Plot Summary: This uniquely done graphic novel brings to life the baseball career of Satchel Paige, one of the best and hardest throwing pitchers in Negro League history. His age was always shrouded in mystery, though it is believed that he was born in 1905, and known that he died in 1982. His career has spanned at least five decades.
The story takes place during the era of Jim Crow and from the point of view of a sharecropper, by the fictional name of Emmet Wilson, who is off to play a game against Satchel Paige's team. He knows that he will make more money playing baseball for a day than his family will make picking cotton. Paige is a larger than life presence on the mound and makes easy work of striking all men out, even the white players. Wilson gets a rare hit off of Paige, but injures himself and can no longer play baseball. The story is about Satchel's career and how he rose above his lot in life to prove his worth as a man. It also depicts how his actions and influences as a pitcher gave hope to blacks everywhere that someday they will escape from and conquer racism. The drawings and depiction of what day to day life is for blacks in the racist South during the 1940s will have a strong impact on readers.
Format: Graphic Novel
Genre: Historical fiction
Subjects/themes: Baseball, Jim Crow, racism, discrimination
Reviews: Publishers Weekly Review, School Library Journal, and *Starred Review* in Booklist
High Interest Annotation: Baseball fans will enjoy this story. The powerful pictures combined with the text will give students a mini history lesson about Jim Crow Laws and how they affected blacks on a daily basis. Satchel will have you on his side.
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