"One handed-down story said he would routinely order his outfielders to abandon their positions or have them sit idly in the grass while he struck out—and thoroughly humiliated—opposing batters. Another piece of folklore said his fastball was so zippy it disappeared in flight, his control so precise he could knock the ash off a teammate’s cigarette with a pitched ball. In yet another tale, Paige supposedly entered a game in relief with a spare baseball stashed in his pocket, went into his windup and, somehow, managed to pick off two base runners and strike out the man at the plate before anyone figured out what had happened. Talk about your 1-2-3 innings!"
In The New York Times, Jonathan Eig reviews Larry Tye's Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend.
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