Future major leaguers Rick Sutcliffe and Frank White joined the nearly 10,000 fans in attendance, a remarkable jump from the 690 fans who had watched the A’s two days earlier. Negro Leagues legends Buck O’Neil, Cool Papa Bell, Hilton Smith, and Bullet Rogan returned to their former stamping grounds for a luncheon and brief exhibition game before Kansas City’s game against the Red Sox.

A hired nurse rubbed liniment on his pitching arm, and a personal waterboy brought him beverages. Signed by Athletics owner Charlie Finley for the “princely sum of $3,500” 3 to pitch one last time, Paige famously occupied a wooden rocking chair in the bullpen before the game and in the dugout between innings. He used 28 pitches to twirl three scoreless innings for the hometown Kansas City A’s against Boston, with Carl Yastrzemski’s first-inning double the only hit allowed. Long removed from his prime as a Negro Leagues legend, or even as the White major leagues’ oldest player when he debuted for the Cleveland Indians in 1948, the man estimated to have pitched to more batters in more ballparks than anyone else in history left his final big-league game as a 59-year-old (his most-accepted age) future Hall of Famer on a night that began as a stunt but ended adding to his amazing legend. However, September 25, 1965, was different. Satchel Paige left the mound in Kansas City’s Municipal Stadium to enormous ovations many times in his pitching career, barely noticing the fuss of adoring crowds and some of baseball’s brightest stars.

It was completely rebuilt and renamed Municipal Stadium in 1955. The stadium was first known as Muehlebach Field (1923), then Ruppert Stadium (1937), and later Blues Stadium (1943). Ruppert Stadium was the home of the Kansas City Monarchs beginning in 1923.

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