May 5, 1935: Satchel Paige loses North Dakota’s semipro season opener

Given Satchel Paige’s reputation and talent, his assignment to pitch on Opening Day 1935 should come as no surprise. Unfortunately, racism and Paige’s skin color kept him from displaying his skills for any National League or American League club until 1948. Further, in 1935 a contract dispute was keeping Paige from gracing a roster in the Negro National League, in which he had pitched for the Pittsburgh Crawfords in 1934. Instead, Paige’s Opening Day assignment came on May 5, 1935, pitching for Bismarck in North Dakota’s semipro season opener against homestanding Jamestown.

Paige was not the star of the game; his spotlight was stolen by Ed Brady – formerly with the House of David touring team – who tossed a three-hitter and hit a home run in his first game for Jamestown. Fans nearly filled the grandstands and bleachers, and they watched as the home team “delivered effectively in every department of the game”1 to hand Bismarck’s ace his first North Dakota defeat, 2-1.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, several North Dakota cities fielded integrated nines. Small towns like Valley City, New Rockford, Bismarck, and Jamestown tapped the Negro Leagues or Negro barnstormers for talent – most often pitchers and catchers – in an attempt to outdo neighboring towns, bring fans to the ballpark, and put money in the teams’ coffers.

Paige first pitched for Bismarck in August 1933 after being lured away from the Crawfords by Bismarck’s manager, Neil Churchill. According to author Kyle P. McNary, the deal was brokered by impresario Abe Saperstein, whom Churchill had met when Saperstein’s Harlem Globetrotters basketball team stayed at Churchill’s Prince Hotel.2 It made Paige – then 27 years old – part of an integrated baseball team for the first time. In addition to Paige, the 1933 Bismarck roster included former Negro Leaguers Red Haley (Chicago American Giants, Birmingham Black Barons), Roosevelt Davis (St. Louis Stars), and Quincy Trouppe (Kansas City Monarchs, St. Louis Stars). The remainder of the roster consisted of White ballplayers.

Paige arrived in Bismarck on August 14, 1933, after boarding a train in Chicago 24 hours earlier. Just hours after arrival Paige tossed a five-hitter and struck out 18, boosting Bismarck over Jamestown, 3-2, in front of 2,200 delighted home fans. The Bismarck Tribune declared that Paige threw “the fastest ball ever exhibited in these parts,” and added, “[I]n the early parts of the game he used a tricky delayed delivery to great effect.”3 

During Paige’s brief 1933 stay in North Dakota, he struck out 119 batters in 72 innings and was a perfect 7-0, including two more wins over Jamestown and a 12-inning effort against Jamestown that ended in a 1-1 tie. Paige’s most significant win for Bismarck was a 10-inning 3-2 Labor Day weekend win at Jamestown, in which he bested 1996 Hall of Fame inductee Bill Foster, whom Jamestown had brought in from the Chicago American Giants expressly to oppose Paige. Not only did Paige hold Jamestown to five hits and strike out 15 that day, he drove in all three Bismarck runs. The win clinched Bismarck’s victory in a three-game series touted as the 1933 North Dakota baseball championship.

Paige promised Churchill he would be back in Bismarck for the 1934 season. In both January and March, Paige told Churchill he would arrive the following week;4 both times he was a no-show. In May Haley, who had played with Paige on the West Coast over the winter, assured the team that Paige was on his way to Bismarck in an automobile and could be expected “any day now.”5 Paige never arrived.

Even in September it was reported that Paige might pitch for Bismarck on October 6 in an exhibition against the Earl Mack All-Stars – a group of White major leaguers.6 Once more, Bismarck fans were disappointed.

Instead of pitching for Bismarck in 1934, Paige returned to Pittsburgh, and the NNL, a league that is now considered a major league. Paige recorded a 13-3 mark with the Crawfords, had an ERA of 1.54, and threw five shutouts. He tossed 145⅔ innings, struck out 152 batters (9.39 per nine innings), and posted a WHIP of 0.872, best in the NNL.

Page did rejoin Bismarck in spring 1935. Ted “Double-Duty” Radcliffe, Paige’s friend and his teammate on Bismarck’s 1935 team, claimed there were two reasons for Paige’s return. If Radcliffe’s nonagenarian memory was accurate, Paige returned to Bismarck because of its good fishing, and pay of $1,000 per month.7

Paige and his Bismarck teammates traveled 100 miles east from North Dakota’s capital city for the Sunday afternoon opener of the 1935 season. The skies above Jamestown were clear, and the temperature was cool. Wet and cold weather had limited the practices of both squads leading up to the showdown,8 but if the teams were ill-prepared, they did not show it. The game featured sharp pitching, hard hitting, and outstanding defensive play.

Brady struck out Bismarck’s leadoff hitter Joe Desiderato; Jamestown’s shortstop Hank Westby threw out the next hitter, and grabbed a short fly for the third out to complete a one-two-three first inning. Westby, a good fielder with a weak bat,9 had seen action with Jamestown in 1934; the Minneapolis native and University of Minnesota graduate played 31 games with the Jeannette Reds of the Class D Pennsylvania State Association in 1934 before being picked up by Jamestown.

Paige chalked up three strikeouts in the bottom of the first, but with one out, George Foster “smacked a sharp single into right field,”10 registering the game’s first hit. One inning later Jamestown scored the game’s first run. Brady showed the home crowd he could hit as well as pitch by launching a home run over the right-field fence to give his new team a 1-0 lead.

Bismarck tied the game, 1-1, in the fourth. Desiderato singled and “was driven around the bags by his teammates.”11 Saperstein had also introduced Desiderato – who represented Italy on Saperstein’s Cleveland All-Nations baseball team – to Churchill, and from 1934 to 1936 Desiderato was Bismarck’s third baseman and leadoff hitter. During offseasons Desiderato lived in Chicago, where he worked for the parks department.12

Great pitching by Brady and Paige, and stout Jamestown defense kept the game tied. Jamestown’s outfield was praised for their circus catches, with center fielder Jeeves Bolen being singled out because of his “four hard-running catches.”13

Jamestown first baseman Bailey White also was lauded for his defense. Bismarck catcher Andy Anderson, who had joined the team just two days earlier from Sioux City, Iowa, reached first on an error by third baseman Frank Murphy. Paige batted next and hit a hard grounder right down the first-base line. The Jamestown Sun’s Roy H. Brant described what followed: “[White] dove for the ball and, from a sitting position, threw to Westby, who was covering the second sack, and who tagged Anderson out.”14 Westby fired the ball back to White at first in time to complete a flashy 3-6-3 double play.

Paige was nicked for a second run in the eighth. The inning started well, with Paige fanning the first Jamestown batter. Murphy, the second batter, was thrown out, catcher Anderson to first baseman Bob McCarney.15 But with two out, Foster drew a walk, and he raced to second base on Paige’s wild-pitch ball four. Next, Paige fielded Mike Bodie’s grounder and overthrew first base; Foster sped home with Jamestown’s second run, and Bodie made it to second on the play. Bodie was stranded, but Jamestown was on top, 2-1.

It looked as though Bismarck might rally in the ninth when Desiderato hit a slow roller along the third-base line. The crowd booed while Murphy watched the ball come to rest in fair territory, and Desiderato – the potential tying run – reached first without a play being made.16 But first baseman White snuffed out the threat by turning an unassisted double play to clear the bases.

Jamestown won, 2-1, and according to the Jamestown Sun, “Jamestown has never seen a more hustling ball club.”17 Brady held Bismarck to three singles, “two of them of the scratch variety.”18 The Sun’s Brant credited Brady with “cunning pitches”19 that kept Bismarck’s batters guessing. Paige surrendered seven hits, including Brady’s home run.

The disappointing season opener was not an indication of what was to come for either the team or Paige. Bismarck ended 1935 with a 73-22 record (.768), and won the national semipro tournament in Wichita, Kansas – which featured 20 state champions20 and many former big-leaguers – by winning seven straight games.

After the opener, Paige won his next eight decisions before losing on June 19 to Devils Lake, North Dakota. He then reeled off 22 consecutive wins to finish 30-2, throwing 330⅔ innings.21 Paige’s wins included four over Jamestown, three over the Kansas City Monarchs, and the championship game of the Wichita tournament, where he was named MVP.

Paige last pitched for Bismarck on September 5 in Kansas City, striking out 16 Monarchs in a win. In a matter of days, he was pitching for the Monarchs, not against them.22

Gus Greenlee, owner of the Crawfords, tried to get Paige back into the fold for a September 22 game at Yankee Stadium, even advancing him $500. But just as Paige made unkept promises to Churchill in 1934, he failed to appear for Greenlee on the 22nd.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kevin Larkin and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information. The author relied on game coverage in the Jamestown (North Dakota) Sun, and reviewed SABR BioProject biographies for several players participating in the game.

Notes

1 Roy H. Brant, “Brady Yields 3 Hits: Beats Bismarck 2-1,” Jamestown (North Dakota) Sun, May 6, 1935: 6.

2 Kyle P. McNary, Ted “Double Duty Radcliffe (Minneapolis: McNary Publishing, 1994), 79-80.

3 “Sears Scores When Morlan Hits with Two Out in Ninth,” Bismarck (North Dakota) Tribune, August 14, 1933: 6.

4 “Satchel Paige, Colored Hurler, Expected in Bismarck Next Week,” Bismarck Tribune, January 26, 1934: 6; “Satchel Paige Will Be Here Next Week He Tells Manager,” Bismarck Tribune, March 29, 1934: 6.

5 “Trouppe Arrives to Join Bismarck Nine,” Bismarck Tribune, May 9, 1934: 6. Haley included the detail that Paige’s car had been driven “a million miles” since he bought it in Bismarck in 1933.

6 “Satchel Paige May Pitch for Locals Against American All-stars,” Bismarck Tribune, September 26, 1934: 6.

7 McNary, 108.

8 “Paige Gets Mound Call for Season’s Opening Encounter,” Bismarck Tribune, May 4, 1935: 6; Roy H. Brant, “Bismarck Will Bring Strong Team Sunday,” Jamestown Sun, May 4, 1935: 6.

9 Westby hit .191 in 31 games for Jeannette and .178 after joining Jamestown.

10 Brant, “Brady Yields 3 Hits.”

11 Brant, “Brady Yields 3 Hits.”

12 McNary, 87.

13 Brant, “Brady Yields 3 Hits.”

14 Brant, “Brady Yields 3 Hits.”

15 McCarney later became well known in North Dakota politics. He was defeated in the 1968 election for governor and in the 1970 election for the US House of Representatives.

16 Brant, “Brady Yields 3 Hits.”

17 Brant, “Brady Yields 3 Hits.”

18 Brant, “Brady Yields 3 Hits.”

19 Brant, “Brady Yields 3 Hits.”

20 “City Fetes Manager of Bismarck’s U.S. Semi-Professional Champions,” Bismarck Tribune, September 11, 1935: 7.

21 The other pitchers for Bismarck included Radcliffe, Chet Brewer, Hilton Smith, also in the Hall of Fame, and Barney Morris.

22 Originally, Paige announced he had joined the House of David, but then signed to pitch for the Monarchs. “Satchel Paige to Pitch for Monarchs Sunday,” Denver Post, September 12, 1935: 23.