The Mobile Tigers, a semi-professional

Semi-professional

A semi-professional athlete is one who is paid to play and thus is not an amateur, but for whom sport is not a full-time occupation, generally because the level of pay is too low to make a reasonable living based solely upon that source, thus making the athlete not a full professional...

 baseball team composed entirely of African-American players based in Mobile, Alabama

Mobile, Alabama

Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...

, was among the leading teams in the Negro League. It was one of several Negro League teams based in Mobile during the same period and was a training ground for at least three Negro League players who later joined professional teams

Professional sports

Professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, are sports in which athletes receive payment for their performance. Professional athleticism has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larger audiences, so that sports organizations...

.

Shortly after leaving a reform school

Reform school

A reform school in the United States was a term used to define, often somewhat euphemistically, what was often essentially a penal institution for boys, generally teenagers.-History:...

 in Mount Meigs, Alabama

Mount Meigs, Alabama

Mount Meigs 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 Services, is in Mount Meigs. Mount Meigs is located at .-History:The area's major export in the...

, Satchel Paige

Satchel Paige

Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige was an American baseball player whose pitching in the Negro leagues and in Major League Baseball made him a legend in his own lifetime...

 started his career with the Mobile Tigers 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

Audition

An audition is a sample performance by an actor, singer, musician, dancer or other performing artist.Audition may also refer to:* The sense of hearing* Adobe Audition, audio editing software...

 to "Candy Jim" Taylor, the Mobile Tigers's manager

Manager (baseball)

In baseball, the field manager is an individual who is responsible for matters of team strategy on the field and team leadership. Managers are typically assisted by between one and six assistant coaches, whose responsibilities are specialized...

 at that time, Paige fired ten fastball

Fastball

The fastball is the most common type of pitch in baseball. Some "power pitchers," such as Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens, have thrown it at speeds of 95–106 mph and up to 108.1 mph , relying purely on speed to prevent the ball from being hit...

s past Taylor. After ten pitches

Pitch (baseball)

In baseball, a pitch is the act of throwing a baseball toward home plate to start a play. The term comes from the Knickerbocker Rules. Originally, the ball had to be literally "pitched" underhand, as with pitching horseshoes. Overhand throwing was not allowed until 1884.The biomechanics of...

 and ten Strikes, Paige got a job with the Mobile Tigers in 1924. According to Paige, the Mobile Tigers paid him "$1 when the gate was good and a keg of lemonade

Lemonade

Lemonade is a lemon-flavored drink, typically made from lemons, water and sugar.The term can refer to three different types of beverage:...

 when it wasn't."

According to a sports writer

Sports journalism

Sports journalism is a form of journalism that reports on sports topics and events.While the sports department within some newspapers has been mockingly called the toy department, because sports journalists do not concern themselves with the 'serious' topics covered by the news desk, sports...

 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

Negro Southern League

The Negro Southern League was a Negro baseball league organized in 1920 that lasted into the 1940s. Negro leagues in Southern United States were far less organized and lucrative than those in the north due to Jim Crow laws. Tom Wilson organized the Negro Southern League in .For most of its...

.

Future Negro League stars Ted Radcliffe

Ted Radcliffe

Theodore Roosevelt "Double Duty" Radcliffe was at his death thought to be the oldest living professional baseball player , one of only a handful of major league players who lived past their 100th birthdays, and a former star in the...

 (as well as his brother Forney) and Bobby Robinson also played on the Mobile Tigers at the same time as Paige. Radcliffe began his professional career with the Detroit Stars

Detroit Stars

The Detroit Stars were a United States baseball team in the Negro leagues and played at historic Mack Park.- Founding :Founded in 1919 by Tenny Blount with the help of Rube Foster, owner and manager of the Chicago American Giants, the Detroit Stars immediately established themselves as one of the...

 and went on to play for the St. Louis Stars

St. Louis Stars (baseball)

The St. Louis Stars were a Negro League baseball team that competed in the Negro National League from 1922 to 1931. Founded when Dick Kent and Dr. Sam Sheppard took over the St...

, Homestead Grays

Homestead Grays

The Homestead Grays were a professional baseball team that played in the Negro leagues in the United States. The team was formed in 1912 by Cumberland Posey, and would remain in continuous operation for 38 seasons. The team was based in Homestead, Pennsylvania, adjacent to Pittsburgh.-Franchise...

, Pittsburgh Crawfords (1932), Columbus Blue Birds

Columbus Blue Birds

The Columbus Blue Birds was a professional baseball team based in Columbus, Ohio in 1933.Their name appears to have been derived from that of the Columbus Red Birds , the top-level minor league baseball team that played in the American Association from 1931 through 1954.The Blue Birds, which was...

, New York Black Yankees

New York Black Yankees

The New York Black Yankees was a professional baseball team based in New York City, Paterson, NJ, and Rochester, NY which played in the Negro National League from 1936 to 1948. The Black Yankees played in Paterson, New Jersey from 1933-1937 and then from 1939-1945. The 1938 season saw the Black...

, Brooklyn Eagles, Cincinnati Tigers

Cincinnati Tigers

The Cincinnati Tigers were a professional baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio, which played in the Negro Leagues. The Tigers were founded in 1934 by DeHart Hubbard, the first black to win an individual Olympic gold medal when he won the long jump during the 1924 Summer Olympics. In 1937, the...

, Memphis Red Sox

Memphis Red Sox

The Memphis Red Sox were a professional Negro League baseball team based in Memphis, Tennessee from the 1920s until the end of segregated baseball....

, Birmingham Black Barons

Birmingham Black Barons

The Birmingham Black Barons played professional baseball for Birmingham, Alabama, in the Negro Leagues from 1920 to 1960 when the Major Leagues successfully integrated...

, Chicago American Giants

Chicago American Giants

Chicago American Giants were a Chicago-based Negro league baseball team, owned and managed from 1911 to 1926 by player-manager Andrew "Rube" Foster. From 1910 until the mid-1930s, the American Giants were the most dominant team in black baseball...

, Louisville Buckeyes

Louisville Buckeyes

The Louisville Buckeyes were a professional baseball team based in Louisville, Kentucky which played in the Negro Leagues. In 1949 the Negro American League team moved from Cleveland, Ohio, where they had been known as the Cleveland Buckeyes, and changed their name...

 and Kansas City Monarchs

Kansas City Monarchs

The Kansas City Monarchs were the longest-running franchise in the history of baseball's Negro Leagues. Operating in Kansas City, Missouri and owned by J.L. Wilkinson, they were charter members of the Negro National League from 1920 to 1930. J.L. Wilkinson was the first Caucasian owner at the time...

. Robinson moved on to the Pensacola Giants and went on to play for the Birmingham Black Barons

Birmingham Black Barons

The Birmingham Black Barons played professional baseball for Birmingham, Alabama, in the Negro Leagues from 1920 to 1960 when the Major Leagues successfully integrated...

, the Chicago American Giants

Chicago American Giants

Chicago American Giants were a Chicago-based Negro league baseball team, owned and managed from 1911 to 1926 by player-manager Andrew "Rube" Foster. From 1910 until the mid-1930s, the American Giants were the most dominant team in black baseball...

, the Memphis Red Sox

Memphis Red Sox

The Memphis Red Sox were a professional Negro League baseball team based in Memphis, Tennessee from the 1920s until the end of segregated baseball....

, and the Detroit Stars

Detroit Stars

The Detroit Stars were a United States baseball team in the Negro leagues and played at historic Mack Park.- Founding :Founded in 1919 by Tenny Blount with the help of Rube Foster, owner and manager of the Chicago American Giants, the Detroit Stars immediately established themselves as one of the...

over the next eight years.