New York Times, April 2, 1931 — Jackie Mitchell, organized baseball’s first girl pitcher struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in the first inning today.
Seventeen-year-old Jackie Mitchell, a new pitcher for the Chattanooga Lookouts, a minor league baseball team, faced the “Sultan of Swat” and the “Iron Horse,” the best of the best New York Yankees batters and stuck them out.
Jackie, one of the first females to sign a baseball contract grew up playing sports. When she was eight, her neighbor Brooklyn Dodger’s pitcher Dazzy Vance taught Jackie how to pitch.
The owner of the Lookouts, Joe Engel watched Jackie pitch at a baseball training camp and offered her a contract. Now he had the only team with a female pitcher. Engel enjoyed using stunts to bring crowds into the ballpark. After signing Jackie, he promoted an exhibition game between the Lookouts and the New York Yankees who were traveling home from spring training.
Jackie Mitchell
On April 2, 1931, starting pitcher Clyde Barfoot faced the first two Yankee batters giving up two hits. Lookout’s manager Bert Niehoff tossed him out and put Jackie in. Next up, Babe Ruth followed by Lou Gehrig.
Jackie Mitchell with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig
Babe tipped his hat to Jackie. Her first pitch was ball one. Babe swung and missed the second pitch for a strike. Then he swung and missed again. Strike two. Jackie threw her next pitch and Babe watched it cross the plate for strike three. He threw his bat into the dirt and walked back to the dugout.
Now Lou Gehrig was up. He swung and missed Jackie’s first three pitches and stuck out. With only seven pitches, Jackie struck out two of baseball’s all-time greatest batters. The crowd of 4,000 gave her a standing ovation.
Jackie shows off for Gehrig and Ruth
Jackie walked the next batter, second baseman Tony Lazzeri. Then manager Bert Niehoff pulled her out of the game and returned pitcher Clyde Barfoot. The Yankees beat the Lookouts 14-4.
Baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, not known for his kind heartedness, voided Jackie’s contract making her first game with the Lookouts her last.
Landis decided that baseball was “too strenuous” for women. But Jackie continued to play, traveling around the country with a barnstorming team. She retired at age twenty-three never doubting that she had actually struck out Ruth and Gehrig without any help from them.
If you like this article, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Childen’s Author
You might also like: Books For Kids: Baseball https://barbaralowell.com/books-for-kids-baseball
Books For Kids:
Mighty Jackie The Strike-Out Queen
by Marissa Moss Illustated by C.F. Payne
Babe Ruth Saves Baseball
By Frank Murphy, Illustrated by Richard Walz
