I Shot Leroy “Satchel” Paige Focusing on Two Areas at the Same Time
Leroy “Satchel” Paige in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Photo © Mark Petty 1980
Text © Mark Petty 2024
“Why does that son-of-a-bitch get to take pictures of me for free?” asks Satchel Paige, his glare and enormous pointer finger aimed directly at me.
I’m sitting Indian style on the sidewalk in front of him at a press conference outside our motel in Hattiesburg, MS where the made-for-TV movie Don’t Look Back: The Story of Leroy “Satchel” Paige is being filmed. Someone from the movie production company walks over to Paige, bends down, and quietly tells him his contract requires him to appear at the press conference to be photographed and answer questions. I can hear everything that is said. Paige doesn’t like the answer, but grudgingly lets me continue. The year is 1980.
He’s being interviewed by a man who is writing a book on the great surviving Negro League baseball players, including Satchel Paige, who were not allowed to play in the Major Leagues until it was integrated by Jackie Robinson in 1947. The interviewer has a ball autographed by each player he’s interviewed. In my photograph Paige is holding that ball after signing it.
I’m shooting wide open with an old Nikon 300mm f/4.5 on a Nikkormat. Satchel’s face is so full of character I want to fill the frame with it as much as possible. I want something else. I want his enormous hand, cradling the baseball, to be in focus as well.
I’m shooting judiciously because we’ll be in Hattiesburg for several days documenting the filming of the movie and I want to minimize the amount of film I have to soup because I’m a one-man freelancer who does all his own B&W developing and printing. Plus, Paige will be on the field for some of the filming tomorrow, providing more, hopefully better opportunities.
At first, I take a few shots concentrating only on his facial expression. Then I narrow my “focus” dramatically and only shoot when I think his eyes and his hand are in the same plane of focus. During the 30-minute press conference I shot no more than 10 frames, and only one of them has everything I am looking for - a good expression, with only his face and his hand in focus.
Lou Gossett Jr. portrays Paige in the movie, and Cleavon Little is a character named Rabbit. George C. Scott is the director at the beginning of the filming but is replaced at some point and does not ultimately receive a credit. It is being filmed in Hattiesburg because of its vintage ballpark. Built by the WPA during the Great Depression of the 1930s, it is considered typical of the stadiums in which the Negro Leagues played.
Born in 1906, Paige broke into the Negro Leagues pitching for the Birmingham Black Barons in 1927. At 6’ 3” tall and 180 pounds, he played in the Negro Leagues until 1948 when he became a member of the Cleveland Indians. Some say he is the oldest rookie in Major League Baseball history. It was the year after Jackie Robinson integrated baseball playing for the Dodgers.
Paige’s rookie year, he was 41 when the season began. He started seven games and appeared in a total of 21. His record was 6 wins, 1 loss, with an ERA of 2.48. That year the Cleveland Indians won the World Series, though he didn’t pitch much in the 1948 series. The Indians, now known as the Guardians, have not won the World Series since then.
At age 46 Paige retired from MLB in 1953. During his Major League career Paige posted incredible numbers. He started 198 games and appeared in a total of 403 games, pitching 1,751 innings and striking out 1501 batters. He posted 124 wins and 82 losses with an ERA of 2.7.
During his career Paige posted a WAR statistic of 46.9, which is astounding. Only four active pitchers in MLB as of this writing have a WAR higher than Paige’s: Chris Sale, Max Scherzer, Clayton Kershaw, and Justin Verlander.