a biography for the day--jackie mitchell

Jackie Mitchell


Virne Beatrice "Jackie" Mitchell Gilbert (August 29, 1912, 1913 or 1914 – January 7, 1987) was one of the first female pitchers in professional baseball history. Pitching for the Chattanooga Lookouts Class AA minor league baseball team in an exhibition game against the New York Yankees, she struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and more in succession.[1]



It is uncertain in what year Mitchell was born. Some sources suggest 1912,[2][3] others 1913, and still others 1914.[4][5] She weighed only a little over 3 pounds (1.4 kg) when born in Fall River, Massachusetts to Virne Wall Mitchell and Dr. Joseph Mitchell.[2][6] When she learned how to walk, her father took her to the baseball diamond and taught her the basics of the game. Her next door neighbor, Dazzy Vance, taught her to pitch and showed her his "drop ball", a type of breaking ball.[7] Later, Vance would pitch in the major leagues and eventually be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.[8]
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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.[5]
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A few days after Mitchell struck out Ruth and Gehrig, baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis voided her contract and declared women unfit to play baseball as the game was "too strenuous".[6][9] Mitchell continued to play professionally, barnstorming with the House of David, a men's team famous for their very long hair and long beards.[10] While travelling with the House of David team, she would sometimes wear a fake beard for publicity.[11] She retired in 1937 at the age of 23 after becoming something of a side show – once being asked to pitch while riding a donkey.[9] She refused to come out of retirement when the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League formed in 1943.[11] Major League Baseball would formally ban the signing of women to contracts on June 21, 1952.[9] The ban lasted until 1992 when Carey Schueler was "drafted" by the Chicago White Sox for the 1993 season.[5]

In 1982 she was invited to throw out the ceremonial first pitch for the Chattanooga Lookouts on their season opening day.[12]
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Mitchell