Two Pitchers, Same Team: Comparing Bob Feller and Satchel Paige

Bob “Rapid Robert” Feller (left) and Satchel Paige (right) played on the Cleveland Indians together for one and-a-half seasons in 1948 and 1949. (SABR-RUCKER ARCHIVE)

 

Hall of Fame pitchers Bob Feller and Satchel Paige primarily supplemented their ball club salaries by playing in barnstorming games over the course of their careers. The duo faced off dozens of times in these non-league contests, including a 27-game tour right after the 1946 season.1 Over these years, sportswriters were eager to compare the two hurlers.

“We’ll give our vote to Paige as a pitching master,” wrote a Kansas columnist in 1943. “Whether he is, or was, as good as Feller when Rapid Robert [Feller’s nickname] was at his best three years ago it is simply impossible to say but he was not far behind.”2

Sportswriters viewed these barnstorming games as the ideal opportunity to assess both men’s talent and decide which pitcher was superior. In 1941, Ohio newspaper The Dayton Daily News promoted a forthcoming Feller-Paige barnstorming game as “an authentic manner in which local fans can compare these two exponents of the fast ball.”3 That same year, an Iowa sportswriter reported that major league hitters who had faced Paige “say he is faster than Bob Feller.”4

After Feller’s all-star club prevailed against Paige and the Monarchs in a 1941 exhibition game, Black-owned newspaper The New York Amsterdam Star-News marveled at the quality of Rapid Robert’s pitches. “He burned them across (the plate) faster and harder than his opponent, Paige,” the paper reported. This story also disclosed that Paige had pitched against his physician’s advice and “was in spots as capable as was Feller” in that game.5

Months before the 1946 tour, a headline in an Indiana newspaper posed the key question: “Paige Equal to Feller?”6 The Cleveland Call and Post also hyped the tour, and although it misspelled Paige’s first name, its headline got right to the point: “Bob Feller Pits Reputation Against Satchell Paige.”7 In the first game of the 1946 series, both Feller and Paige departed after pitching three innings with the score knotted at 1–1.8 Yet that didn’t stop the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from declaring a victor in the pitching clash. “Paige gained the edge on Rapid Robert,” wrote the Post-Gazette’s Jack Hernon. “He fanned four and gave up one hit, while the Cleveland fireball hurler fanned three, and was reached for a pair of doubles.”9

In 1947, a Los Angeles newspaper stoked anticipation of a forthcoming matchup between the two right-handers, describing the game as “[d]esigned to find out definitely who is more masterful” as a pitcher.10

Both hurlers were asked in 1941 to appraise each other’s talent. When asked about Feller, Paige was laudatory. The black right-hander called Feller the “best in the game today. He has a chance of becoming the best pitcher of all time.” But Paige added a caveat. “[Feller] not only works too hard out on the mound but is being worked too hard by his club.”11 It was an interesting observation coming from Paige, who according to biographer Larry Tye, pitched at least a few innings “every day or two for 41 years.”12

Feller offered similar praise for Paige. “He can still throw a fastball that smokes—when he wants to,” said Feller. “His biggest trouble is that he doesn’t want to really bear down often enough.”13

The Sporting News regularly covered the Feller-Paige barnstorming games. In 1947, the newspaper compared the duo’s recent performances, writing that “Bob was outpitched by Satchel Paige in the Los Angeles contest,” which Feller’s squad narrowly won, 2–1.14

However, comparisons were tough to draw because, as Tye explained, neither pitcher threw more than five innings in a game—and each hurler often worked for only two or three innings.15

Even so, it isn’t surprising that sportswriters viewed the Feller-Paige barnstorming games as the best way to compare the two superstars. After all, these journalists did not expect Paige to enter major league baseball, and no one anticipated that the two men would pitch someday for the same team.

A BETTER METHOD TO COMPARE

Once Paige was signed by the Cleveland Indians, the stage immediately changed. He and Feller were no longer pitching against completely different hitters. Between July 1948—when the Indians acquired Paige—and the entire 1949 season, the two right-handers could be judged by their performances both against the same lineups of hitters, and with the same fielders playing behind them. In fact, during this period, there were seven dates on which Feller and Paige faced some of the same hitters on the same day.

Even the best hitters have streaks during a season, so this comparison ensures that Feller and Paige are assessed when the batters they faced were experiencing the same degree of success or futility.

These conditions offer a basis for comparing the star hurlers that is superior to the random observations of sportswriters whose opinions might have been shaped by racial, cultural, or regional biases. Although the dynamics in 1948–49 allowed for an apples-to-apples appraisal of the duo, sportswriters rarely compared Feller and Paige on statistical measures over this period.

During the 1948 season, the closest that sports pages came to comparing the two men was when a number of newspapers published a photo showing the two men’s pitching grips, side by side.16

Even before the 1948 World Series was over, the Associated Press reported that Paige wanted Cleveland to use him as a starter next season.17 Sportswriters could have seized on this disclosure to compare Paige’s performance as a starter that season with that of Feller and other members of the club’s starting rotation. However, over the next 12 months, sports pages made little attempt to compare the two pitchers on traditional pitching metrics. Instead, journalists contrasted their ability to draw fans or how much time they took to warm up as relievers.18

Therefore, this article might be the first formal attempt to compare Feller’s and Paige’s mound performances during the season and a half in which they both pitched for Cleveland. Although this comparison has the aforementioned strengths, it suffers from a noteworthy deficiency—a 12-year age gap between the hurlers. By 1948, Paige was clearly well past the prime of his pitching career.

Before analyzing this period, it is worth noting that when Feller was asked in 1946 whether he had seen any black players who were talented enough to play in major league baseball, he was blunt. “Haven’t seen one—not one,” he replied. “Maybe Paige when he was young” [emphasis added].19 A review of Paige’s and Feller’s performances in 1948 and 1949 reveals that Feller’s qualifying phrase was proven wrong. Indeed, Paige remained sufficiently talented to pitch successfully in the American League.

This article offers two analyses. First, a traditional comparison is provided, citing statistics that are commonly used to assess pitching quality. Second, this article analyzes the performance of Paige and Feller against the American League’s top hitters. These hitters were drawn from the players who ranked in the top five for Adjusted Batting Runs (ABR) for the 1948 and 1949 seasons.

 

There was a 12-year age gap between Paige and Feller. (SABR-RUCKER ARCHIVE)

 

CONTRASTING KEY STATISTICS

This analysis starts with the week of July 4–10, 1948, because it was the first week in which both men pitched in at least one game for Cleveland. Paige was signed by the Indians on July 7, his 42nd birthday, and he first took the mound on July 9. Feller, who was then 29 years old, made two appearances for the club that week. The analysis extends to the end of the 1948 season and includes all of the 1949 season, which was the last year that Paige wore a Cleveland uniform.

 

 

The analysis reveals that both pitchers turned in laudable performances with win-loss averages that were nearly identical. Yet Paige outperformed Feller in earned run average (ERA), yielding one fewer run per nine innings. Paige also had superior numbers on strikeouts, walks, and home runs per nine innings. However, when the duo started a game, Feller was more likely to produce a quality start.

A comparison of Wins Above Replacement (WAR) produces very different results depending on the methodology. Paige and Feller had virtually identical WAR based on the methodology used by Baseball Reference (bWAR). However, Feller’s WAR was much higher than that of Paige based on how FanGraphs calculates this metric (fWAR).

Both Feller and Paige saw their performances decline between 1948 and 1949. This was reflected by their higher earned run averages, higher home run-per-nine inning rates, and worse win-loss percentages. When given a starting role, both hurlers were less likely to turn in a quality start than they had been in 1948.

Interestingly, the duo’s strikeouts and walks moved in different directions in 1949. Paige’s strikeout rate per nine innings increased in 1949, while Feller’s rate dropped by a full strikeout. However, Feller lowered his walk-per-nine inning rate that season from 3.66 to 3.20. Meanwhile, Paige’s walk rate rose from 2.48 to 2.93 in 1949.

FACING THE TOUGHEST HITTERS

To gauge how Paige and Feller performed against the most formidable hitters of that era, game-by-game statistics were reviewed to determine how each hurler performed against American League players who ranked among the top five in Adjusted Batting Runs (ABR) in 1948 and 1949. ABR is a statistic that measures a batter’s total offensive contribution in terms of runs, compared to a league-average player, and adjusts this statistic for external factors such as the player’s era and home ballpark. (For example, an average player’s ABR would be 100, with numbers higher and lower than that representing above average and below average performances.) See Table 3 for a list of these hitters.20 Our analysis began on the week of July 4–10, 1948 and extended to the end of the 1949 season.

 

 

ABR attempts to quantify the number of runs that a player generated above or below the league average. For example, a player with an ABR of 12 is estimated to have produced 12 runs more than the average player would have generated in that same season. ABR takes into account broader league factors such as the effects of hitting in different ballparks.21 This analysis excluded any top-five ABR performers who played for Cleveland because the club’s hitters could not have had any plate appearances facing Feller or Paige.22

For the sake of context, the list of these top ABR performers in 1948 and 1949 corresponds very closely with those who ranked in the top five for on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS). The only top-five OPS player who did not have a similar ABR ranking was Detroit’s George Kell in 1949.

Table 4 compares Feller’s and Paige’s performances against these elite American League hitters, and it reveals a significant gap in effectiveness. Overall, Paige was more successful at retiring these widely feared batters.

 

 

These top ABR hitters batted .100 lower against Paige than they did against Feller. In addition, Paige was much more likely than Feller to strike them out. Feller’s walk rate was slightly better than Paige’s rate. Facing these elite hitters, Feller issued a walk roughly once every 13 plate appearances. By contrast, Paige allowed a walk every 10.5 plate appearances. These top-ranked ABR hitters were much more likely to hit a homer against Feller than against Paige. Feller yielded a round-tripper to these hitters once every 14.9 at-bats, while Paige gave up a homer to these elite sluggers once every 38 at-bats.23

Feller once called Ted Williams “the best I ever faced.” This assessment is reinforced by the fact that Williams had the highest ABR in the American League in both the 1948 and 1949 seasons. Feller’s respect for the Splendid Splinter also reflects the fact that Williams hit very well against him. Over his career, Williams batted .364 with 10 homers and 34 RBIs against Feller. Nonetheless, the respect was mutual. Williams called Feller “the fastest and best pitcher I ever saw during my career.”24

During the period spanning from early July 1948 to the end of the 1949 season, Feller struggled against Williams. However, Feller performed a little better against the Red Sox star than he did over the rest of his pitching career. During the period analyzed, Williams went 8-for-24 versus Feller, batting .333, slugged one home run, collecting seven RBIs, three walks and one strikeout.

By contrast, Williams only had six plate appearances against Paige. In those appearances, he went 1-for-4 (.250) and collected two walks, including one intentional pass. Williams’ sole hit in those six trips was a single. But even a half-dozen plate appearances left a lasting impression on the Red Sox slugger, who had seen Paige pitch in San Diego when Williams was growing up there. During his Hall of Fame induction speech in 1966, Williams expressed hope that the Hall would someday welcome Paige, which they did in 1971.25

Like Williams, Joe DiMaggio ranked among the top five in ABR for both of the years analyzed for this article. A young DiMaggio first faced Paige in February 1936 during a barnstorming game, and his performance that day was good enough to prompt a Yankees scout to wire his bosses in the Bronx: “DIMAGGIO ALL WE HOPED HE’D BE. HIT SATCH ONE FOR FOUR.”26 Years later, DiMaggio called Paige the “best and fastest” pitcher he had ever faced.27 Yet the Yankee Clipper also praised Feller. “When you hit against Feller,” said DiMaggio, “you’re hitting against the best.”28

A bone spur and a viral infection caused DiMaggio to miss nearly 80 games in 1949, giving him only 21 plate appearances against Feller and Paige over the season and a half that comprised this analysis. DiMaggio hit better against Feller, going 5-for-16 (.313) with one home run and six RBIs. DiMaggio went 0-for-5 versus Paige with two strikeouts and one RBI on a sacrifice fly.

Boston’s Vern Stephens ranked in the top five ABR among AL hitters in 1949, but not in ’48. In 1949, the Red Sox infielder slugged 39 homers and knocked in a major league-leading 159 runs. Before the ’49 season began, Stephens spoke to a Lions Club chapter in Southern California and gave Paige a scornful appraisal. He declared that the Alabama native “can’t throw hard enough to break a pane of glass. He’s strictly no good.”29

Paige had only two outings against Boston in 1949, and both of them were in relief. While he faced Stephens in only one of those appearances, the right-hander made Stephens eat his words. Paige struck him out with runners on the corners to quell a Red Sox rally and keep the score tied. What prompted Stephens’ derisive assessment of Paige? Perhaps it was spurred by the fact that Stephens went 2-for-5 against Paige in 1948. Yet Stephens managed only two singles and no RBIs—hardly the kind of performance that would justify such dismissive comments.

CONCLUSION

The overall analysis and ABR summary show that Paige pitched well for Cleveland at the ages of 42 and 43. Overall, his 1948-49 statistics are better than Feller’s performance at the ages of 29 and 30. Paige’s numbers are especially superior in ERA and when facing the top ABR hitters. In 1948, Paige’s net five wins (6–1 record) were very helpful because the Indians finished the regular season tied with Boston. Cleveland won a one-game playoff to claim the AL pennant.

Although this season-and-a-half analysis is a unique and interesting way to compare Feller and Paige, there are five dynamics worth noting.

First, Feller usually pitched as a starter during this period, while Paige mostly pitched as a reliever. That distinction limits the value of this comparison. WAR in particular presents challenges when a relief pitcher is compared with a hurler who primarily starts. As some baseball observers have noted, WAR is a context-independent measure, meaning it is not designed to reflect the conditions encountered by relievers whose contributions to winning hinge greatly on when they enter a game.30 In addition, relievers typically have lower ERAs, lending an advantage to Paige.31

Second, most American League hitters were familiar with Feller’s pitches and pitching style. By contrast, only a handful of them had faced Paige by the time he entered the league in 1948. While this might have presented Paige with an advantage, there remains some debate about whether familiarity is more beneficial to pitchers or to hitters.

Third, during the season and a half that was analyzed, Paige was often unable to throw his so-called hesitation pitch, which Casey Stengel called “the toughest pitch in baseball to hit.” A few weeks after Cleveland signed Paige, American League President Will Harridge declared the hesitation pitch illegal whenever a runner was on base. If such a pitch was thrown in that circumstance, Harridge instructed umpires to call a balk.32 One can only speculate how much, if at all, Paige’s performance would have improved in 1948–49 had he been able to throw his hesitation pitch with no restrictions. Of course, some umpires might contend that this pitch did indeed violate the playing rules.

Fourth, this year-and-a-half comparison yielded a small sample of data. For example, the eight hitters with high ABRs only had 38 official at-bats against Paige during the period studied. Such a sample is not large enough to draw statistically significant conclusions.

Fifth, as noted earlier, the age gap means that Paige’s performance in his 40s is being compared to Feller’s when the latter pitcher was the more youthful age of 29 or 30.

Late in his life, many years after he said Paige could only have pitched in the majors “when [Paige] was young,” Feller was kinder in his assessment of his rival’s talents. In 1962, around the time that Feller was voted into Cooperstown, Rapid Robert insisted that Paige deserved to be there too. “I believe that the Hall of Fame will never be complete until it finds a niche for Satchel,” he declared.33

“Bob Feller seldom had an especially generous word to say about people who might have been considered as good as him,” said Tye. “The kinds of things that he told me in an interview that I expected to last 10 minutes and went on for two hours; the things that he told me made me think that if Bob Feller thinks [Paige] might have been the greatest ever, who am I to disagree with him?”34

MATTHEW JACOB is a member of SABR’s Bob Davids chapter and a Detroit Tigers fan. He is coauthor of Globetrotter: How Abe Saperstein Shook Up the World of Sports(Rowman & Littlefield). The biography explores Saperstein’s formation of the basketball team and the many roles he played in Black baseball. Matthew is a contributor to the forthcoming SABR book, “How We Played the Game, Baseball at Manzanar (1942–1945),” which will be published in 2026. He lives in Arlington, Virginia.

 

Notes

1. Bill Francis, “Feller, Paige teamed up for 1946 barnstorming tour,” National Baseball Hall of Fame, accessed December 20, 2024 at https://baseballhall.org/discover/feller-paige-teamed-up-for-1946-barnstorming-tour.

2. Pete Lightner, “Morning After,” Wichita Eagle, June 12, 1943, 10.

3. “Bob Feller Faces Satchel Paige on Mound Here Friday Night,” Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio), October 3, 1941, 36.

4. Eddie Brietz, “Rickey Would Play Series Game at Night,” Courier (Waterloo, Iowa), July 21, 1941, 1.

5. “Bobby Feller Shades Satchel Paige in St. Louis Mound Duel,” New York Amsterdam Star-News, October 11, 1941, 17.

6. Paige Equal to Feller?” Times (Hammond, Indiana), June 28, 1946, 17.

7. “Bob Feller Pits Reputation Against Satchell Paige,” Cleveland Call and Post, September 21, 1946, 9B.

8. “Satchel Paige All Stars(P) (ASP) 3 Bob Feller All Stars(F) (ASF) 1,” Retrosheet, box score of the September 30, 1946 game in Pittsburgh, https://retrosheet.org/NegroLeagues/boxesetc/1946/B09300ASF1946.htm.

9. Jack Hernon, “Paige’s Colored Stars Beat Feller’s Major Leaguers, 3 to 1,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 1, 1946, 11.

10. “Feller Slates Wrigley ‘Route’ Duel Tomorrow,” Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, November 1, 1947, 14.

11. “Can’t Pitch, So Talks,” Morning Union (Springfield, Massachusetts), August 26, 1941, 12.

12. Larry Tye, “Satchel Paige,” SABR BioProject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/satchel-paige/.

13. Bob Frame, Dayton Herald (Dayton, Ohio), October 7, 1941, 14.

14. “Feller Has Gate, Not Arm, Worry on Exhibition Tour,” The Sporting News, October 29, 1947, 21.

15. Larry Tye, Satchel: Life and Times of an American Legend (New York: Random House Inc., 2008), 173.

16. “Satch and Feller Compare Grips,” Morning Call (Paterson, New Jersey), July 17, 1948, 9; “Compares Grips,” News Journal (Mansfield, Ohio), September 10, 1948, 14; “Satchel and Bobby Compare Grips,” Afro-American (Baltimore, Maryland), July 17, 1948, 17.

17. “Satch Paige Wants to Be Starting Pitcher in ’49,” Associated Press, St. Joseph News-Press (St. Joseph, Missouri), October 11, 1948, 7.

18. “Satchel Paige, Cleveland Negro Hurler, Signs Contract for 1949,” Associated Press, Baltimore Sun, February 15, 1949, 17; “Boudreau Cocks Eye on Hurlers,” Ottawa County Exponent (Oak Harbor, Ohio), April 15, 1949, 7; Jim Schlemmer, “Redskins Oppose Browns,” Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio), April 19, 1949, 41.

19. Tye, Satchel, 173.

20. Adjusted Batting Runs, 1948 American League Batting Leaders, Baseball Reference, https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/1948-batting-leaders.shtml; Adjusted Batting Runs, 1949 American League Batting Leaders, Baseball Reference, https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/1949-batting-leaders.shtml.

21. The ABR statistic was developed by Gary Gillette, Pete Palmer and other SABR members.

22. This exclusion only affected the 1948 ABR statistics in which Cleveland’s Lou Boudreau and Ken Keltner ranked second and fifth respectively.

23. Dennis Manoloff, “Bob Feller at 91: ‘I try to tell it like it is. If they don’t like it, so be it’,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 5, 2010, https://www.cleveland.com/tribe/2010/04/bob_feller_at_91_i_try_to_tell.html.

24. Daniel Kramer, “Ted Williams: Pitcher usage different in 1941,” MLB.com, July 31, 2016, https://www.mlb.com/news/ted-williams-pitcher-usage-different-in-1941-c192931842.

25. Mark Armour, “Satchel’s Wild Ride: How Satchel Paige Finally Made the Hall of Fame,” SABR Baseball Research Journal, Fall 2024, https://sabr.org/journal/article/satchels-wild-ride-how-satchel-paige-finally-made-the-hall-of-fame/.

26. Tye, Satchel, 96–97.

27. Matt Kelly, “Satchel Paige’s legendary talent hard to fathom,” MLB.com, February 4, 2024, https://www.mlb.com/news/satchel-paige-stories-facts-and-figures-to-know.

28. Tony Lariccia, “Hall of Famers Bob Feller and Joe DiMaggio created a rivalry for the ages,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 20, 2018, https://www.cleveland.com/sports/2018/05/hall_of_famers_bob_feller_and.html.

29. “Stephens Rates Doby over J.R.,” Star-News (Pasadena, California), February 22, 1949, 17.

30. Charlie Pavitt, “Declaring WAR: An Analysis of ‘Wins Above Replacement’ and Its Implementations,” By The Numbers, March 2021, Volume 30, No. 1, SABR Statistical Research Committee, 14–36, http://www.philbirnbaum.com/btn2021-03.pdf.

31. Bill James, “The Relief Pitcher’s ERA Advantage,” SABR Baseball Research Journal, 1977, https://sabr.org/journal/article/the-relief-pitchers-era-advantage/.

32. Tye, Satchel, 213.

33. Dick Young, “Young Ideas,” New York Daily News, January 25, 1962, 21.

34. Matt Kelly, “Satchel Paige: A Legendary Talent That’s Hard to Fathom,” The Negro Leagues, MLB.com, accessed March 21, 2025, https://www.mlb.com/history/negro-leagues/players/satchel-paige.