Bottom of the Ninth (cover) Part 3
When Cecilia Tan, Publications Editor of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), sent me the table of contents for the upcoming issue of the Baseball Research Journal, one article jumped out from the rest: Mark Armour’s piece, “Satchel’s Wild Ride (to the Hall of Fame).” “Satchel,” of course is THE Satchel Paige, regarded by many as the greatest pitcher in baseball history. Obviously, he would be the cover star for the Fall 2024 BRJ.
My next step was to figure out how I would depict Satch. His amazing career stretched from the 1920s through the 1960s. Along the way he starred in the Negro Leagues, pitched in a dozen different countries, barnstormed all over North America, and was one of the first Black players to integrate the Majors Leagues.
So which Satch do I choose?
I could go with an interpretation of the famous photo of Satch in his Kansas City Monarchs uniform with his glove over his chest. Or maybe something when he was with the Cleveland Indians. Then there are those publicity shots of him in a rocking chair in the bullpen when he was still pitching in the 1960s. All of those images are iconic, and when you see them, you know it’s Satch.
They’re are all fine choices, you can’t go wrong with any of them, and that’s the Satchel Paige every baseball fan is familiar with. It’s the Satchel Paige who had made it.
But, if you’ve followed my work for a while, you’ll know that I don’t like to take the well-traveled road. To me, especially when it comes to the uber-famous players like Satchel Paige, it’s the little-known or overlooked periods of a career that I think tells a better story and helps understand a player better.
I thought back to an old story I wrote for my website more than a decade ago about Satchel Paige’s 1939-1940 seasons. Up until that point in his career, Satchel had become famous around the country for his pitching feats. His record of countless no-hitters, tales of him calling in his fielders as he struck out the side, and his reputation as the best pitcher outside the Major Leagues had made him an almost Paul Bunyan-esque type of character.
I wanted to depict Satchel during these years when he was touring the country with the Kansas City Monarchs traveling team. Unlike the regular Monarchs league team, the traveling team featured Paige front and center and was a wildly popular attraction throughout the country in 1939-40. This was a very important period of Satchel’s career because he had blown his arm out in pitching in Mexico in 1938 or 1939. Nothing he tried brought back his legendary fastball, and it looked like his career had suddenly ended at the height of his popularity.
Then, the Kansas City Monarchs took a chance and signed him knowing about his dead arm. But, realizing he couldn’t compete in league play, the Monarchs sent him off with their second team which was a traveling club.
They renamed the team the “Satchel Paige All-Stars,” and as they played in every nook and cranny of the western half of North America, Satch introduced himself to countless fans – much more than if he had just played in the Negro American League with the regular Kansas City Monarchs.
I wanted to show Satchel Paige during this transitional period when his career was uncertain, but also a time where thousands of fans packed small town ballparks to get a look at the fabled Blackball star. Day-in and day-out, Paige would throw a few innings of painful fastballs to local town team ballplayers who were itching to brag that they got a hit off the legendary pitcher.
Yeah, it was this rock-bottom period of Satchel Paige’s career that I wanted to depict.
To me, this 1939-40 transformative period when his livelihood was on the line and future unclear shows both Paige’s humbling and resilience. Instead of packing it in, Satch dutifully pitched game after game as the All-Stars barnstormed around the country. Then, one day, the arm was suddenly cured. He joined the regular league Monarchs and went on to have the wildly successful second half of his career we all know about.
When I think of Satch during that 1939-40 period, I picture the slim pitcher standing on the mound of some out of the way ballpark out on the plains. For some reason, the time of day seems like late afternoon or dusk to me. Probably a Sunday. Long shadows. I can see a worried yet defiant former star, holding on to his past and unsure of what the future brings. That’s the Satchel I wanted to show on the new BRJ cover.
My next move was to do a few quick sketches and bring my vision to life. This I did in my pocket sketchbook.
I then refined it a bit, added the masthead, and typed out the background story about depicting Paige during that trying 1939-40 period. I submitted it to SABR CEO Scott Bush and Publications Editor Cecilia Tan to see what they thought.
Before long, Cecilia gave me her okay and Scott said he was on board, but was curious to know what the color palette would be. I explained my vision of late afternoon on the plains and put together two quick sky color studies.
Both Scott and Cecilia liked the pink color scheme the best. Palette set, I was off and running.
Tomorrow, I’ll show you how I began crafting the final piece and some of the research that went into bringing my circa 1939 Satchel Paige portrait to life.
Here are some handy links to the other parts of this series: