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Satchel Paige We've all heard stories about the indeterminate age of
legendary Negro League pitcher Leroy "Satchel" Paige. In light of my
comments on the Other Demographic Information
page about how difficult it is to pin down a ballplayer's exact date of
birth, I bet you're expecting me to say he might have been born pretty much any
time, right? Actually Paige's date of birth -- July 7, 1906 -- is very
well documented and is almost certainly right. First and foremost is the birth
certificate, which gives that date of birth. That is confirmed by the 1910
census, on which he is listed as four years old. The Social Security Death Index
also provides that date of birth.
All of the confusion stems from Bill Veeck's belief that mystery about
Paige's birthdate would make for good publicity. Paige played along with
Veeck's wishes, and made a lot of contradictory statements that the press lapped
up. But when you look at the actual evidence, there's no real mystery at
all ... except about the correct spelling of his surname, which apparently was
Page at the time of his birth and was subsequently changed. |
