100 The Ageless Wonder

When Bill Veeck, owner of the Cleveland Indians baseball team, signed aging Leroy “Satchel” Paige, Veeck was accused of creating a cheap publicity stunt. It was the sort of move a lot of people thought would be bad for the team and bad for baseball. Paige had been a legendary pitcher in the Negro Leagues, so what was the objection? His age.

Paige was always secretive about the date of his birth, but at the time he was about to pitch his first major league game, most estimates put him at around forty-two years old. During his twenty years in the Negro Leagues, he had been the finest pitcher those leagues had ever seen. But the attitude in Cleveland was that he had been great in his day but had surely outlived his effectiveness.

The night Paige played in his first game with Cleveland, 51,013 fans flocked into Comiskey Park in Chicago to see what the old man could do against the powerful White Sox. Satch was in complete control. He gave up only five hits, and the Indians beat the Sox 5–0. A week later, Paige beat the Sox again in front of still another record-breaking crowd in the Indians’ home stadium.

Veeck's faith in Paige had certainly been vindicated. The Indians won the American League Championship that year, and the contributions of the “Ageless Wonder,” Satchel Paige, were responsible for a large part of their success.

100 不老的奇迹

当克利夫兰印第安人棒球队的老板比尔·维克签下年事已高的勒罗伊·“萨切尔”·佩奇时，他被指责搞了一场廉价的宣传噱头。很多人认为这种举动对球队和棒球运动都没好处。佩奇曾是黑人联盟的传奇投手，那反对的理由是什么呢？是他的年龄。

佩奇对自己的出生日期一直守口如瓶，但在他即将投出第一场大联盟比赛时，大多数估计认为他已经42岁左右了。在黑人联盟的二十年里，他是那些联盟有史以来最优秀的投手。但克利夫兰方面的态度是，他当年很厉害，但现在肯定已经没用了。

佩奇代表克利夫兰出战第一场比赛的当晚，51013名球迷涌入芝加哥的科米斯基公园，想看看这位老人对阵强大的白袜队会有什么表现。萨切尔完全掌控了局面，只被打出5支安打，印第安人以5-0击败了白袜队。一周后，在印第安人主场的又一场破纪录观众面前，佩奇再次击败了白袜队。

维克对佩奇的信任无疑得到了证明。那一年，印第安人赢得了美国联盟冠军，“不老的奇迹”萨切尔·佩奇的贡献是他们成功的重要原因之一。