Encyclopedia of Women and Baseball - Leslie A. Heaphy, Mel Anthony May - McFarland, Jul 27, 2006
Mitchell, Virne Beatrice "Jackie"
(b. 1914, Chattanooga, Tennessee; d. 7 January 1987, Tennessee)
By Ryan Bucher
The 1920s were considered the golden age of sports. Sportswriters created public interest, and athletes, such as Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, were brought to celebrity status. Major league baseball greatly increased in popularity, so when the Great Depression hit, the major leagues remained relatively unaffected. Minor league teams, however, were not so lucky. Attendance significantly decreased, and many teams, especially in small cities, struggled to keep from going bankrupt. Team owners searched for ways to increase attendance (Berlage 1994. 73). They became innovators. trying several publicity stunts and promotional gimmicks to draw crowds. They tried everything from having the players play on donkeys or playing a game in water to changing the players' uniforms to having female ushers.
One of the greatest baseball innovators of all time was Joe Engel, who was the owner, promoter, and president of the Chattanooga Lookouts, an AA minor league team of the Southern Association. He was nicknamed Barnum Joe, and he had been involved with vaudeville in the 1920s. He was known for such antics as conducting elephant-hunting safaris 25-pound turkey; he later claimed he got the worst of the deal. He even once filled the seats by raffling off a house (Gregorich 1994, 66). His greatest publicity stunt came when he got the idea to have a woman pitch in an exhibition game against the powerful New York Yankees.
In March 1931. he signed a 17-year-old southpaw who stood 5'7"- tall and weighed about 130 pounds to be the new pitcher for the Chattanooga Lookouts. Most of the newspapers claimed that Jackie Mitchell was the first woman to sign a professional baseball contract. Mitchell. however, was the second woman to sign a contract to play professional baseball, just as she was the second woman to play against a major league team. In 1898, Lizzie Arlington had become the first woman to sign a contract with the minor leagues (Gregorich 1994, 14). The first woman to play against a major league team had been Lizzie Murphy, who played against the Boston Red Sox in a benefit game for the American League All-Stars at Fenway Park on August 14,1922 (Berlage 1994, 55). Mitchell used this opportunity to accomplish what no one thought a woman could ever do—strike out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. It was an event covered by every major media source, but it was quickly forgotten.
Virne Beatrice "Jackie" Mitchell was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1914. Her father, Dr. Joseph Mitchell. was an optometrist. He and his wife, Virne, encouraged Jackie to become active. She had been a frail, sickly child, and she was encouraged to participate in sports in order to build up her health. She soon displayed an extraordinary athletic ability. She could box, run, and play tennis and basketball. Her mother and father were pleased that she was so healthy, and they wanted to see her go as far as she could in athletics (National Baseball Hall of Fame Archives).
Mitchell particularly excelled at baseball. She had become the star pitcher at the Signal School, a private preparatory school. Part of her excellence was due to the training she received as a child. Her personal coach had been Dazzy Vance, a pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers and a future member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Mitchell first met Vance when she was seven or eight. He was pitching for a team in Memphis, and Mitchell became friends with his son. When Vance was home, he would play catch with the two of them and give them pitching tips. This greatly fueled Mitchell's interest in becoming a professional baseball player. She dreamt of one day f pitching in the World Series.
Mitchell first attracted the attention of baseball scouts in 1929, when she was playing for Joe Engel's Engelettes, a girls' baseball team that played games in and around Chattanooga. The team was coached by her father. Many baseball enthusiasts became impressed with Mitchell's ability. They encouraged her to get more training at Norman "Kid" Elberfeld's baseball school in Atlanta, which she attended in March 1931. This school was the only one of its kind at the time, and it was frequented by many major-leaguers, such as Luke Appling of the Chicago White Sox, who trained there during the off-season.
It was at this time that Joe Engel realized the possibilities of using Mitchell's abilities not only to launch her career, but to draw crowds. However, it was Mitchell's father who suggested to Engel that he sign his daughter. Engel had just arrived from Washington to run the Lookouts, and he was anxious to attract large crowds to the park (National Baseball Hall of Fame Archives). Mitchell was in Dallas playing in a basketball tournament, but Engel did not waste any time, quickly outfitting her with a Lookout uniform made by Spalding, and getting permission from the Yankees to agree to let her pitch one inning of an exhibition game as the team headed north from its spring training camp in Florida.
Mitchell's signing with the Lookouts grabbed national headlines. Engel reportedly took out a $10,000 life and pitching-arm insurance policy on her.
Even before her first appearance on the mound, other teams in the Southern Association came to Engel with trade offers for Mitchell. The Memphis Chicks offered two players and cash for her contract, but Engel turned them down. Engel also declined offers from teams in Nashville and Birmingham, who presented him with similar proposals (National Baseball Hall of Fame Archives; Berlage 1994, 74). Engel claimed that Mitchell was just too good to be traded, but he most probably saw her as more of a novelty who would fill the stands than as an athlete.
Universal Newsreel, wire services, and reporters from all over the nation came to Chattanooga. They loved the stereotypical idea of frail, young teenager going against the big, overpowering Sultan of Swat. The sportswriters were very skeptical of how Mitchell would actually fare against the man of steel. If the best male pitchers had a tough time against Ruth, how would a 17year-old, 130-pound girl keep him from hitting the ball out of the park? (Berlage 1994,74).
The day before the game, reporters interviewed Mitchell and Ruth. Mitchell appeared to be calm and confident. When asked if she thought she could strike out Ruth, Mitchell replied, "Yes, I think I can strike him out" (Gregorich 1993.74). Even Jackie's father felt she would be able to perform well. He told reporters that his daughter was "a curveball pitcher, not a smoke-ball pitcher," but she could do the job against the Yankees (Gregorich 1994, 67).
Ruth, on the other hand, seemed very skeptical. He acted extremely chauvinistic toward the fact of a woman playing baseball. He believed that Mitchell had no place on any baseball field, let alone the same field he was on. He was quoted as saying that he did not know what would happen to baseball if women were allowed to play—"Of course they will never make good. Why? Because they are too delicate. It would kill them to play ball everyday" (Gregorich 1993, 74). He then asked how big Jackie was, and when told of her size he muttered, "Well, I don't know what things are coming to" (Gregorich 1994, 68). Ruth said that he hoped his encounter with Mitchell would be the last time he was called upon to bat against a woman. It was amid this skepticism and condescension that Mitchell took the mound.
The game was originally scheduled for 1 April 1931, but was moved back to April 2 because of rain. Four thousand people showed up to watch the game at Engel Stadium. Many of them came to see Ruth and Gehrig hit one over the fence, but the majority were there to see how the southpaw would fare against baseball's best.
Mitchell warmed up while Clyde Barfoot, who had spent some time in the majors with the Cardinals and Tigers, took the mound as the starter. The first batter, Earle Combs, hit a double off the center field wall. Then, Lyn Lary singled in Combs to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. With a man on first and nobody out, the Lookouts' manager, Bert Niehoff, took out Barfoot and brought in Mitchell to face Ruth. She was wearing the baggy, white uniform specially sewn for her by A.G. Spalding Co. and a cap with a large "C" on it. Mitchell took her allotted warm-up pitches, and Ruth stepped into the box. He tipped his cap and drew Mitchell's attention to the fact that Lary was on first base. Jackie remembered the words of encouragement her father had given her: "Go out there and pitch just like you pitch to anybody else" (Berlage 1994, 74). She was nervous, but would quickly settle down.
Mitchell went into along. grindy windup. She paid no attention to the man on first, as she had all her attention focused on the batter. Lary could have easily stolen second, but he stayed where he was. Ruth swung at the first pitch and missed. The next two pitches were wide. Ruth called for a new ball, then swung at the next pitch and missed. With a 2-2 count, Mitchell wound up and threw the ball as hard as she could down the middle of the plate. Ruth watched it pass over the plate, and umpire Brick Owens called the third strike. Ruth gave the umpire an angry look and headed off toward the dugout, where he threw his bat against the back wall.
The next batter was Lou Gehrig. One reporter wrote of Gehrig as he stepped up to the plate that "his knees were shaking and he cut at three fast ones ... and also sat down" (Berlage 1994, 75). As Mitchell recalled, after she struck out Gehrig, it "set off a standing ovation ... that must have lasted ten minutes" (Gregorich 1994, 69). After the crowd calmed down, Tony Lanai stepped into the batter's box. He swung at one pitch and fouled off another before eventually drawing a base on balls. After walking Lazzeri, Mitchell was taken out of the game and Barfoot was put back in as pitcher. Mitchell had proven that women were capable of playing against the men.
The Lookouts lost the game 14-4, but Mitchell believed that they could have won if she had been allowed to stay in the game. Unfortunately, she did not get a chance to prove that the game was not a fluke. She had planned on joining the Lookouts and pitching in every city that had a league team. Baseball commissioner Landis announced that women were banned from competing in baseball and that her contract was null and void. Landis claimed that baseball was "too strenuous" for a female (Gregorich 1994,69). With no one coming to her defense, Mitchell was taken off the club roster; however, she continued to have a role with the club, doing promotional work. She returned to the Engelettes, playing against area semipro and amateur teams. Within a month of Landis' ruling, she had joined the Junior Lookouts as the star attraction. The team was made up of former and future minor league players, and it was managed by Kid Elberfeld. Mitchell pitched the first 2-3 innings of each game. It was with the Lookouts that Mitchell returned to Engel Stadium a few months later, where she pitched three hitless innings against Margaret Nabel and the New York Bloomer Girls in front of a crowd of 4,000 (Gregorich 1994, 70). In 1931, Mitchell signed a contract with the Lookout Mountaineers to play pro men's basketball. The next year, she returned to baseball, joining the Greensboro, North Carolina, team of the Piedmont League. Mitchell pitched for their road games only. The team was so low in the minor league systems that Landis never found out about her playing.
In 1933, at the age of 19. Mitchell signed with the House of David. The House was a barnstorm-
ing team known for its fair and exceptional play, and for the long hair and beards worn by all the men on the team. Mitchell was paid $1,000 per month, pitching an inning or two everyday against minor league and semipro teams. She played in one game against the St. Louis Cardinals where she struck out a rookie shortstop named Leo Durocher. 1n the off-season. Mitchell played professional basketball on a men's team or toured on a team with Babe Didrikson (Berlage 1994, 77).
In 1937, at the age of 23 and with no hope of moving up to baseball's best circuits because of her banishment. Mitchell retired from baseball and returned home to work in her father's office, where she was quickly forgotten by the sports world. It was not until 1975 that Mitchell's achievements came back into the public mindset. Alan Morris. sports editor for the Chattanooga News-Free Press, received a letter asking "what ever happened to the girl who struck out Babe Ruth?" Mitchell saw the artide in the newspaper and called him to retell her story. Just like in 1931. Jackie once again received hundreds of congratulatory letters about what she had accomplished. Fifty-one years later, in 1982. Jackie was invited back to Engel Stadium to throw out the first ball on opening day. In 1984, she was honored at Atlanta Stadium. where she watched her first major league baseball game in person. The newspaper clippings, the mail, and the honors served as a reminder that she was not forgotten. She died on 7 January 087 at the age of 73 in Fort Oglethorpe, Tennessee (National Baseball Hall of Fame Archives).
Many still maintain that Ruth and Gehrig struck out on purpose as a publicity stunt. Several articles make it clear that both players did all they could to deliberately miss the ball. Still, Mitchell believes that they did not deliberately strike out. She knew how good she was: "I had a drop pitch. When I was throwing it right, you couldn't touch it. Better hitters than them couldn't hit me." Whether or not they were trying does not matter. Jackie never was able to achieve her dream of pitching in the World Series, but she still struck out two of the game's greatest hitters, cementing her place as "the girl who struck out Babe Ruth."
About the Book:
Women have been involved in baseball from the game’s early days, in a wide range of capacities. This ambitious encyclopedia provides information on women players, managers, teams, leagues, and issues since the mid–19th century. Players are listed by maiden name with married name, when known, in parentheses. Information provided includes birth date, death date, team, dates of play, career statistics and brief biographical notes when available. Related entries are noted for easy cross-reference. Appendices include the rosters of the World War II era All American Girls Professional Baseball League teams; the standings and championships from the AAGPBL; and all women’s baseball teams and players identified to date.
(b. 1914, Chattanooga, Tennessee; d. 7 January 1987, Tennessee)
By Ryan Bucher
The 1920s were considered the golden age of sports. Sportswriters created public interest, and athletes, such as Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, were brought to celebrity status. Major league baseball greatly increased in popularity, so when the Great Depression hit, the major leagues remained relatively unaffected. Minor league teams, however, were not so lucky. Attendance significantly decreased, and many teams, especially in small cities, struggled to keep from going bankrupt. Team owners searched for ways to increase attendance (Berlage 1994. 73). They became innovators. trying several publicity stunts and promotional gimmicks to draw crowds. They tried everything from having the players play on donkeys or playing a game in water to changing the players' uniforms to having female ushers.
One of the greatest baseball innovators of all time was Joe Engel, who was the owner, promoter, and president of the Chattanooga Lookouts, an AA minor league team of the Southern Association. He was nicknamed Barnum Joe, and he had been involved with vaudeville in the 1920s. He was known for such antics as conducting elephant-hunting safaris 25-pound turkey; he later claimed he got the worst of the deal. He even once filled the seats by raffling off a house (Gregorich 1994, 66). His greatest publicity stunt came when he got the idea to have a woman pitch in an exhibition game against the powerful New York Yankees.
In March 1931. he signed a 17-year-old southpaw who stood 5'7"- tall and weighed about 130 pounds to be the new pitcher for the Chattanooga Lookouts. Most of the newspapers claimed that Jackie Mitchell was the first woman to sign a professional baseball contract. Mitchell. however, was the second woman to sign a contract to play professional baseball, just as she was the second woman to play against a major league team. In 1898, Lizzie Arlington had become the first woman to sign a contract with the minor leagues (Gregorich 1994, 14). The first woman to play against a major league team had been Lizzie Murphy, who played against the Boston Red Sox in a benefit game for the American League All-Stars at Fenway Park on August 14,1922 (Berlage 1994, 55). Mitchell used this opportunity to accomplish what no one thought a woman could ever do—strike out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. It was an event covered by every major media source, but it was quickly forgotten.
Virne Beatrice "Jackie" Mitchell was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1914. Her father, Dr. Joseph Mitchell. was an optometrist. He and his wife, Virne, encouraged Jackie to become active. She had been a frail, sickly child, and she was encouraged to participate in sports in order to build up her health. She soon displayed an extraordinary athletic ability. She could box, run, and play tennis and basketball. Her mother and father were pleased that she was so healthy, and they wanted to see her go as far as she could in athletics (National Baseball Hall of Fame Archives).
Mitchell particularly excelled at baseball. She had become the star pitcher at the Signal School, a private preparatory school. Part of her excellence was due to the training she received as a child. Her personal coach had been Dazzy Vance, a pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers and a future member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Mitchell first met Vance when she was seven or eight. He was pitching for a team in Memphis, and Mitchell became friends with his son. When Vance was home, he would play catch with the two of them and give them pitching tips. This greatly fueled Mitchell's interest in becoming a professional baseball player. She dreamt of one day f pitching in the World Series.
Mitchell first attracted the attention of baseball scouts in 1929, when she was playing for Joe Engel's Engelettes, a girls' baseball team that played games in and around Chattanooga. The team was coached by her father. Many baseball enthusiasts became impressed with Mitchell's ability. They encouraged her to get more training at Norman "Kid" Elberfeld's baseball school in Atlanta, which she attended in March 1931. This school was the only one of its kind at the time, and it was frequented by many major-leaguers, such as Luke Appling of the Chicago White Sox, who trained there during the off-season.
It was at this time that Joe Engel realized the possibilities of using Mitchell's abilities not only to launch her career, but to draw crowds. However, it was Mitchell's father who suggested to Engel that he sign his daughter. Engel had just arrived from Washington to run the Lookouts, and he was anxious to attract large crowds to the park (National Baseball Hall of Fame Archives). Mitchell was in Dallas playing in a basketball tournament, but Engel did not waste any time, quickly outfitting her with a Lookout uniform made by Spalding, and getting permission from the Yankees to agree to let her pitch one inning of an exhibition game as the team headed north from its spring training camp in Florida.
Mitchell's signing with the Lookouts grabbed national headlines. Engel reportedly took out a $10,000 life and pitching-arm insurance policy on her.
Even before her first appearance on the mound, other teams in the Southern Association came to Engel with trade offers for Mitchell. The Memphis Chicks offered two players and cash for her contract, but Engel turned them down. Engel also declined offers from teams in Nashville and Birmingham, who presented him with similar proposals (National Baseball Hall of Fame Archives; Berlage 1994, 74). Engel claimed that Mitchell was just too good to be traded, but he most probably saw her as more of a novelty who would fill the stands than as an athlete.
Universal Newsreel, wire services, and reporters from all over the nation came to Chattanooga. They loved the stereotypical idea of frail, young teenager going against the big, overpowering Sultan of Swat. The sportswriters were very skeptical of how Mitchell would actually fare against the man of steel. If the best male pitchers had a tough time against Ruth, how would a 17year-old, 130-pound girl keep him from hitting the ball out of the park? (Berlage 1994,74).
The day before the game, reporters interviewed Mitchell and Ruth. Mitchell appeared to be calm and confident. When asked if she thought she could strike out Ruth, Mitchell replied, "Yes, I think I can strike him out" (Gregorich 1993.74). Even Jackie's father felt she would be able to perform well. He told reporters that his daughter was "a curveball pitcher, not a smoke-ball pitcher," but she could do the job against the Yankees (Gregorich 1994, 67).
Ruth, on the other hand, seemed very skeptical. He acted extremely chauvinistic toward the fact of a woman playing baseball. He believed that Mitchell had no place on any baseball field, let alone the same field he was on. He was quoted as saying that he did not know what would happen to baseball if women were allowed to play—"Of course they will never make good. Why? Because they are too delicate. It would kill them to play ball everyday" (Gregorich 1993, 74). He then asked how big Jackie was, and when told of her size he muttered, "Well, I don't know what things are coming to" (Gregorich 1994, 68). Ruth said that he hoped his encounter with Mitchell would be the last time he was called upon to bat against a woman. It was amid this skepticism and condescension that Mitchell took the mound.
The game was originally scheduled for 1 April 1931, but was moved back to April 2 because of rain. Four thousand people showed up to watch the game at Engel Stadium. Many of them came to see Ruth and Gehrig hit one over the fence, but the majority were there to see how the southpaw would fare against baseball's best.
Mitchell warmed up while Clyde Barfoot, who had spent some time in the majors with the Cardinals and Tigers, took the mound as the starter. The first batter, Earle Combs, hit a double off the center field wall. Then, Lyn Lary singled in Combs to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. With a man on first and nobody out, the Lookouts' manager, Bert Niehoff, took out Barfoot and brought in Mitchell to face Ruth. She was wearing the baggy, white uniform specially sewn for her by A.G. Spalding Co. and a cap with a large "C" on it. Mitchell took her allotted warm-up pitches, and Ruth stepped into the box. He tipped his cap and drew Mitchell's attention to the fact that Lary was on first base. Jackie remembered the words of encouragement her father had given her: "Go out there and pitch just like you pitch to anybody else" (Berlage 1994, 74). She was nervous, but would quickly settle down.
Mitchell went into along. grindy windup. She paid no attention to the man on first, as she had all her attention focused on the batter. Lary could have easily stolen second, but he stayed where he was. Ruth swung at the first pitch and missed. The next two pitches were wide. Ruth called for a new ball, then swung at the next pitch and missed. With a 2-2 count, Mitchell wound up and threw the ball as hard as she could down the middle of the plate. Ruth watched it pass over the plate, and umpire Brick Owens called the third strike. Ruth gave the umpire an angry look and headed off toward the dugout, where he threw his bat against the back wall.
The next batter was Lou Gehrig. One reporter wrote of Gehrig as he stepped up to the plate that "his knees were shaking and he cut at three fast ones ... and also sat down" (Berlage 1994, 75). As Mitchell recalled, after she struck out Gehrig, it "set off a standing ovation ... that must have lasted ten minutes" (Gregorich 1994, 69). After the crowd calmed down, Tony Lanai stepped into the batter's box. He swung at one pitch and fouled off another before eventually drawing a base on balls. After walking Lazzeri, Mitchell was taken out of the game and Barfoot was put back in as pitcher. Mitchell had proven that women were capable of playing against the men.
The Lookouts lost the game 14-4, but Mitchell believed that they could have won if she had been allowed to stay in the game. Unfortunately, she did not get a chance to prove that the game was not a fluke. She had planned on joining the Lookouts and pitching in every city that had a league team. Baseball commissioner Landis announced that women were banned from competing in baseball and that her contract was null and void. Landis claimed that baseball was "too strenuous" for a female (Gregorich 1994,69). With no one coming to her defense, Mitchell was taken off the club roster; however, she continued to have a role with the club, doing promotional work. She returned to the Engelettes, playing against area semipro and amateur teams. Within a month of Landis' ruling, she had joined the Junior Lookouts as the star attraction. The team was made up of former and future minor league players, and it was managed by Kid Elberfeld. Mitchell pitched the first 2-3 innings of each game. It was with the Lookouts that Mitchell returned to Engel Stadium a few months later, where she pitched three hitless innings against Margaret Nabel and the New York Bloomer Girls in front of a crowd of 4,000 (Gregorich 1994, 70). In 1931, Mitchell signed a contract with the Lookout Mountaineers to play pro men's basketball. The next year, she returned to baseball, joining the Greensboro, North Carolina, team of the Piedmont League. Mitchell pitched for their road games only. The team was so low in the minor league systems that Landis never found out about her playing.
In 1933, at the age of 19. Mitchell signed with the House of David. The House was a barnstorm-
ing team known for its fair and exceptional play, and for the long hair and beards worn by all the men on the team. Mitchell was paid $1,000 per month, pitching an inning or two everyday against minor league and semipro teams. She played in one game against the St. Louis Cardinals where she struck out a rookie shortstop named Leo Durocher. 1n the off-season. Mitchell played professional basketball on a men's team or toured on a team with Babe Didrikson (Berlage 1994, 77).
In 1937, at the age of 23 and with no hope of moving up to baseball's best circuits because of her banishment. Mitchell retired from baseball and returned home to work in her father's office, where she was quickly forgotten by the sports world. It was not until 1975 that Mitchell's achievements came back into the public mindset. Alan Morris. sports editor for the Chattanooga News-Free Press, received a letter asking "what ever happened to the girl who struck out Babe Ruth?" Mitchell saw the artide in the newspaper and called him to retell her story. Just like in 1931. Jackie once again received hundreds of congratulatory letters about what she had accomplished. Fifty-one years later, in 1982. Jackie was invited back to Engel Stadium to throw out the first ball on opening day. In 1984, she was honored at Atlanta Stadium. where she watched her first major league baseball game in person. The newspaper clippings, the mail, and the honors served as a reminder that she was not forgotten. She died on 7 January 087 at the age of 73 in Fort Oglethorpe, Tennessee (National Baseball Hall of Fame Archives).
Many still maintain that Ruth and Gehrig struck out on purpose as a publicity stunt. Several articles make it clear that both players did all they could to deliberately miss the ball. Still, Mitchell believes that they did not deliberately strike out. She knew how good she was: "I had a drop pitch. When I was throwing it right, you couldn't touch it. Better hitters than them couldn't hit me." Whether or not they were trying does not matter. Jackie never was able to achieve her dream of pitching in the World Series, but she still struck out two of the game's greatest hitters, cementing her place as "the girl who struck out Babe Ruth."
About the Book:
Women have been involved in baseball from the game’s early days, in a wide range of capacities. This ambitious encyclopedia provides information on women players, managers, teams, leagues, and issues since the mid–19th century. Players are listed by maiden name with married name, when known, in parentheses. Information provided includes birth date, death date, team, dates of play, career statistics and brief biographical notes when available. Related entries are noted for easy cross-reference. Appendices include the rosters of the World War II era All American Girls Professional Baseball League teams; the standings and championships from the AAGPBL; and all women’s baseball teams and players identified to date.
