Joseph Francis Page was born on October 28, 1917 in Cherry Valley, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of Joseph Page, a coal miner, and Lurena Couch. The oldest of seven children, Page was encouraged to pursue a baseball career by his father, a coal miner and sometime semiprofessional baseball pitcher. When he was ten, Page's family moved to Cheswick.
In Cheswick, Pennsylvania, Joseph Franhcis Page played sandlot and semiprofessional baseball, graduating from Springdale High School in 1935.
For a time Joseph Francis Page worked as a coal miner. In 1936, Page was struck by a car and spent eleven months in a hospital, his left leg severely injured. Eventually a bone graft was performed, saving his leg from amputation. After a lengthy recovery period, Page returned to baseball. In 1938 he attended a Pittsburgh Pirate tryout and was signed as a pitcher for their McKeesport farm team in the Class D Pennsylvania State Association in 1939, but he was released before the season began. In 1940, Page tried out for the Butler Yankees of the same league and made the team. From 1940 to 1943, Page moved up through the New York Yankees farm system, despite various physical problems. He was hospitalized for ten days in 1942 when he collapsed from stomach ulcers while en route home from spring training.
After a 14-5 record and a 3. 05 earned run average with Newark in the International League in 1943, Page made the Yankees in 1944, winning five of his first six starts and being named by manager Joe McCarthy to the American League All-Star team. In June, Page injured his left shoulder in a base-running fall, then lost six games in a row and was sent back to Newark. He returned to New York in 1945, but over the next two years he developed a reputation as a talented pitcher who never realized his potential owing to a fondness for late nights and drink. In May 1946, McCarthy berated Page aboard a team flight for breaking training and squandering his ability. In 1947, Page signed a special contract whereby he received an extra $500 every two weeks if he behaved himself and forfeited $500 if he violated curfew. During spring training, Yankees president and part-owner Larry MacPhail suggested to new manager Bucky Harris that Page be converted to a relief pitcher.
For a time, Page roomed with Yankees star centerfielder Joe DiMaggio on the road, in the hope that DiMaggio's discipline and professionalism would provide an example for the fun-loving but insecure Page. Page faced being released because of his poor showing in the young season, when on May 26 he was brought in to pitch relief against the Boston Red Sox before a record crowd at Yankee Stadium as New York trailed early in the game. The first batter Page faced reached base on an error, filling the bases with none out. Page fell behind three balls and no strikes on the next two hitters but struck out both, then retired the third on a fly out. New York rallied to win the game and went on to win the pennant easily. With performances such as this, Page emerged as a relief pitching specialist, appearing in 56 games, winning 14, and saving 17 with an earned run average of 2. 48.
In the World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers, Page pitched in four games, saving the first and receiving credit for a victory in the deciding seventh. Page had an off year in 1948 but recorded his finest season in 1949 with a 13-8 mark in 60 appearances, a 2. 59 earned run average and 27 saves. He pitched in three games during the 1949 World Series, winning the third and saving the fifth as the Yankees defeated the Dodgers in five games. In January 1950, Page was the first winner of the Babe Ruth Memorial Award as the outstanding player in the 1949 World Series. Plagued by hip problems and a loss of velocity on his fastball, Page struggled to a 3-7 record and a 5. 04 earned run average in 37 games, ending the season with the Kansas City farm club. The next year, Page suffered from physical problems during spring training and was sent down to Kansas City in May, pitching there briefly, then to San Francisco later that year and to Syracuse in 1952.
In 1954, Page entered the Pittsburgh Pirate training camp in Fort Pierce, Fla. , and requested a tryout. He pitched well enough to sign a contract but after seven relief appearances he was released in June. After retiring from baseball, Page operated taverns in Irwin and Laughlintown, Pennsylvania, until the mid-1970's. Page suffered a heart attack in 1970 and within a twelve-month period underwent heart surgery and throat cancer surgery. For a time in the early 1970's, Page was victimized by an imposter in the New Jersey area who exploited his name. This led to a highly unflattering article about Page in Sport magazine in March 1973 that was based primarily on sensationalized information provided by the imposter.
On May 1973, Page sued the magazine for libel. A settlement was approved by the Federal District Court in Pittsburgh in February 1976, with Page receiving $25, 000. Page was in failing health in his final years. After being hospitalized with heart problems for several weeks, he died of heart failure in Latrobe, Pennsylvania on April 21, 1980.
Joseph Francis Page was a distinguished baseball player. He played with the New York Yankees and with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was the first relief pitcher after World War II to be used consistently in gamesaving situations. Page was the first winner of the Babe Ruth Memorial Award as the outstanding player in the 1949 World Series.
Joseph Francis Page had a flamboyant demeanor, good look and flair for the dramatic. He was six feet, three inches tall and weighing 215 pounds and left-handed.
On February 25, 1941, Joseph Page married Catherine Aquina Carrigan. They had no children. In 1955 he was divorced from his first wife, and soon thereafter he married Mildred Brown. They had three children.
