing through
steeped & disguised in the blues
confluencing, like the point at the cross
when a fastball hides itself up in a slider, curve
breaking down & away in a wicked, sly grin
curved & posed as an ass-scratching uncle tom, who
like old sachel paige delivering his famed hesitation pitch
before coming back with a hard, high, fast one, is slicker
sliding, & quicker than a professional hitman—
the deadliness of it all, the sudden strike
like that of the “brown bomber’s” crossing right
of sugar ray robinson’s, lightning, cobra bite

& you, there, father, through it all, catching rhythms
of chono pozo balls, drumming, like conga beats into your catcher’s mitt
hard & fast as “cool papa” bell jumping into bed
before the lights went out

of the old, negro baseball league, a promise, you were
father, a harbinger, of shock waves, soon come

Duke | Celebrating five years of baseball blogging

March 6, 2018

Baseball has seen some pretty awesome nicknames over the years: George “Babe” Ruth; Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra; Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown; Jim “Catfish” Hunter; Leon Allen “Goose” Goslin; Leroy “Satchel” Paige; among others.  When I was playing softball through my high school years, I also had a nickname.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly not trying to imply that I belong in the same company as these baseball greats.  It’s just that, on those rare occasions when I stop to reminisce about it, I can’t help but think that it’s pretty cool to be able to say that I once had a ballplayer nickname.

The summer in between my freshman and sophomore years of high school, I was playing ball on a team with the local parks and rec girls’ softball league.  In the later half of the season, the coach for one of the other teams in the league approached me and said that he had signed his team up to participate in a tournament outside of the league, and would I be interested in joining their roster for the tournament?  It’s one heckuva compliment to have another coach be impressed with you enough to invite you for that kind of thing, so naturally, I was all over it.

I was loaned a uniform, number 16, and my dad came out with me to cheer us on.  I don’t recall the exact location of the tournament, only that it was seemingly in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of the metropolitan Kansas City area.  Nor do I recall how we as a team finished in the tournament, but thinking about it doesn’t leave a sour taste in my mouth, so surely it couldn’t have been awful.

I also don’t recall the exact details of how this one particular play unfolded, only that at one point in the tournament, I found myself rounding third, heading home at full speed in what promised to be a close play at the plate.  I reached home at virtually the same moment as the softball.  As the catcher was still scrambling to get control of the ball, she was blocking my path to the plate, leaving me no choice but to plow through her to get where I was going.

I slapped home plate, and there was a pause as the umpire tried to locate the ball.  The catcher didn’t have it.  “Safe!”

There was cheering.  There was congratulations.  Then eventually, that half-inning came to an end.

Playing shortstop for the team in this tournament was Lauren, who was a couple years older than me, and who also happened to be the shortstop for our high school varsity team.  I had spent my freshman season on the JV team, but my goal for my sophomore year was to make varsity, so naturally I admired the girls on the varsity squad.  So it was quite an ego boost when Lauren expressed her approval at my base running.

“You know what?” she said as we ran back out onto the field to take our defensive positions.  “You’re too tough to be called Precious.  From now on, I’m calling you Duke.”

There was a ripple of agreement throughout the field and in the dugout.  And the name stuck.  For the rest of the summer, whenever I was playing softball, my on-field name was Duke.  Then, when the school season began, Lauren ensured the name continued.  Even after Lauren graduated, no matter what team I played on, whether it was with the school or on a summer team somewhere, there always seemed to be a parent or a coach or a teammate from a previous team to perpetuate the nickname.

A couple summers after the nickname was bestowed upon me, I was playing ball with a summer competitive team, and we had a tournament up in the Twin Cities area.  My parents decided to turn it into a family road trip for that weekend.  As we loaded up the SUV with our bags, I discovered that my dad had purchased a glass marker and wrote “DUKE” in big, orange letters across the rear windshield.  I have to admit, I was a bit embarrassed by it.  But it was also really, really cool.

The summer after high school graduation was my last season of organized ball.  Nobody has called me “Duke” since then (and, please, don’t start now).  While I don’t necessarily miss being referred to or cheered on as “Duke,” I sometimes do miss just the concept of the whole thing.  For four years, I was a ballplayer with a pretty cool nickname, and seemingly everybody knew what it was.

Today marks the five year anniversary of my first post on this blog.  While I started this project as a way to stay in touch with the game and to encourage my own continual learning about it, when I reach milestones like this one, I find that it’s kinda fun to share something a bit more personal.  A high school softball nickname isn’t something that comes up in everyday conversation, but it does make for a fun story in appropriate circles.

Thank you, my readers, for following along on my blogging journey.  That it’s been five full years seems a bit unreal to me, but all the posts are there as proof, even to my own eyes.  I look forward to the next five years and hope you’ll continue to hang out with me here as well!