By Sonya Hollins, editor
Photos by Shamiel Hollins
KALAMAZOO (MICH.)-The story goes, there was money in helping passengers carry their bags off the train. A shiny dime would be offered to any kid who took the initiative to make some money. That’s what young Leroy Paige did while growing up in Alabama. He figured one satchel, one dime. Two satchels, two dimes. The more satchels, the more dimes.
“So I got sticks and strings and made it so I could carry some in my arms, and tie some to the sticks. I could get up to 16 satchels at a time—that’s how I got the name, Satchel,” said storyteller and playwright Cedric Liqueur. Liqueur brought the life of Negro League Baseball great Leroy “Satchel” Paige to life during a one-man show at on August 2 at the Powell Library. Through research, family interviews and books, Liqueur said he was able to bring about a more gentler, human side of Paige that was not often seen through his public appearances.
Dozens of baseball and history buff came out to hear the performance and talk with the actor after his more than one- hour performance. Young children enjoyed Liqueur’s southern drawl and his dancing to some of Satchel’s favorite music on a real record player. He even sipped on pink lemonade, a favorite drink of Satchel’s.
“When I first learned of (Satchel) I didn’t like him,” Liqueur said. “But once I really began researching him and talking to his family, I learned there was another part to him that the public didn’t see. He seemed sort of arrogant in many of his statements made to the press, but at home, he was a different person.”
Through slides of famous baseball players, actual music played on a record player, and other props, Liqueur shared of the life of a man who contributed much to baseball history. The playwright said he wants his audiences to not only learn about Satchel’s history as a ball player, but about how life was life for the man growing up, and growing old in baseball.
One of the lessons Liqueur wants his audience to learn is something he witnessed through his research about Satchel. “Never give up, never quit, that’s what I have come away learning about him as well,” he said.
Liqueur, a native of Texas, was trained in acting at the Royal Shakespeare Company in England. He portrays such characters as Edgar Allen Poe, Hamlet, Martin Luther King Jr., and Buffalo Soldiers. He started his traveling with Satchel in February, and will continue with the show which he also will perform at the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo.
