Satchel Paige

Satchel Paige, born Leroy Robert Paige in 1906 and died in 1982, was an American right-handed pitcher whose career ran across five decades and linked the Negro leagues to Major League Baseball. He began with the semi-professional Mobile Tigers in the mid 1920s, turned professional in 1926 with the Chattanooga Black Lookouts and became one of the best-known stars of Black baseball, famous for barnstorming tours on which he sometimes had his infielders sit down behind him while he struck out the side. In 1948, at the age of 42, he debuted for the Cleveland Indians and became the oldest debutant in professional baseball. That year he also became the first Negro league veteran to pitch in a World Series, which Cleveland won. He later pitched for the St. Louis Browns and was an All-Star in 1952 and 1953, and he threw his last major league game at 59, a record in any professional sport. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971 through the Negro League Committee.