Jackie Robinson speaks (to Satchel Paige!)

“I remember the great stories that they told about Satchel Paige. Used to walk three men just to get at Josh Gibson, to challenge the greatest hitter, I think, that baseball has produced.”

Here’s one for the baseball fans.

I recently learned that Jackie Robinson, who became an enduring culture hero by breaking Major League Baseball’s color line, hosted a syndicated radio show after his ballplaying days. It was called “Jackie Robinson’s Sport Shots.”

For 3 minutes at a time, Robinson interviewed not only athletes but entertainers such as Johnny Mathis and Frankie Laine.

Most intriguing to me was a conversation with Satchel Paige, one of the greatest pitchers of all time. Robinson had been Paige’s teammate on the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues.

Click here to listen to this 1960 chat between two legends of American sport.

And if you’re really into this sort of cultural artifact, you can own a bunch of “Jackie Robinson’s Sport Shots” on mp3. They’ve got ’em for sale at The Authentic History Center.