* Bookshelf Q&A: Larry Tye

Larry Tye, author of the critically-acclaimed new biography of Satchel Paige, is a busy (and happy) man these days, making the rounds of TV and radio shows and enjoying reading the favorable reviews as they pile up.

He was gracious enough to take some time from his hectic schedule to answer a few questions from The Bookshelf about the difficulties in working on the project and the the fun but sometimes frustrating problem of answering the same questions from myriad interviewers.

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Bookshelf: What did you hope to accomplish when you began working on the book?

Tye: I hoped to answer my questions, and presumably others’, about whether any pitcher could really have been as spectacular as my dad and others said that Satchel was.

We all knew about him, but for most everyone that knowledge was just an inch deep. That is understandable since Satchel played his first 22 years in the pros in the shadows of the Negro Leagues, with few reporters around to record his performance and no record-keepers tracking what he did.

Bookshelf: With so much anecdotal information, how did you go about sorting fact from fiction?

Tye: I interviewed more than 200 aging Negro Leaguers and Major Leaguers who had played with or against him. I dug up old clippings from black papers and ones in small towns where he barnstormed. I talked to his family, his friends and others, and tried to piece it all together into a portrait that separates myth from fact and portrays the real Leroy “Satchel” Paige. You can judge whether or not I succeeded.

Bookshelf: Do you think being a white author brought anything different to the table?

Tye: Sure. It made some people hesitant to talk to me, at least at first, but over time I think it didn’t matter whether I was black or white, green or purple. What mattered to most of the old ballplayers and others I talked to was that I was the one who was there and they had a chance, many for the first time, to tell their stories about this most extraordinary baseball star and man.

Bookshelf: Were the rules in the Negro Leagues the same as organized ball, in particular the requirement of five innings to earn credit for a win? Paige claims to have won thousands of games, yet he seems to have pitched a relatively low amount of innings in many exhibitions.

Tye: Yes and no. Most of the rules were the same in terms of how the game was played and how stats were kept, or how they were supposed to be. But the league didn’t keep good records because it couldn’t afford to, and so Satchel kept his own. When it came to wins and other matters, those records at times didn’t conform to the official rules. What amazed me, was how most of the time he seemed to have gotten it right, and sometimes he even understated his accomplishments.

Bookshelf: How much of Paige’s self-proclaimed information — as well as that of his contemporaries — do we have to take with a grain of salt? Having read Rob Neyer’s Big Book of Baseball Legends, I’ve become tremendously skeptical when it comes to relying on memory. I know you address this towards the end of the book.

Tye: Skepticism is critical, but so is faith. Memory does play tricks, and brilliant storytellers like Satchel can’t help but embellish. What is surprising is how precisely so many players who didn’t know one another recount the most sensational of Satchel’s accomplishments in almost precisely the same terms, from his calling in his outfielders to his throwing balls over matchbooks. After a while any decent journalist or author develops a sense of what to believe and what to be skeptical about.

Bookshelf: Tell us about the creative process: How did working on Satchel differ from your previous books? Did this one have a special interest for you, or was it “just” another project?

Tye: It was more fun than any writing/reporting I have done in 20 years of journalism and 10 of book-writing. Imagine, for two fulls years, being able to call baseball and race work.

Bookshelf: Listening to one of your many interviews, this particular host seemed less “into it” than others. Do you ever get that kind of vibe?

Tye: Without naming names, sure, you can tell when an interviewer really cares and when she or he is going through the motions. The latter is understandable if unfortunate.

Bookshelf: Does your publisher send the media a list of talking points? I can’t imagine they (or their staff) read every book cover-to-cover and create their own questions…

Tye: Yes, we send a list of questions. Good interviewers generally reframe them or use their own entirely.

Bookshelf: And what about you? Does it ever get tiring answering the same questions over and over? Especially given the topic, do you ever find yourself mixing up the “facts?”

Tye: Sure, I sometimes kick myself after an interview realizing that I got a fact wrong. But NO, I never get tired of telling Satchel’s stories or mine.

Tagged as: Larry Tye, Satchel Paige