With two outs, the Grays put the tying runs on base. Paige recalled a conversation he'd had a few years earlier with Grays star Josh Gibson, a teammate of Paige's at the time with the Pittsburgh Crawfords.

Paige called O'Neil to the mound.

"He said, 'You know what I'm fixin' to do?'" O'Neil recounted. "I said, 'Naw.' He said, 'I'm gonna walk Howard Easterling; I'm gonna walk Buck Leonard; I'm gonna pitch to Josh Gibson.'

"I said, 'Man, don't be facetious.' He said, 'That's what I'm gonna do.'"

Perhaps if this story had come from anybody else, it would be easily discounted as the tallest of tales, but how does anybody question O'Neil, a man who's watched more baseball games than any living person?

He was in the middle of this Paige moment to remember: Paige vs. Gibson, the "black Babe Ruth."

As Gibson came to the plate, Paige reminded him of that earlier conversation. Paige had told Gibson that he was the "best hitter in the world." Paige also said he was the "best pitcher in the world."

So the two best were now face to face. They had a championship at stake. Gibson was ready, and Paige had a point to prove.

"'Come on, Satchel, throw the ball,'" O'Neil, whose nickname was "Nancy," recalled Gibson saying.

And Paige's reply, O'Neil said, "'I'm gonna throw you some fastballs.'"

Paige did. He threw three of them at Gibson. Each harder than the one before it; each one a strike. Ballgame over.

Walking off the mound, Paige, who stood 6-foot-4, looked in O'Neil's eyes as if he were seven-feet tall.

"He said, 'You know what, Nancy, nobody hits Satchel's fastball,'" O'Neil recalled. "I said, 'I guess you're right.'"