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The legendary Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, was the site for Major League Baseball Thursday night, and the Negro leagues were top of mind given the diamond’s importance to its history.
The Fox Sports panel of Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz, Derek Jeter and host Kevin Burkhardt discussed the magnitude of the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants playing at Rickwood, especially considering the loss MLB Hall of Famer Willie Mays on Tuesday night, as he played on the field with the Birmingham Black Barons.
However, when speaking of great players from the Negro leagues, the great Satchel Paige is always someone who comes to mind. He was a Black Barons pitcher to start his professional career before eventually breaking into MLB late in his career.
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The panel was joined by the league’s all-time home runs leader Barry Bonds, Mays’ godson, and Ken Griffey Jr. Jeter decided to direct a question at Bonds.
“Tell me right now, on the spot, what would you do against Satchel Paige?” Jeter asked Bonds.
The man who launched 762 homers in his career over 22 seasons did not hesitate. In fact, he was jokingly insulted Jeter would even ask.
“Me?! Gone,” he said quickly, to which the rest of the panel started to laugh. “You have lost your mind, Jeter. Gone. It’s simple. Gone. Read about it on ESPN.
“You gotta believe in yourself. If I don’t believe in me, who gonna believe in me?”
Griffey said he would have taken a different route if he faced Paige, a man who was rumored to hit 105 mph with his fastball and consistently hit triple digits before it became common in today’s modern era.
“I’m drag bunting,” Griffey said smiling. “We gonna race to first.”
Paige was just 20 years old when he broke out for the Black Barons in 1927, owning a 2.39 ERA over 20 games (10 starts). It was not until 1933 when the 26-year-old posted a league-best 1.94 ERA in his first All-Star season with the Pittsburgh Crawfords in the Negro National League II.
In 1948, at age 42, Paige made his debut with the then-Cleveland Indians, which remains the oldest debut in MLB history. Paige would earn a 2.48 ERA in 72.2 innings that season and followed it up with a 3.04 ERA in 31 games in 1949.
However, the sweet-swinging Bonds has a feeling the heat from Paige would not have fazed him.
Bonds’ career statistics have been scarred due to his admitted steroids use. However, he was still one of the best to ever step foot into a batter’s box, as his short bat could make a baseball fly just about anywhere in any ballpark.
Of course, we’ll never know what that matchup would look like in real life, but it is fair to say Paige would likely be confident in his abilities, just as Bonds is.
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