Every time we so much as touch a toe out of state , I ’ve put cemeteries on our travel itinerary . From garden - like expanses to overgrown boot hills , whether they ’re the final resting places of the well - know but not that important or the important but not that well - experience , I love them all . After realizing that there are a lot of taphophiles out there , I ’m finally put my archive of interesting tombstones to good role .
If you ’re looking for spirit lessons at a necropolis , you ’re probably imagining something abstract : A little reflection , and some deep thinking about the meaning of life and how momentary our meter on earth really is . Visit the gravestone of fabled baseball game player Satchel Paige , however , and you ’ll get step - by - gradation instructions .
Originallyprintedon Paige ’s concern add-in , this sound advice is just the start of what you could find about the pitcher by paying your respects . The massive monument , which sits on a plot of solid ground at the cemetery capably key out “ Paige Island , ” provides details about Paige ’s life history and personal life , include how he got his unique soubriquet :
Paige perish of a affection onrush in 1982 at the eld of 75 — though he never did slow down much . In fact , on September 25 , 1965 , he became theoldest pitcherto ever bring in a major conference biz , when the Kansas City Athletics put him in for three innings . The squad made a adult show out of catch the 59 - class - honest-to-goodness Paige a rocker for the dugout and lease a nanny to oil colour and massage his pitching branch , but fan should n’t have worried that his “ advanced ” age would slow him down : In three frame , only one batter managed to get a hit off of him .
The large headstone is a replacement for the original , a small mark that can still befoundat the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City , Missouri . The first stone was donated by a fan who play up Paige ’s reluctance to let out his genuine birth year by inscribing a query scratch for the date . Paige ’s family was enunciate toappreciatethe contribution , “ but not for the lengthening of the artifice over the mound ’s age , ” as his biographer Larry Tye wrote . As far as anyone experience , the 1906 escort on the current headstone is right .
If you ’d like to learn a life lesson ( or six ) from Satchel Paige himself , you’re able to find oneself his grave accent at Forest Hills Cemetery in Kansas City , Missouri . Do n’t leave to bring a baseball game .
Peruse all the entries in our Grave Sightings serieshere .
