Having been signed by Bill Veeck on July 7, 1948, the 42-year-old (or whatever) rookie got his 1st big league start on August 3rd when this great Acme wire photo captured Paige in the Indians locker room lacing up his spikes. After several thousand Negro league and other games he was hardly fazed. Instead, he grins in the picture with the wisdom of the ages, knowing his "trouble ball" would be just that against the Senators. He was right, too, winning 5-3 before 72,434 fans, a night game record in Cleveland, and went 6-1 to help the Tribe go all the way. Sharp and clear 6 x 8" photo is NRMT and has the original paper caption on the back.