New hope to save KC home of Negro League legend Satchel Paige
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Satchel Paige, pitcher for the Negro League's Kansas City Monarchs, stands at the top of the dugout with baseball in hand. 1942. Photo: Bettmann/Contributor via Getty Images.
Major League Baseball's move to include the stats of Negro League players in its historic record could aid perseverance activists in saving the aging Kansas City home of Satchel Paige.
Why it matters: For decades, sites connected to Negro League legends like Paige sat forgotten or in disrepair but MLB's recent decision is giving new life to efforts to save the historic sites of Black players during segregation.
- MLB announced last week that it would add statistics from the Negro Leagues to the Major League historical record.
- The move reshapes MLB's record books and places Paige third all-time for a single season ERA.
Zoom in: Architectural firm Multistudio has undertaken the restoration of Paige's family home in Kansas City, which is in severe need of repair following a 2018 fire and decades of neglect.
- Robert Riccardi at Multistudio tells Axios that the firm is waiting on a $750,000 grant to start restoration work and will need to raise around $5 million to make it into a museum, a community center and private office space for lease.
- Multistudio helped ignite Pitch Perfect KC, a development team of local professionals and activists whose singular mission is restoring the home.
- The restoration is part of a large goal to revive Kansas City's historic Black Santa Fe Neighborhood.
- "This is not just a baseball story. It's a civil rights story," Riccardi said.
The intrigue: Paige and his family lived in the Kansas City home from the 1940s until the time of his death in 1982.
- Located in the heart of one of the nation's then-strongest Black middle-class communities, the Paige home is said to have attracted notable guests such as Nina Simone, Joe Louis and Duke Ellington.
- Paige lived there while he played for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League and later Cleveland Indians after Jackie Robinson broke MLB's modern-day color line.
Context: Born in Mobile, Alabama, to a family of 12 siblings, Paige made a name for himself for his legendary exploits on the mound with an explosive fastball and later pinpoint control.
- He became a popular name among Black and white baseball fans and would barnstorm with white players during the off-season as some MLB executives fretted about not being able to sign him because of segregation.
- He later signed with the Indians, now the Guardians, and became the first player who had played in the Negro Leagues to pitch in the MLB World Series.
- Paige would play professional baseball until he was 59.
By the numbers: The Negro Leagues were made up of around 2,300 supremely talented Black and Latino players who were barred from the segregated American and National Leagues.
- Not only did Negro League players have to face fierce competition on the field, but refusal of hotel, dining and restroom services because of racial segregation. They also experienced death threats.
- The Negro Leagues combined to produce 35 National Baseball Hall of Famers. Paige was the first during his landmark election to the Class of 1971.
