Jackie Mitchell threw a wicked breaking ball and, at the age of 17, had good enough stuff to strike out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game. But the southpaw never got the chance to build on that accomplishment, because Jackie Mitchell also happened to be a woman.
That may be why you haven’t heard of her. But she’s an important figure who has a story that illustrates the potential for anyone to excel if they put in the work. It also throws a bright light on the rampant misogyny in sports, media and the public in the 1930s.
What if Babe Ruth Played Today?
Jackie Mitchell’s Early Life
Mitchell was born on Aug. 29, 1913 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Her father, a doctor, had introduced her to baseball at a very young age. He started taking her to ballparks from the moment she could walk.
But her interest went beyond just watching the game. She also wanted to play.
She received some important help to realize that goal. Her neighbor was Charles Arthur “Dazzy” Vance, and he taught her how to throw a breaking ball. You might recognize the name Dazzy Vance, because he went on to lead the National League in strikeouts every year between 1922 and 1928 as a pitcher for the Brooklyn Robins. He’s in the Hall of Fame.
Her sinking curveball got attention for Mitchell as she started pitching for an all-girls team in Chattanooga and attended a baseball camp in Atlanta. More specifically, she caught the eye of Joe Engel, who owned the AA Chattanooga Lookouts. He signed Mitchell to a contract.
Jackie Mitchell Strikes Out Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig
In a strategy that would plague Mitchell’s short lived career, Engel had signed her as a publicity stunt. As noted by The Smithsonian, previous stunts by Engel included trading a player to another team for a turkey, then cooking the turkey, then serving it to sportswriters.
Engel was that kind of guy. But Mitchell was about to prove she was more than a gimmick.
Engel invited the New York Yankees to play the Lookouts on April 1, 1931, between spring training and going to New York for the start of the season. He’d received the publicity he sought, but that increased exponentially with the Yankees now involved.
Much of that attention came in the form of ridicule. For example, here’s what the New York Daily News wrote about the situation before the game, which eventually got moved to April 2 because of rain.
“The Yankees will meet a club here that has a girl pitcher named Jackie Mitchell, who has a swell change of pace and swings a mean lipstick. I suppose that in the next town the Yankees enter they will find a squad that has a female impersonator in left field, a sword swallower at short, and a trained seal behind the plate. Times in the South are not only tough but silly.”
Mitchell, just 17 years old, entered the game in the first inning after the starter gave up a double and single. She faced Ruth first. He took a ball for the first pitch. He then swung and missed at two breaking balls. He took the fourth pitch, which caught the edge of the plate and was called a third strike. Ruth flung his bat in disgust at the call.
Gehrig stepped in. He promptly swung and missed three breaking balls.
Mitchell had struck out two of the most fearsome hitters in baseball history. Even though she got pulled after walking the next batter (Tony Lazzeri) and the Yankees won the game 14-4, it’s Mitchell’s feat that’s remembered.
Unfortunately, it’s the reaction from baseball that’s also remembered.
Baseball Immediately Voids Jackie Mitchell’s Contract
Not even a week after striking out the two best hitters in baseball, Mitchell had her contract voided by baseball commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis. He said women would find playing baseball “too strenuous.”
That ruling echoed comments from Ruth, who told the New York Times after the game: “I don’t know what’s going to happen if they begin to let women in baseball. Of course, they will never make good. Why? Because they are too delicate. It would kill them to play ball every day.”
Mitchell continued playing for a few years, most famously for the House of David baseball team. She also played in the outlaw Piedmont League. But in 1937 she called it quits. She was just 23. She wouldn’t even come out of retirement when the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was formed in 1943.
It’s easy to see why. She had often been made to do demeaning stunts. On the day of the Yankee game, photographers asked her to pose in her uniform while acting like she was powdering her nose. She wore a fake beard while playing with the House of David club. She was even made to throw a pitch while riding a donkey.
Baseball eventually banned female players in 1952, a measure that stayed in place until 1993.
How Good Was Jackie Mitchell?
No one will ever know how good Jackie Mitchell was, but she certainly deserved a better chance to find out. Striking out Ruth and Gehrig was no fluke. One newspaper that took her seriously was the Chattanooga News, which wrote: “She uses an odd, side-armed delivery, and puts both speed and curve on the ball. Her greatest asset, however, is control. She can place the ball where she pleases, and her knack at guessing the weakness of a batter is uncanny.”
In retirement, Mitchell worked in her father’s optometry office. While she never returned to baseball, she did come back to throw out the first pitch at a Lookouts game in 1982. She was 68 years old. She died Jan. 7, 1987, at the age of 73.
In an interview for a book not long before her death, Mitchell talked about the enduring myth that Ruth, Gehrig and Lazzeri weren’t trying to get a hit and that the strikeouts were a hoax. It seems fitting to let Jackie Mitchell herself have the final words on what happened that day.
First, about the men involved: “To me, it’s like a dream now, more than a reality. At the time I didn’t think it would go as far as it has. I liked [Ruth and Gehrig] both – I enjoyed talking to both of them but Lou Gehrig was a bit nicer. He was more friendlier. Ruth was quiet and didn’t have much to say.”
And about whether they tried to get a hit: “Why, hell yes, they were trying, damn right. Hell, better hitters than them couldn’t hit me. Why should they’ve been any different?”
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