Staff report
ASHLAND — A soon-to-be-shown documentary film about the legendary Satchel Paige has much of its roots in Ashland.
“Pitching Man: Satchel Paige. Defying Time,” which has just been completed, has been selected for showing at the Connecticut Film Festival on June 4.
More than a decade in the making, this film pays homage to a remarkable athlete and black baseball’s most charismatic personality — Leroy “Satchel” Paige.
When the Tri-State Fair & Regatta was an active, three-state summer fair and entertainment series, almost 30 years ago, a significant, annual event was the Negro League Baseball Reunion.
Filmmakers Craig Davidson and Donn Rogosin, who had an interest in these baseball players and their stories of the sport before integration, attended several of the reunions and interviewed the players.
Now, many of these players come alive again in this compelling 55-minute documentary narrated by actor Billy Dee Williams.
At least two interviews took place locally. Davidson and Rogosin reunited the old Crawford outfield — Jimmie Crutchfield, James “Cool Papa” Bell and Ted Page — in an Ashland sandlot in 1981 during the reunion. An interview with Satchel and Lahoma Paige took place in the Ashland home of Gene and the late Nancy Dickinson.
Paige was the single most important player in the old Negro Baseball Leagues and an American legend. He was an extraordinary athlete and a genuine original who played the game for 40 years on makeshift rural sandlots and in major league ballparks against the best in the game.
When Paige triumphed in the major leagues as a 42-year-old rookie, he solidified his position as a hero in black communities and confirmed his status as one of the greats of the game.
Paige was unique and idiosyncratic, but his accomplishments in baseball reflected his perseverance, hard work and discipline. His personal struggle against racism and later age discrimination had tremendous impact. He was almost entirely self-made and possessed inner dignity and strength. Paige’s weapons were skill, wit, charm, humor, intelligence, savvy and an overpowering fastball.
Paige became the first Negro Leaguer to win induction into baseball’s Hall of Fame. His is a vivid story that illustrates much about the times and the plight of black Americans. This documentary remembers a true baseball immortal and paints a vivid portrait of American society in transition.
Davidson and Rogosin pieced together this extraordinary story, taking more than a decade to accurately describe the man, his sport and the times. The journey began while recording interviews for the filmmakers’ critically acclaimed documentary, “There was always Sun Shining Someplace: Life in the Negro Baseball Leagues.”
“It seems everyone had a story about Paige, arguably the greatest pitcher of his era,” Davidson said. “Paige was complex with Madison Avenue savvy, P.T. Barnum showmanship and a wit that could disarm his harshest critics.”
