Larry Tye has been an award-winning journalist at The Boston Globe and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He now runs a Boston-based training program for medical journalists. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Satchel and Bobby Kennedy, as well as Superman, The Father of Spin, Home Lands, Rising from the Rails, and Demagogue, and co-author, with Kitty Dukakis, of Shock. He lives in Massachusetts.
“Having known Satchel when I was a young ballplayer, I’m reminded
of the man who took over the game with both his superior pitching
and his dynamic personality. This book is a must-read that captures
the essence of one of the greatest legends in baseball history,
Satchel Paige.”—Dusty Baker
"Knowing Satchel Paige is knowing nobody like him. This is a superb
book about an outstanding man."—Yogi Berra
“First, make a list of, say, the five athletes of all time you'd
want to invite to the house for a night of beer and nonsense.
Second, if you haven't picked Leroy (Satchel) Paige, one of the
others has to go. (Good-bye Wilt, Arnie, Whomever.) Third, get up
the cash for this book and Satchel's there. Larry Tye delivers him
in fine, robust prose, living and breathing, riding the buses and
breaking off outrageous curve balls and figuring out the
complexities of segregated America. Great stuff.”—Leigh Montville,
author of The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth
“Satchel is a wonderful book. Larry Tye, with his deep
research and clear writing, does not just baseball fans but all of
America a great service by showing us the real Leroy Paige and
why he deserves his legendary status on and off the mound.”—David
Maraniss, author of Clemente and When Pride Still Mattered
"It takes nothing away from Jackie Robinson to note, as Larry Tye
does in this important new book, that Satchel Paige—he of a
fastball of historic proportions--is an overlooked pioneer in the
integration of baseball, and of America itself. This engaging
biography sheds light not only on Paige but on the game and the
country he helped change forever.”—Jon Meacham
Leroy "Satchel" Paige is a poster child for the tragedy of segregated baseball. He could have dominated major league pitching but got a chance with the Indians only at the end of his career. Paige could have been the star to break baseball's color line, but Jackie Robinson got first crack as a "safer choice." While there are stacks of biographies about Robinson, this is the first attempt at a full, major biography of Paige. Tye, a journalist, is more noted for his labor histories, such as Rising from the Rails, about black rail porters. However, he's a passionate baseball fan with a strong interest in the history of segregated America. Why has so little been written about Paige? One factor is the difficulty of getting reliable information. Paige was well known for embellishing stories. Tye masterfully weaves primary and oral sources together to create a credible biography of a talkative yet elusive subject. We can hope that his occasional sloppiness when it comes to sports facts (e.g., he refers to Joltin' Joe Dimaggio as "Jumpin'" Joe) will have been corrected for publication because this is an important book about a neglected figure in baseball history. Recommended for all readers in sports as well as 20th-century America.-Randall Schroeder, Ferris State Univ., Big Rapids, MI Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.
"Having known Satchel when I was a young ballplayer, I'm reminded
of the man who took over the game with both his superior pitching
and his dynamic personality. This book is a must-read that captures
the essence of one of the greatest legends in baseball history,
Satchel Paige."-Dusty Baker
"Knowing Satchel Paige is knowing nobody like him. This is a superb
book about an outstanding man."-Yogi Berra
"First, make a list of, say, the five athletes of all time you'd
want to invite to the house for a night of beer and nonsense.
Second, if you haven't picked Leroy (Satchel) Paige, one of the
others has to go. (Good-bye Wilt, Arnie, Whomever.) Third, get up
the cash for this book and Satchel's there. Larry Tye delivers him
in fine, robust prose, living and breathing, riding the buses and
breaking off outrageous curve balls and figuring out the
complexities of segregated America. Great stuff."-Leigh
Montville, author of The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe
Ruth
"Satchel is a wonderful book. Larry Tye, with his deep
research and clear writing, does not just baseball fans but all of
America a great service by showing us the real Leroy Paige and why
he deserves his legendary status on and off the mound."-David
Maraniss, author of Clemente and When Pride Still
Mattered
"It takes nothing away from Jackie Robinson to note, as Larry Tye
does in this important new book, that Satchel Paige-he of a
fastball of historic proportions--is an overlooked pioneer in the
integration of baseball, and of America itself. This engaging
biography sheds light not only on Paige but on the game and the
country he helped change forever."-Jon Meacham
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