Ride 'em Hard

[Yossarian]

5 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I have not, I'm sure it's very interesting.  Paige was probably one of the guys mentioned above who was a physical freak and whose body didn't break down at levels of abuse in 30 years that would have crushed a normal major leaguer in a season or two.

But also the Negro Leagues were something like Korea or Japan or Cuba today.  They had 28-year-old inner circle HOFers on the same field with 16-year-olds and 43-year-olds and guys who were A ball quality.  The Homestead Grays would play the Baltimore Black Sox one day, and some local semi-pro team the next.  Paige would almost certainly have been able to pace himself at reduced effort for a lot of his herculean stretches.

That's true.  The accounts in the book talk about his barnstorming days.  Everybody wanted to see him pitch when he came into town.  He had to pitch almost every night to keep crowds coming to watch those games.  His baseball exploits are only part of his story.  He had a personality bigger than life.  Nobody can ever say he didn't live his life to the fullest.  It would have been a fulfilling experience just sitting down and chatting with him for a few hours about his life, baseball and otherwise.