Paige (born 1906) was eleven years younger than Ruth (born 1895). The Babe never batted against Satchel in a MLB game. But neither did Jackie Robinson. Paige finally pitched in MLB from 1948 through 1953, plus a one game three inning stunt in Kansas City in 1965.
All MLB games for Paige were in the American League. Robinson played all his regular season games in the National League. More to the point, what top notch pitchers did Robinson face who would have been banned during MLB racial segregation? The best during Robinson's years (1947-1956) was Jackie's Dodger teammate Don Newcombe, winner of the first Cy Young award in 1956.
Even if Paige had been allowed to pitch in MLB the chances were less than 50% that he would have pitched to Ruth. Paige could have pitched in the other league. Had Paige pitched in the same league as Ruth chances were one in eight that he and Ruth would have been teammates. That's less than 50%, not even dealing with the eleven year age difference. Paige would have been 20 in 1926 about the middle of Ruth's career. In 1920 when Ruth hit 50 homers for the first time, Paige was 14 years old.
There is no reason to think that Satchel Paige would have changed Babe Ruth's stats to a significant degree, even assuming that Ruth would have had difficulty hitting Paige.
Paige was probably a great pitcher but what other banned pitchers would have impacted Ruth?
Evidence is anecdotal. It may be uncomfortable for some to address this but great black players were and still are mostly non-pitchers. Why? I don't know.
Evidence is anecdotal. It may be uncomfortable for some to address this but great black players were and still are mostly non-pitchers. Why? I don't know.
Since integration in 1947 only three pitchers who would have been banned because of the color of their skin have pitched well enough in MLB to be inducted into the Hall of Fame: Bob Gibson, Juan Marichal and Ferguson Jenkins. Only Gibson is an American born black. Marichal was born Dominican and Jenkins Canadian. There are no American born black pitchers yet to be considered who would be elected to the Hall of Fame. One dark skinned Hispanic pitcher who would have been banned is a probable Hall of Famer: Pedro Martinez (Dominican Republic). That would make a total of four since 1947, 62 years ago.
What great black non-pitchers did Jackie Robinson play against? In Jackie's early years, none. Roy Campanella won three NL MVP awards (1951, 1953, 1955) but he, like Newcombe, was Jackie's teammate on the Dodgers. Larry Doby broke the AL color line July 5, 1947 with Cleveland, less than three months after Jackie Robinson. Luke Easter joined Doby on the Indians August 11, 1949.
Start dates of Hall of Fame NL blacks during Jackie's years:
Start dates of Hall of Fame NL blacks during Jackie's years:
Ernie Banks - September 17, 1953, full time 1954
Willie Mays - May 25, 1951, military service 1952-1953 except for 34 games in 1952
Hank Aaron - April 13, 1954
Frank Robinson - April 17, 1956
Roberto Clemente - April 17, 1955.
The National League integrated earlier and more thoroughly than the American League. However, especially during the first half of Jackie's career (1947-1951), he played against no star players (Mays was not yet a star in 1951) who would have been banned because of their color, none of whom were pitchers who could have directly impacted Jackie's batting.
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This article is wrong. Ken Burns's documentary on baseball included an interview with Negro League player Buck O'Neil. Here is a portion of the interview:
Is there one moment in all of baseball you wish you could have seen?
I wish I could have been there when Babe Ruth pointed and hit the ball out of the ballpark in the 1932 World Series. I wish I could have seen that. But I did see something I admired just about as much, with Satchel Paige and Babe Ruth. This was in Chicago, after Ruth came out of the major leagues. He was barnstorming, playing with different teams, and he played us. Satchel was pitching and Ruth was hitting. Satchel threw Ruth the ball and Ruth hit the ball, must have been 500 feet, off of Satchel. Satchel looked at Ruth all the way around the bases and when Ruth got to home plate, you know who shook his hand? Satchel Paige shook Ruth's hand at home plate.
They stopped the game and waited, he and Satchel talking, until the kid went out, got the ball, brought it back and Satchel had Babe Ruth autograph that ball for him. That was some kind of moment.
There's s a great book called THE YEAR BABE RUTH HIT 104 HOME RUNS. It is about barnstorming but mostly about Ruth's titanic shots.
The book was written in 2007 by Bill Jenkinson, maybe the biggest expert on Babe Ruth home runs.
https://www.amazon.com/Year-Babe-Ruth-Home-Runs/dp/0786719060
I wrote:
"The Babe never batted against Satchel in a MLB game."
Major League Baseball Game.
Yes we know what you wrote, but its a somewhat misleading statement since the fact is that the players played many Barnstorming games to earn extra money and Ruth batted against Satchel and hit a Colossal Homer.
My point was that Paige would not have impacted Ruth's stats much, if at all.
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