‘He was a legend’: An oral history of Satchel Paige’s final game at 59

“Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it don’t matter.”

– Leroy “Satchel” Paige

Long after Satchel Paige became a legend for the ages as a pitcher, performer and philosopher, he achieved one of the most remarkable feats in baseball history on Sept. 25, 1965.

At age 59 – his official birthdate was July 7, 1906 – and a dozen years removed from his most recent major league outing, Paige threw three scoreless innings for the Kansas City Athletics against the Boston Red Sox, the American League’s top slugging offense. The oldest player ever to appear in a Major League Baseball game gave up only one hit (to a fellow future Hall of Famer) and no walks.

For the conclusion of Black History Month 2025, Andscape presents an in-depth two-part story on Paige’s accomplishment, featuring firsthand accounts from interviews conducted since November 2024 with more than 40 people, including more than 20 players. The recollections have been edited and condensed, and they are accompanied by excerpts from a newly obtained recording of the Kansas City radio broadcast of Paige’s ’65 performance.

Paige’s signing with the A’s 15 days before the game was seen as the latest publicity stunt of Charles O. “Charlie” Finley, who bought the ballclub before the 1961 season and fancied himself a master promoter a la Bill Veeck, the inventive owner of Cleveland in the 1940s and the St. Louis Browns in the ‘50s who hired Paige to pitch for both of those teams. Finley was colorful and controversial, as he fielded a perennial loser and entertained moving the team from Kansas City to Louisville, Dallas or other possible landing spots.

As the 1965 season wound down, the last-place A’s were headed for their worst record (59-103) and lowest attendance (528,304) since the franchise relocated from Philadelphia a decade earlier. Two days before signing Paige, Finley drew 21,576 – the fourth-largest home crowd of the season – by having Bert Campaneris become the first big leaguer ever to play all nine positions in one game.  But without gimmicks and giveaways, the 10th-place team was hard-pressed to attract 2,000 fans for September games at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.

A pioneer in race relations and the business of sports, Paige was reputed to have pitched more games before more people in more places than anyone. And the Mobile, Alabama, native was especially popular in his adopted hometown of Kansas City, where his overpowering fastball and unrivaled repertoire helped the K.C. Monarchs of the Negro American League win four pennants in the 1940s.

In a professional career that began in the mid-1920s, Paige dazzled and defeated his fellow Negro Leaguers, as well as big names from the all-white major leagues with whom he barnstormed and other ballplayers throughout the U.S., Latin America and Canada. In our 1999 interview, Ted Williams, regarded by many as the game’s greatest hitter, called Paige the “greatest draw, greatest pitcher,” a description reinforced by statistics and even more so by stories.

But the MLB door was shut for Paige until his birthday in 1948, 15 months after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. Veeck, 38, made Paige, 42, the oldest “rookie” in major league history and the American League’s first Black pitcher. Paige pitched mostly in relief, went 6-1, had more than 150,000 fans flock to his first two starts at Cleveland Municipal Stadium – both victories – and helped his team win the championship.

After Paige’s second season for Cleveland, Veeck sold the ballclub, and the new owners got rid of Paige. Then in 1951, Veeck brought Paige to his new franchise. He pitched three seasons for the Browns and made the 1952 and 1953 All-Star games, becoming the oldest player to appear in one at age 47. Veeck sold the team following the 1953 season, and the new owners moved it to Baltimore and released Paige.

Over the next 12 years, Paige continued to pitch far and wide in exhibitions and minor league games, including from 1956-58 for the Miami Marlins, a Triple-A team run by Veeck in 1956 when Paige went 11-4 with a 1.86 E.R.A., 13 saves and two shutouts. True to the showmanship of both men, the peripatetic pitcher’s signing was a secret until he arrived on the field by helicopter after the first inning of Miami’s opening game. As the fans cheered, the nearly 50-year-old Paige – already in uniform – walked to a padded armchair awaiting him in the bullpen.

In 1965, Paige’s daughter Pamela, 17, typed and sent letters to every major league team, seeking a roster opportunity for her father. There were no takers until September, when Finley, 47, gave the 59-year-old Paige a $4,000 contract through the end of the season. He was joining a ballclub with five players 20 or younger, including future Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter, and only one coach older than he was – Hall of Famer Gabby Hartnett (the staff also included Hall of Famer Luke Appling and Whitey Herzog, a 2010 inductee).

PAUL FINLEY, Charlie Finley’s son, attended 9/25/65 game at age 12: If Bill Veeck did something, my dad had to have it in the back of his mind.

MIKE VEECK, Bill Veeck’s son and longtime baseball executive, was 14 in September 1965: We all knew where it [Paige’s signing with the A’s] came from. To his credit, he [Finley] was always complimentary. There was a grudging respect on both sides.

On Sept. 10, 1965, the team was on the road, Finley was in Chicago at the office of his insurance business, and A’s general manager Hank Peters posed with Paige at a Kansas City news conference pulled together with little notice. An apparent example of mid-1960s racial attitudes and inequity was United Press International’s wire story account of some of Paige’s quotes, printed the next day in dozens of newspapers coast to coast:

“I’ll just keep muh fastball off the fat of the bat.”  

“Muh fastball is still muh money pitch.”  

 “I can still handle the hitters in the big show. I’se know I can. Alls I want is the chance.”

Finley’s promotional escapades in 1965 had already included a mule named Charlie-O as the team mascot at home and on the road, “Harvey” the mechanized rabbit providing baseballs to umpires, and livestock such as sheep and goats at the ballpark – in addition to the unprecedented Sept. 8 Campaneris game, in which the ambidextrous second-year player pitched the eighth inning as a righty and lefty and got injured on a home plate collision when he played catcher in the ninth.  

When the A’s enlisted Paige, it wasn’t the only page Finley took from Veeck’s playbook. Veeck, whose three signings of Paige were also derided as publicity stunts, had supplied comfortable chairs specifically for Paige in St. Louis and Miami in the 1950s – and photographs of him in the chairs appeared all over the country.  

Finley might well have had one-upping Veeck in mind when he brought in a very large antique rocking chair for the 6-foot-3, 180-pound Paige to use adjacent to the A’s bullpen, just past their dugout on the first-base side, with a woman in a nurse’s outfit and a water boy stationed alongside the rocking righthander – all a magnet for photo ops. Finley told reporters that the chair was 150 years old, and he received special permission from the league to have Paige sit in it during games.

Just as with the dugout, the bullpen was a few feet below the playing field. According to Finley, Paige said, “Man alive, I’m close enough to below the surface as it is,” adding, “I want to spend the rest of my days on at least even ground.”  

JOHN O’DONOGHUE, A’s pitcher, age 25 in September 1965:  Charlie Finley and Ringling Brothers would have gone well together. Publicity man Jim Schaaf came into our clubhouse and said Satchel Paige would join our ballclub. Word was Charlie wanted to give him time for his pension, which we thought was terrific.   

PAUL FINLEY: My dad knew he was helping Satchel, and also helping get some attendance into the park, so I think that was a proud moment for him to be able to do that.  

SKIP LOCKWOOD, A’s third baseman, age 19 in September 1965:  I came into the clubhouse and saw my name was almost gone from my locker and the name “Paige” was also there. I said, “Oh my God, I’m being released.”  That’s how I found out about him joining the team – we shared a locker. I was white and the youngest kid in the league at the time, you couldn’t have two more different people. He was three times my age and still playing; I respected that.

RENE LACHEMANN, A’s catcher, age 20 in September 1965: The first time we saw him go out on the ballfield, I was there to catch some of his side work and it was amazing.  We didn’t know how old he was.  We didn’t have a radar gun at that time, he might’ve been throwing 84, 85 miles an hour, if that, but he had tremendous control.  He could locate both sides of the plate and had all different pitches that he could throw. He said, “I can hit a gum wrapper wherever you put it.” I put one, I think it was Juicy Fruit, on the side of the plate – and it’s a tiny little gum wrapper – and I put my glove there and bang, he hit it. He hit it two or three times.

GEORGE TOMA, A’s head groundskeeper, age 36 in September 1965: Every day by the bullpen in right field we would put out the rocker for him and then put it back in a shed. I wish I knew what happened to it.

PAUL FINLEY: My mother was an antiquer and found that rocker and it was in need of rehabbing. My dad saw it, wanted it refinished, and he told everybody – since it was very wide – it was President William Howard Taft’s rocking chair. My mom bought it, maybe in Michigan where she went to see antiques, and maybe she heard about Taft first? It was completely rehabbed and had very shiny green leather. And when you would sit in it, it was very comfortable, but your arms had to reach out to reach the ends of it.

JACK AKER, A’s pitcher, age 25 in September 1965: In the old stadium in Kansas City, the bullpen and bench were underground like a pit, and Satchel said, “I’m afraid to go in, I won’t be able to get out.” We weren’t winning many games, and we were afraid we’d get released if we sat in his rocking chair.  

PAUL FINLEY: My dad figured that because of Satchel’s age he wanted to make a bigger deal out of it, so he puts him in a rocker. I can imagine my dad said, “We’ll get the rocker there, and we’ll get some nurses, he’s so old.” And I remember it being crated up and shipped from our farm in Indiana to Kansas City and then shipped back when it was done. The last time I saw it I probably was in my 20s, and I don’t know what happened to it after that.

PAMELA PAIGE O’NEAL, Satchel Paige’s daughter, attended 9/25/65 game at age 17: To us, that was just comical. We didn’t see our father as an old man.

A day before Paige’s planned return to the mound in a game, City Hall ceremonies honored him, as the mayor declared Sept. 25 “Satchel Paige Day.” Former Monarchs teammate Buck O’Neil recounted how in 1942, with the Negro World Series on the line, Paige intentionally walked two batters to load the bases to face the great Josh Gibson. Paige then told Gibson he’d throw three straight fastballs, which he did, striking him out looking.

Paige’s remarks before the city’s top officials fueled, as always, mystery about his true age, then he concluded with “I am very glad to be back again because I am trying to get my pension.” A councilman noted Finley’s role in giving Paige that opportunity.  Mayor Ilus Davis read aloud a city council proclamation that spelled the honoree’s first name as “Satchell” and included the following, after five other “Whereas” passages: 

“Whereas to insure (sic) every comfort and convenience for Satchell Paige during the games the rocking chair has been installed next to the dugout, complete with an attractive nurse to fill his every request.”

SANDRA DAMON, a nurse who appeared with Paige on Sept. 21, 1965, at age 23: One afternoon I was shopping in a drugstore. I was still wearing my white uniform, sans nurse’s cap, when I was approached by a representative of the A’s. It was a one-day gig. I was to bring him refreshments and keep him comfortable. They set us up away from the fans so there was very little interaction with others. He was a quiet man and didn’t say a lot.

BILL BRYAN, A’s catcher for 9/25/65 game at age 26: I didn’t really know how old he was. And Satch, he liked to kid a little bit, too, and he might be one age one day and one another (laughs), so you just had to keep up with the way things went.

SKIP LOCKWOOD: He was always talking about his age, saying, “stay young.” It had an impact on me. And he always had pearls of wisdom. He told me, “Don’t ever let them take that uniform away.” Certain things you notice and copy. We had those old metal hangers, and I noticed he hung his britches from the top. He took the hanger and put it up by the belt, so the width was by the pockets, not folded at the crease. I liked it, so I copied it and still do it today.

RENE LACHEMANN: The whole time was very educational for me as far as seeing how he went about his business, taking care of himself and everything like that. He didn’t believe in running, but he was throwing pitches from the mound, that’s how he got his exercise in. He got himself back in shape to be able to go ahead and throw three major league innings, which was an amazing feat, to tell you the truth.

PAMELA PAIGE O’NEAL: He did his own kind of workouts in the backyard or running down Paseo Boulevard. As his daughters, we probably were busy making sure he had everything, he had medication, he had all of his rubs and personal items.

RENE LACHEMANN: He had tremendous balance with his body, all kinds of deliveries, all different angles. He had the eephus ball, the curveball, he’d drop down sidearm and make things sink. I said, “You putting s–t on that ball there?” And he said, “No, no, no, no,” so I don’t know. He wouldn’t tell me what the hell was in his satchel, so I knew he wasn’t gonna tell me what he’s put on the ball. Guys were doctoring the balls, using spitters and stuff at that time, too. But he said, “No, no, it’s just my natural sinker. That’s a ‘sinky,’ Lach.”

DON BUSCHHORN, A’s pitcher, age 19 in September 1965: He looked older than 59.  Of course, when you’re around 20, everybody looks old. I figured he was 60, 65 or older.

RENE LACHEMANN: He would say in an honest way, “You know, I could’ve been pitching up here for 15, 20 years, if I would’ve had an opportunity to.” And he said, “When I played against them in the exhibition games, the majority of the players were telling me I could’ve pitched in the major leagues and I was one of the better pitchers that they had seen. So that made me feel very, very good, knowing that these were star major league players. I wish I could’ve done that, you know? But that doesn’t take away the time that I had in the Negro Leagues,” because he said he had a great time in the Negro Leagues.

KEN HARRELSON, A’s first baseman, age 24 in Sept. 1965: I was awed. He was a legend. I think we were all thrilled, just happy to be around him – we all loved him.

WILFORD BRUCE, A’s grounds crew member at age 18 in Sept. 1965: It was special for a ghetto kid to see a legend, not too many times to see a Black legend like that.

RENE LACHEMANN: He was throwing batting practice to us, and I said, “Hey Satch, throw me that eephus pitch you got there.” And he threw it to me, and I hit it out of the ballpark, and I said, “Yeah,” and kind of laughed and grinned at him. And I said, “Throw me another one of them sons of b—–s.” The next thing he threw was a hesitation pitch, and next thing I knew it was on top of me. A fastball, I tried to swing, it just blew up my bat, splintered it right in half, it was in pieces. He says, “Go ahead and eephus on that.” Everybody was laughing. You could see he was a tremendous competitor.

TOMMIE REYNOLDS, A’s leftfielder for 9/25/65 game at age 24: He was a guy you wanted to rub shoulders with, he could teach you a lot about the game and about life. I loved going out to the bullpen. You’d listen and say, “Wow.” He told us how he traveled, but he didn’t complain. He had a lot of stories and sayings. He said, “If you see me in a fight with a bear, don’t go help me, help the bear.” I wish I had spent more time with him. Lach spent a lot of time with him.

RENE LACHEMANN: I wanted to find out about the Negro Leagues a lot. We had Campy Campaneris, one of the best base stealers in the game at that time, and I said, “Hey, Satch, have you ever seen anybody run as fast as Campy?” And he says, “Yeah. Don’t talk to me about that.” He said, “Had a roommate in the Negro Leagues named Cool Papa Bell and he’d turn the light out in the room and be in bed before it got dark.” And I said, “Satch, I’ve heard that story. That’s an old story.” He said, “Well, I tell you one thing, guarantee you hadn’t seen this one. I’ve seen Cool Papa Bell hit a one-hop ball right through the pitcher’s legs and it hit him in the ass sliding into second.” I said, “No, no, I ain’t heard of that one before. So, yeah, you taught me with that one.”

MONTE MOORE, A’s radio broadcaster for 9/25/65 game at age 35: I was thoroughly enthralled and excited to meet him and to have him in the booth with us a couple of times, including on a road trip to Boston. At the back of the plane there was a table, and he drew a crowd, telling stories. I think he was tremendous. What really impressed me was how gentle he was with our players and just to see his patience with all of us. He was a gentle giant.

RENE LACHEMANN: He was very quiet in a lot of ways, and you had to go ahead and make sure you talked to him to get stuff out of him, as far as I was concerned. I’d get him on the bus a lot and sometimes down in the bullpen. It was very interesting for me to find out the background of the Negro Leagues, which I respected, and knowing about how good they were and what they did to become star baseball players. I’m very appreciative that I had a chance to be with somebody like that. Not many people could ever think about having the chance that I had to associate with him and be a three-week friend of his. What Satchel gave me was some wonderful times.

BILL BRYAN: Everybody was pretty enthused about getting to know him and Satch sat during the ballgames in his rocking chair and loved to talk and tell stories. He was good about demonstrating his wisdom in baseball and the things that he tried to do to make himself better and bring himself up. And Satch was a big family man and liked to talk about them a lot and his hometown in Alabama. I never knew him to have any bad things to say about anybody, he always loved to talk and get your idea. He would listen, too, and he wanted to help really.

RENE LACHEMANN: He would tell me about Josh Gibson, how one time he hit what they said was the longest home run in in baseball history. He hit it over the fence in Mobile and he said it went something like 500 miles. I said, “You mean 500 feet.” He said, “No, 500 miles, son.” I said, “How the hell are you talking about 500 miles?” Well, there was a railroad behind the center field stands there and he hit it and it landed in one of the box cars and so it ended up someplace I think in Birmingham or wherever the hell it was. But it was stuff like that that he would give me.

DON BUSCHHORN: I remember a lot of things about him. He got along with everybody, he was one helluva nice guy, he didn’t have an arrogant bone in his body.

WES STOCK, A’s pitcher, age 31 in September 1965: I was in the bullpen, we talked to him down there all the time. We were just asking him a lot of questions. I remember him being humble, he would sit there and talk to all of us.

PAMELA PAIGE O’NEAL: I think that’s just absolutely a perfect statement. He was humble. He was extremely helpful. He supported and pushed those who were around him. He was a trash talker, though. And that would be fun. And we enjoyed it. But as far as putting himself first, no. He said, “I played with some of the greatest ballplayers in the world.” And that made him proud.

BILL BRYAN: He didn’t call anybody by name. It was just, “Hey pitch, hey catch.” But you knew what he was talking about. His knowledge of pitching was amazing.

Paige’s opportunity to pitch on Sept. 25, 1965, was to come against a lineup with young stars Carl Yastrzemski and Tony Conigliaro. Yastrzemski, who tied for the 1965 MLB lead in doubles, hit one to break up a Hunter no-hit bid in the seventh inning the night before in his 8-0 two-hitter before 2,304 fans that brought the A’s to within 1 1/2 games of the ninth-place Red Sox.

JIM LONBORG, Red Sox pitcher, age 23 in September 1965: It was always fun to go to that old stadium; you never knew what Charlie Finley would do. The first thing we saw that marked it as unusual was the rocking chair – what the heck was going on? Mr. Finley was trying to play all the angles.

JIM GOSGER, Red Sox outfielder and leadoff hitter in 9/25/65 game at age 22: We went in there for a three-game series and were taking batting practice and everybody was looking down the rightfield line. There was somebody sitting in a rocking chair down there and there was a nurse there. And we didn’t know what was going on. Is somebody sick? Finally, our traveling secretary came out and he said, “That’s Satchel Paige down there.” And we said, “What?” “Yeah, he’s gonna pitch three innings.” I said, “Well, who’s the lady?” He says they have a nurse down there with him. And he’s just sitting there rocking (laughs). I wish I’d have took a damn picture of it. I would’ve loved to have a movie of it or something at that time, but you just don’t think about that.

DAVE MOREHEAD, Red Sox pitcher, age 22 in September 1965: It was just really kind of a surreal deal, almost like a circus more than anything else.

FRANK WHITE, MLB All-Star second baseman, saw 9/25/65 game at age 14: Baseball was the game back in those days. I was a freshman at Lincoln High School, the first built for Black people in Kansas City. And you could go to the top of our bleachers and look into Municipal Stadium and see the entire field. We were feeling great because [although] we couldn’t afford to go in the stadium, we knew that we could sit in the bleachers and watch those three innings against the Red Sox. That was really the talk of the town leading up to that event. That was pretty exciting. I was with five or six of my buddies, the bleachers were full – probably 100 or more – and everybody was just having a great time watching him pitch.

RICK SUTCLIFFE, MLB pitcher, Cy Young Award winner, attended 9/25/65 game at age 9: I was raised by my grandparents. One of our neighbors told my grandfather he had three extra tickets to the game, and I remember him saying, “this is a game you boys’ll never forget.” We sat in the upper deck. I didn’t realize what was going on. My grandfather was laughing that the A’s pitcher was older than he was.

LARRY LESTER, Negro Leagues historian, attended 9/25/65 game at age 15: Was his legacy fiction, or fact or somewhere in between? That was the excitement for me, to actually see this man play in person, this was my chance to see him in the flesh instead of reading about him.

BILL BRYAN: I thought it might turn out to be just a laughingstock, and a runaway in runs, because I knew he couldn’t throw the ball by anybody anymore. But he changed speeds so much until it’d be hard for the hitters to keep up with what he was going to do.

RANDY SCHWARTZ, A’s first baseman, age 21 in September 1965: I warmed him up before the game and he threw pretty good. I was just having fun. It was a special time in my life and obviously in his.

BILL BRYAN: I thought it was an honor to get the start, because we had a couple of other catchers on the team. I knew I was setting history. I said, “Heck, a country boy like me [from southwest Georgia] part of history with a guy that played ball before I was born,” and I really enjoyed doing it.

Publicity and anticipation notwithstanding, the A’s didn’t quite draw 10,000 for the Saturday night “Salute to Satchel Paige” event that featured a brief oldtimers game before the regular one with his fellow Negro Leagues stars and future Hall of Famers Cool Papa Bell, O’Neil, Bullet Joe Rogan and Hilton Smith. But the 9,289 on hand were more than for the five previous home games combined, including just 690 two days earlier. Paige’s wife Lahoma was not at the game, as she was soon to give birth to the couple’s seventh child.

JOHN O’DONOGHUE: I know I hoped he wouldn’t get embarrassed. I thought he was always a proud man, and I just didn’t want him to get embarrassed.

MIKE VEECK: My expectation was exactly what he did – he was magical. He wasn’t going to embarrass himself. In my dad’s opinion, there was no question Satchel was the greatest pitcher ever.

In Part 2, Satchel Paige’s astounding major league swan song – remembered by those who were there – and the newly obtained radio broadcast of his performance for the ages.