"Hit Satch one for four"

January 26, 2010 by Jason@IIATMS

Guess it’s nostalgia day here at IIATMS. Here’s a great, little-known retell of a pre-Yankees Joe D facing an in-the-prime Satchel Paige:

DiMaggio was hitless in three appearances until the 10th, when he beat the setting sun to slap a single up the middle and off the glove of Paige, driving home the winning run in a 2-1 victory for the major leaguers. [...]

“DiMaggio was there grinning to beat all,” Paige was quoted as saying. “I didn’t hear all he said, but I did hear him saying something like, ‘Now I know I can make it with the Yankees. I finally got a hit off Ol’ Satch.’ “

DiMaggio later called Paige the greatest pitcher he ever faced.

A Yankees scout at the game reportedly sent a telegram back to the home office. “DiMaggio everything we’d hoped he’d be: Hit Satch one for four.”

Overall, he is a poor man’s version of Seattle Mariners 2B Yung-Chi Chen. He does not have the defensive ability of Los Angeles Dodgers SS Ching-Lung Hu nor the hitting/power potential of Boston Red Sox 2B Chih-Hsien Chiang.

So he’s got that going for him, which is nice. Though he’s got soft hands but a bum knee. Good luck with that.

I’m sure this won’t help this guy regain his confidence in the Yanks enough to repurchase his ticket plan, though.

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A telegram. Today, that’d be tweeted. Ain’t nostalgia quaint?

In addition, Satchel has some scouting on facing Lou Gehrig:

Two days before the game, Paige told the Oakland Post-Enquirer this would be his toughest game. “Never before have I faced so many great hitters in one game,” he said. “I’ve licked teams with three or four big-leaguers, but a whole club of them … this ain’t going to be easy. However, I expect to whip ‘em.”