I just finished reading SATCHEL: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF AN AMERICAN LEGEND by Larry Tye.  Satchel Paige may have been the best pitcher in the history of baseball, but he was black.  He wasn’t allowed to play white ball until late in his career.  In 1972 he was  inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.  1972 was the year the Hall of Fame decided to accept one black player a year based on his record in the old Negro Leagues and Satchel was the first.  Blacks would now be allowed into the Hall of Fame, but Jim Crow wasn’t done.  Blacks had a separate wing from white inductees.  That eventually changed, but…

This book is full of statistics as a good baseball book would be, but it also portrays the fascinating and a bit screwy character Satchel was.  For instance, he had several birth dates.  The book has vignettes on many players black and white.