The Mobile Tigers, a semi-professional baseball team composed entirely
Stories of Children, "Snatching A Moment with Satch" of

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

players based in Mobile, Alabama. It was one of several Black baseball teams based in Mobile during the same period and was a training ground for at least three players who later joined the

Negro leagues The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

.
Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe: 36 Years of Pitching & Catching in Baseball's Negro Leagues

Significant players

Shortly after leaving a

reform school A reform school was a penal institution, generally for teenagers mainly operating between 1830 and 1900. In the United Kingdom and its colonies reformatories commonly called reform schools were set up from 1854 onwards for youngsters who wer ...

Mount Meigs, Alabama Mount Meigs (also Evansville or Mount Pleasant) is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County in the state of Alabama. The Mount Meigs Campus, a juvenile correctional facility and the headquarters of the Alabama Department of Youth Servic ...

Satchel Paige Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige (July 7, 1906 – June 8, 1982) was an American professional baseball pitcher who played in Negro league baseball and Major League Baseball (MLB). His career spanned five decades and culminated with his induction in ...

started his career with Mobile at age 18. The employed Paige had been job hunting but in his spare time enjoyed watching his older brother Wilson playing for this team. Presenting himself in a try out to Candy Jim Taylor, the Mobile Tigers's

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

at that time, Paige fired ten

fastball The fastball is the most common type of pitch thrown by pitchers in baseball and softball. " Power pitchers," such as former American major leaguers Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens, rely on speed to prevent the ball from being hit, and have thr ...

s past Taylor. After ten pitches and ten strikes, Paige got a job with the Tigers in 1924. According to Paige, Mobile paid him "$1 when the gate was good and a keg of

lemonade Lemonade is a sweetened lemon-flavored beverage. There are varieties of lemonade found throughout the world. In North America and South Asia, cloudy still lemonade is the most common variety. There it is traditionally a homemade drink using ...

when it wasn't." According to a

sports writer Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism started in the early 1800s when it was targeted to the social elite and transitioned into an integral part of the n ...

for the ''Birmingham-Pittsburg Traveller'', Paige's position pitching for the semi-pro Mobile Tigers was the launching pad for "one of the most successful careers in baseball history." After playing for the Mobile Tigers for one year, Paige began his professional baseball career with the Chattanooga White Sox of the Negro Southern League. Future Negro league stars

Ted Radcliffe Theodore Roosevelt "Double Duty" Radcliffe (July 7, 1902 – August 11, 2005) was a professional baseball player in the Negro leagues. An accomplished two-way player, he played as a pitcher and a catcher, became a manager, and in his old age ...

(as well as his brother Forney) and Bobby Robinson also played on the Mobile Tigers at the same time as Paige.
Bobby Robinson Wood Sign

References

{{reflist African-American history in Mobile, Alabama Negro league baseball teams Sports in Mobile, Alabama Defunct baseball teams in Alabama Baseball teams disestablished in 1935 Baseball teams established in 1924