Satchel Paige, the greatest pitcher ever excluded from Major League Baseball, arrived at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium for a tryout with the Indians in July 1948. A Negro leagues legend believed to be in his early 40s, Paige faced one batter, Lou Boudreau, who was both the Indians’ manager and shortstop.

Boudreau, who would go on to be the American League’s most valuable player that season, was impressed with Paige’s pitches. So was Cleveland’s owner, the audacious Bill Veeck, who proceeded to sign Paige, making him the oldest rookie in major league history. In turn, Veeck was immediately accused of staging a publicity stunt.

In part, the criticism may have been accurate, for Veeck would become associated with all the things he would dream up to sell tickets. But other factors were at work in Paige’s case.

He could, after all, still pitch. More than that, Veeck strongly believed that African-Americans deserved the chance to play in the major leagues. Just months after Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color line in 1947 by joining the Brooklyn Dodgers, Veeck followed close behind by signing the 23-year-old Larry Doby. In doing so, Veeck made Doby the second black player in the majors and the first in the American League.