Larry Tye

Events: Conversations About Race

Book: Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend

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From 1986 to 2001, Larry Tye was a reporter at the Boston Globe, where his primary beat was medicine. He also served as the Globe’s environmental reporter, roving national writer, investigative reporter, and sports writer. Tye now runs the Boston-based Health Coverage Fellowship, which is designed to help the media do a better job covering critical health care issues. His previous books include The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays and the Birth of Public Relations and Rising from the Rails: Pullman Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class.

In Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend, Tye untangles myth from truth about a flawed but majestic man. Leroy “Satchel” Paige was perhaps the most sensational pitcher ever to throw a baseball. Over a career that spanned four decades, he pitched more baseballs, for more fans, in more ballparks, for more teams, than any player in history, but bigotry kept big league teams from signing him until he was forty-two.

Tye rewrites our history of the integration of baseball, with Satchel Paige in the starring role. A quiet subversive, Satchel pitched so spectacularly that he drew the spotlight first to himself, then to his all-black Kansas City Monarchs, and inevitably to the Monarchs’ rookie second baseman — Jackie Robinson. In the process, Satchel, even more than Robinson, opened the door for African Americans to the national pastime and forever changes his sport and this nation.