What if? Satchel Paige in a White Sox uniform. From 1938-1947 the Sox never finished better than 3rd, add Satchel Paige to those teams, which already had some good pitching including Ted Lyons, Eddie Lopat, Thornton Lee, Monty Stratton and Orval Grove, and Sox fans might have had something to cheer about. But of course, by the time Paige had a chance to play in the Major Leagues he was at least 42-years-old. Paige would have helped at the box office as well. For example, on July 18, 1942 the Sox drew slightly better than 24,000 for a doubleheader with the Detroit Tigers, across town at Wrigley Field a nearly identical amount came out to watch Paige pitch the first five innings for the Memphis Red Sox against the New York Cuban Stars.
Instead, all White Sox fans have is this rare photo taken in 1965 when Paige appeared with the Indianapolis Clowns at Comiskey Park (Chicago Cubs outfielder George Altman is the catcher in the picture).
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in 1935, Gene Coughlin, a sports writer for The Los Angeles Evening Post-Record wrote a column that went largely ignored, calling on organized baseball to break the color barrier which “not only makes (baseball) look ridiculous but is at the same time passing up increased business.” Coughlin predicted that if a Pacific Coast League team were to sign Paige, it “would be good for an extra 10.000 in attendance every time he goes to the mound. And he became good despite the inane prejudice that drives the colored baseball player to the sandlots and keeps him there.”
Coughlin’s column concluded:
“When you come right down to it, that baseball doesn’t give a darn whether it is pitched or caught by a white hand or a black one. It is a symbol of game, a sport, and not a symbol of class distinction or color.”
Twelve years later organized baseball finally agreed.
Baseball History Daily 