Editing Satchel Paige (section)

===Cleveland Indians===
On July 7, 1948, Cleveland Indians owner Bill Veeck brought Paige in to try out with Indians [[player-coach]] [[Lou Boudreau]]. On that same day, his 42nd birthday, Paige signed his first major league contract, for $40,000 for the three months remaining in the season, becoming the first black pitcher in the American League and the seventh black big leaguer overall.<ref>Powell, Larry. "Leroy "Satchel" Paige". 2008. ''Encyclopedia of Alabama''.</ref> On July 9, 1948, Paige became the oldest man ever to debut in the National League or American League, at the age of 42 years and two days. When asked about his age, he would reply "If someone asked you how old you were and you didn't know your age, how old would you think you were?" With the St. Louis Browns beating the Indians 4–1 in the bottom of the fourth inning, Boudreau pulled his starting pitcher, Bob Lemon, and sent Paige in. Paige, not knowing the signs and not wanting to confuse his catcher, pitched cautiously. [[Chuck Stevens]] lined a ball to left field for a single. [[Jerry Priddy]] bunted Stevens over to second. Up next was [[Whitey Platt]], and Paige decided to take command. He threw an overhand pitch for a strike and one sidearm for another strike. Paige then threw his "Hesitation Pitch" (see "pitching style" section below), which surprised Platt so much that he threw his bat 40 feet up the third base line. Browns manager [[Zack Taylor (baseball)|Zack Taylor]] bolted from the dugout to talk to umpire [[Bill McGowan]] about the pitch, claiming it was a [[balk]], but McGowan let it stand as a strike. Paige then got [[Al Zarilla]] to fly out to end the inning. The next inning, he gave up a leadoff single, but with his catcher having simplified his signals, Paige got the next batter to hit into a double play, followed by a pop fly. Larry Doby [[Pinch hitter|pinch-hit]] for Paige the following inning.

[[File:Satchel Paige 1949 Bowman.jpg|thumb|190px|left|Paige's 1949 [[Bowman Gum]] baseball card, during his tenure with the Indians]]
Paige got his first big league victory on July 15, 1948, the night after he pitched in an exhibition game against the [[Brooklyn Dodgers]] in front of 65,000 people in Cleveland's [[Cleveland Stadium|Municipal Stadium]]. It came at [[Oakland Athletics|Philadelphia]]'s [[Shibe Park]]. The Indians were up 5–3 and the bases were loaded in the sixth inning of the second game of a double header. He got [[Eddie Joost]] to fly out to end the inning, but gave up two runs the next inning when [[Ferris Fain]] doubled and [[Hank Majeski]] hit a [[home run]]. Paige buckled down and gave up only one more hit the rest of the game, getting five of the next six outs on fly balls.

Longtime [[Chicago Cubs]] broadcaster [[Jack Brickhouse]] once said with amusement that Paige "threw a lot of pitches that were not quite 'legal' and not quite 'illegal.{{'"}} American League President [[Will Harridge]] eventually ruled the hesitation pitch illegal and stated that if Paige threw it again, it would be called a balk. Paige said, "I guess Mr. Harridge did not want me to show up those boys who were young enough to be my sons."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Paige |first=Satchel |others=as told to David Lipman |date=August 1962 |title=Maybe I'll Pitch Forever |pages=81–96 |work=Negro Digest |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RbMDAAAAMBAJ&dq=I+guess+Mr.+Harridge+did+not+want+me+to+show+up+those+boys+who+were+young+enough+to+be+my+sons&pg=PA89 |access-date=July 5, 2022}}</ref>

On August 3, 1948, with the Indians one game behind the Athletics, Boudreau started Paige against the Washington Senators in Cleveland. The 72,562 people that saw the game set a new attendance record for a major league night game. Although a nervous Paige walked two of the first three batters and gave up a triple to [[Bud Stewart]] to fall behind 2–0, by the time he left in the seventh, the Indians were up 4–2 and held on to give him his second victory. His next start was at Comiskey Park in Chicago. 51,013 people paid to see the game, but many thousands more stormed the turnstiles and crashed into the park, overwhelming the few dozen ticket-takers. Paige went the distance, shutting out the White Sox, 5–0, debunking the assumption that nine innings of pitching was now beyond his capabilities.

The Indians were in a heated pennant race on August 20, 1948. Coming into the game against the White Sox, Bob Lemon, [[Gene Bearden]] and [[Sam Zoldak]] had thrown shutouts to run up a 30-inning scoreless streak, 11 shy of the big league record. 201,829 people had come to see his last three starts. For this game in Cleveland, 78,382 people came to see Paige, a full 6,000 more people than the previous night game attendance record. Paige went the distance, giving up two singles and one double for his second consecutive three hit shutout. At that point in the season, Paige was 5–1 with an astoundingly low 1.33 ERA. He made one appearance in the [[1948 World Series]]. He pitched for two-thirds of an inning in Game Five<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CLE/CLE194810100.shtml|title=1948 World Series Game 5, Boston Braves at Cleveland Indians, October 10, 1948 - Baseball-Reference.com|website=Baseball-Reference.com}}</ref> while the Indians were trailing the [[Boston Braves (baseball)|Boston Braves]]. Paige gave up a [[sacrifice fly]] to [[Warren Spahn]], got called for a balk, and got [[Tommy Holmes]] to ground out to shortstop Lou Boudreau. The Indians won the series in six games.

Paige ended the 1948 season with a 6–1 record with a 2.48 ERA, 2 shutouts, 43 strikeouts, 22 walks and 61 base hits allowed in 72{{frac|2|3}} innings. There was some discussion of Paige possibly winning the Rookie of the Year Award. While technically a "rookie" to the majors, the 20-plus-year veteran Paige regarded such an idea with disdain and considered rejecting the award if it were to be given. The issue proved moot, as both versions of the award (by [[Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award|Major League Baseball]] and by ''[[Sporting News Rookie of the Year Award|Sporting News]]'') were given to other players. The year 1949 was not nearly as good for Paige as 1948. He ended the season with a 4–7 record and was 1–3 in his starts with a 3.04 ERA. After the season, with Veeck selling the team to pay for his divorce, the Indians gave Paige his unconditional release.