Mobile native Leroy “Satchel” Paige was one of the finest pitchers in baseball and certainly the most durable. Early in his career, he played for the Birmingham Black Barons and would go on to pitch in more than 2,500 games, throw more than 100 no‑hitters, and play professional ball into his fifties, making a one‑game appearance for the MLB Kansas City Athletics in 1965. Paige was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971, the first Negro League player so honored.

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Encyclopedia of Alabama

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