Pitching Man celebrates the life of baseball’s most enduring legend.
Satchel Paige was the single most important player in the old Negro Baseball Leagues in an era when baseball was segregated. He was an extraordinary athlete and a genuine original who played the game for forty years on makeshift rural sandlots and in major league ballparks against the best in the game. In 1948 he triumphed in the major leagues as a 42-year old rookie and solidified his position as an American hero and confirmed his status as one of the greats of the game.
Satchel Paige’s accomplishments in baseball are testament to his perseverance, hard work and discipline. His personal struggle against racism and later ageism had tremendous impact. He emerged from impoverished roots, was almost entirely self-made and possessed an inner dignity and strength. Satchel Paige’s weapons were skill, wit, charm, humor, intelligence, savvy and an overpowering fastball.
Paige became the first Negro Leaguer to win induction into baseball’s Hall of Fame. His is a compelling story that illustrates much about the times and the plight of Black Americans. This documentary remembers a true baseball immortal and paints a vivid portrait of American Society in transition.