Jackie Mitchell- Striking Out Ruth and Gehrig

On April 2nd, 1931, an event took place in Tennessee that defied the imagination, but was true. Jackie Mitchell, a seventeen year old girl, struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game. Jackie Mitchell, a girl with such a good curveball that she once struck out nine men in a row in a sandlot game, was banned from playing in the pros by none other than baseball commissioner Kenesaw Landis days later, supposedly because the game was "too strenuous" for women. Some cynics say the whole scenario was orchestrated, but Jackie Mitchell would go to her grave denying this, repeatedly saying the strikeouts were legitimate.

Virnett "Jackie" Mitchell was a fine athlete from the get go. Future Hall of Fame hurler Dazzy Vance lived next to Jackie in Memphis and once, as a minor leaguer, gave the girl some pitching pointers when she was eight years old. Mitchell developed a funky side-armed delivery with incredible control. Being a lefty made it even tougher to handle her offerings, and she was inked to a contract by the minor league Chattanooga Lookouts after being discovered in an Atlanta, Georgia baseball camp. The Yankees would stop in Tennessee every year on the way north to New York and play the Lookouts in an exhibition game, and the 1931 version was scheduled for April Fool's Day.

Rain forced the game to be postponed to the next day, and a crowd of 4,000 came out to see the mighty Bronx Bombers. Jackie Mitchell did not start the contest, but when Earle Combs doubled to lead off the tilt, and scored on a single by Lyn Larry, the Lookouts' skipper signaled for Jackie Mitchell to come in the game. Wearing a custom made uniform designed by the Spalding Company, Mitchell took the mound and Ruth stepped into the batter's box. The only instructions the Yankee hitters had was to not try to hit the ball up the middle, but this did not become a factor.

Using only her dropping curve ball, that could befuddle any left-handed hitter, Mitchell wound up and threw the ball. It was out of the strike zone high and called a ball. Ruth swung and missed at the next one, and when Mitchell threw another in the same spot, Ruth had the same results and two strikes on him. The Bambino then took a called strike three, low and away, and cursed at the umpire, kicked the dirt, and tossed his bat in disgust as the crowd went wild.

Gehrig stepped in and fared no better. Jackie Mitchell threw him three sinking curves, and the Iron Horse swung and came up empty all three times. The throng responded with a standing ovation, and Mitchell then watched as Tony Lazzeri came into the batter's box. He missed on a bunt attempt, and then drew a walk, causing the Lookouts' manager to come to the mound and take Jackie Mitchell out of the contest; the Yankees would go on to a 14-4 victory. The papers lauded her efforts, but there were those who doubted that everything was on the up and up. Lazzeri told reporters after the game that "I had no intention of striking out, I planned to hit the ball." Despite Ruth and Gehrig posing for pictures after the game with Mitchell, there was no indication from them that they were trying to strike out.

Landis, a few days later, voided Jackie Mitchell's contract with the Lookouts, but her fame grew. She barnstormed with various squads, both male and female, and pitched for the House of David team that traveled the nation playing all comers. Jackie called it quits in 1937 at the age of 23, and refused to come out of retirement when the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was begun less than a decade later. Jackie Mitchell went to work in her dad's optometry office, playing with local teams from time to time. Jackie Mitchell lived in the Chattanooga area her entire life, even throwing out the first pitch at a Lookouts' game in 1982. Jackie passed away in 1987 at the age of 73, forever known as the girl who struck out two of the greatest baseball players ever born.