Few reliable records or news reports survive about players in the Negro Leagues, but many fans agreed that Satchel Paige (1906-82) was the most formidable pitcher in all of baseball. Born to an Alabama washerwoman with 12 young mouths to feed, Paige learned baseball on the streets and in reform school, inventing an utterly unique repertoire of pitches along the way. Interviewing more than 200 former players, Larry Tye has tracked down the truth about Paige, a man of uncommon gifts and a flair for creating legends about himself.