Satchel Paige

HandednessBats Right · Throws Right

Listed at6 ft 3 in · 180 lb

BornJuly 7, 1906 · Mobile, AL, USA

MLB debutJuly 9, 1948

Final gameSeptember 25, 1965

Seasons24 (1927–1965)

Birmingham Black Barons 1927–1930; Baltimore Black Sox 1930; Cleveland Cubs 1931; Homestead Grays 1931; Pittsburgh Crawfords 1932–1934; Kansas City Monarchs 1935; Pittsburgh Crawfords 1936; Kansas City Monarchs 1940–1941; New York Black Yankees 1941; Kansas City Monarchs 1942–1943; Memphis Red Sox 1943; Kansas City Monarchs 1944–1947; Cleveland Indians 1948–1949; St. Louis Browns 1951–1953; Kansas City Athletics 1965

Percentile snapshot

1944 season — qualified pitchers

23.2

25.3

18.9

83.2

18.9

SHO

73.7

90.5

98.9

77.9

105

86.3

95.8

98.3

22.1

ERA

1.01

100

WHIP

.905

100

K/9

9.61

100

FIP

1.92

100

FIP-

57.0

100

ERA+

334.3

100

sWAR

3.6

72.6

of 96 qualified 1944 pitchers (min 71 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

ERA+

150.2

99.5

sWAR

48.1

98.7

ERA+ measured against qualified careers (1,000+ IP), 1,334 of them; sWAR measured against every career in history, 24,011 of them. Only era-adjusted career stats carry a percentile — a raw career total gets a rank instead, because pooling the 1890s with the 2020s is a choice, not a measurement.

Season by season

Batting

Season	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1927	21	46	44	3	12	0	2	0	5	0	0	0	.273	.273	.364	.636	65.8	70.1	.287	2.2
1928	34	70	70	10	22	0	3	0	6	0	0	1	.314	.314	.400	.714	90.5	93.7	.324	4.4
1929	36	109	104	9	18	1	1	1	7	1	0	0	.173	.181	.231	.412	9.8	6.6	.186	2.1
1930	19	52	49	6	14	2	0	0	5	2	1	3	.286	.314	.327	.640	62.1	64.7	.296	3.1
1931	6	10	8	1	1	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	.125	.300	.125	.425	46.8	18.7	.247	1.2
1932	23	49	45	5	11	3	0	1	5	2	0	0	.244	.277	.378	.654	69.0	68.6	.298	4.0
1933	12	30	27	2	3	0	0	0	2	0	0	1	.111	.111	.111	.222	-29.6	-39.0	.102	2.4
1934	20	60	53	4	11	0	1	0	3	1	0	1	.208	.222	.245	.468	34.0	31.0	.221	6.0
1935	3	5	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	-81.6	-100.0	.000	0.7
1936	11	33	32	4	7	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	.219	.242	.219	.461	25.2	18.6	.220	1.6
1940	1	3	3	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	.333	.333	.333	.667	95.9	101.1	.323	0.0
1941	13	33	30	3	7	0	0	0	3	2	4	1	.233	.303	.233	.536	67.7	59.1	.271	2.0
1942	13	33	32	2	5	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	.156	.156	.156	.313	-1.6	-6.8	.147	1.9
1943	27	50	48	3	12	1	0	0	3	1	1	1	.250	.265	.271	.536	64.3	64.7	.258	2.6
1944	16	41	39	2	7	1	1	0	5	1	0	0	.179	.200	.256	.456	39.1	41.2	.219	3.6
1945	11	25	25	2	9	2	0	0	3	0	0	0	.360	.360	.440	.800	125.9	133.4	.372	0.9
1946	8	15	15	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.200	.200	.200	.400	21.1	18.0	.193	1.3
1947	7	10	9	0	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	.111	.111	.111	.222	-30.0	-40.1	.106	0.6
1948	21	25	23	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	5	0	.087	.087	.087	.174	-72.1	-52.5	.082	1.8
1949	31	18	16	0	1	0	0	0	0	2	4	0	.063	.167	.063	.229	-39.7	-36.8	.138	1.6
1951	23	17	16	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	.125	.125	.125	.250	-56.4	-33.9	.117	0.1
1952	46	44	39	0	5	0	0	0	2	1	10	0	.128	.150	.128	.278	-46.4	-23.7	.136	2.4
1953	57	30	29	1	2	0	0	0	2	0	9	0	.069	.069	.069	.138	-90.4	-62.8	.064	1.5
1965	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	-129.6	-100.0	.000	0.1

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1927	21	11	8	2	1	6	3	85	35	30	100	5	104.7	3.01	1.099	8.60	2.82	70.8	132.4	2.2
1928	25	15	11	4	4	10	1	113	35	25	121	2	132.0	2.39	1.045	8.25	2.60	60.9	179.0	4.4
1929	31	20	13	9	2	15	1	213	97	45	195	13	202.3	4.31	1.275	8.67	3.16	70.0	104.7	2.1
1930	16	12	10	3	1	10	3	83	32	19	91	3	101.0	2.85	1.010	8.11	3.17	65.1	167.7	3.1
1931	6	4	2	1	0	3	1	30	7	7	22	2	34.3	1.83	1.078	5.77	3.55	87.3	221.9	1.2
1932	22	16	9	6	3	12	3	100	33	44	126	1	130.3	2.28	1.105	8.70	2.90	75.2	169.5	4.0
1933	12	10	4	5	1	8	0	49	17	16	77	2	78.7	1.94	.826	8.81	2.83	65.7	221.6	2.4
1934	19	16	13	3	0	15	5	97	26	30	152	2	145.7	1.61	.872	9.39	2.82	62.5	280.9	6.0
1935	3	3	0	0	0	1	1	4	0	1	23	0	14.0	0.00	.357	14.79	0.83	19.0	—	0.7
1936	11	10	8	2	1	7	2	67	30	28	72	5	71.7	3.77	1.326	9.04	4.09	80.0	135.6	1.6
1940	1	1	1	0	0	1	0	3	3	3	10	0	5.0	5.40	1.200	18.00	1.53	37.1	76.5	0.0
1941	13	12	8	0	0	3	0	52	15	7	56	0	65.7	2.06	.898	7.68	2.43	64.0	185.2	2.0
1942	13	12	5	5	1	5	0	65	19	17	61	0	76.3	2.24	1.074	7.19	2.65	65.5	181.0	1.9
1943	27	23	9	8	1	3	0	105	37	32	98	2	119.3	2.79	1.148	7.39	2.92	77.6	134.8	2.6
1944	16	16	6	4	0	6	3	62	11	27	105	0	98.3	1.01	.905	9.61	1.92	57.0	334.3	3.6
1945	10	8	4	4	0	2	1	48	24	15	48	0	53.3	4.05	1.181	8.10	2.91	68.6	104.7	0.9
1946	8	7	4	0	0	1	0	24	5	5	32	0	35.0	1.29	.829	8.23	2.32	56.6	318.8	1.3
1947	5	4	0	2	0	1	0	18	5	2	18	0	19.0	2.37	1.053	8.53	2.48	50.2	208.0	0.6
1948	21	7	6	1	1	3	2	61	20	22	43	2	72.7	2.48	1.142	5.33	2.87	70.2	165.2	1.8
1949	31	5	4	7	5	1	0	70	28	33	54	4	83.0	3.04	1.241	5.86	3.05	75.8	132.3	1.6
1951	23	3	3	4	5	0	0	67	33	29	48	6	62.0	4.79	1.548	6.97	3.74	86.5	90.2	0.1
1952	46	6	12	10	10	3	2	116	47	57	91	5	138.0	3.07	1.254	5.93	2.82	73.6	125.1	2.4
1953	57	4	3	9	11	0	0	114	46	39	51	12	117.3	3.53	1.304	3.91	4.05	100.4	114.3	1.5
1965	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	3.0	0.00	.333	3.00	1.73	49.7	—	0.1

sWAR is the season TOTAL for a player who both hit and pitched: the record book carries one figure per season, not a split, so the same number appears on both lines rather than being counted twice.

Career totals

Batting

460

809

762

156

RBI

.2047

OBP

.2221

SLG

.2467

OPS

.4688

Pitching

G (P)

438

226

143

292nd-most career W

396th-most career SV

116

342nd-most career CG

SHO

135th-most career SHO

1,963

470th-most career IP

SO (P)

1,695

165th-most career SO (P)

BB allowed

533

ERA

2.774

101st-lowest career ERA

WHIP

1.1107

32nd-lowest career WHIP

K/9

7.77

119th-highest career K/9

A total is called out only where it ranks in the all-time top 500; hover a figure for its rank and the size of the field it was ranked in. Ranks are absolute facts and carry no percentile — the population for "career home runs" would be an editorial choice, and the rank is not.

Best games

Batting

Date	Game	AB	R	H	2B	RBI	TB
1945-09-02	MEM @ KCM Gameday	4	1	4	1	3	5
1944-08-08	KCM @ CLB Gameday	4	1	3	1	2	4
1952-06-03	BAL @ MIN Gameday	3	0	3	0	1	3
1930-07-11	BBB @ MEM Gameday	4	1	2	1	1	3
1945-06-10	IC @ KCM Gameday	2	1	2	1	0	3

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
1944-07-02	KCM @ NYC Gameday	10.1	5	3	1	4	15
1936-07-25	TIC @ PHS Gameday	9.0	7	4	4	3	15
1934-07-20	PBG @ TIC Gameday	9.0	7	2	0	1	14
1933-06-05	CAG @ TIC Gameday	9.0	5	1	0	0	13
1945-07-29	CAG @ KCM Gameday	9.0	3	0	0	1	13

Ranked from our own play-by-play game log, which begins in 1901 — not from the record book, so a career played outside it shows nothing here rather than a short list.

Honors

Hall of Fame, 1971 (Negro League)

8× All-Star

Major awards only — the awards table also records Player of the Week, and forty of those would bury seven MVPs. Hover for the years.