Tickle Your Brain | Euclid Public Library

Jackie Mitchell: The Woman Who Beat Babe Ruth

A baseball sitting on the sand of a baseball field inside the lines of the batter's box

Born on August 29th, 1913, and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Jackie Mitchell was one of the first female American pitchers in professional baseball. Mitchell was only seventeen when she pitched for the Chattanooga Lookouts Class AA minor league. Jackie Mitchell was often said to have a uniquely gifted ability to outguess the batters, with phenomenal control and a drop ball taught to her by Dazzy Vance.

While many people may think back on who the greatest players in professional baseball have been and think of a man such as Babe Ruth, Jackie Mitchell actually struck out both Babe Ruth as well as Lou Gehrig in only three pitches. On April 2, 1931, after being beaten by Mitchell, Babe Ruth threw his bat on the ground in anger. Ruth had also stated, “I don’t know what’s going to happen if they let women in baseball.” Despite having had an emotional outburst after being beaten, Babe Ruth claimed women were the ones who were too weak to play the sport stating, “Of course, they will never make good. Why? Because they are too delicate. It would kill them to play ball every day.” Soon after, Mitchell’s contract was voided due to the Commissioner claiming baseball was too strenuous for women.

While many people today attempt to say that sports should be separated by gender due to women being supposedly “physically disadvantaged” in comparison to men, people such as Jackie Mitchell reveal the dubious nature of such claims, being not only incredibly talented in their own right, but directly up against male players as well, showing the potential for female athletes to not be sidelined into smaller leagues or created into gimmicks, but rather simply, people, who are incredibly talented in their field and deserving of respect and fair compensation. Jackie Mitchell passed away on January 7th, 1987.

_{These articles are written by library staff using library resources such as books, eBooks, and databases. Information can vary from book to book and database to database. Tickle Your Brain is meant to be a jumping off point for starting conversations about new topics of learning. It is not to be used as an authoritative resource.}

A baseball stadium with the grass freshly mowed which makes the grass look like it has lines of different shades of green

A dirty baseball sitting in a baseball mitt

Did You Know?

Major League Baseball formally banned the signing of women to contracts on June 21, 1952, which lasted up until 1992, with Carey Schueler being drafted by the Chicago White Sox.
Jackie Mitchell’s full name was Virne Beatrice Mitchell Gilbert
Alongside baseball, Jackie Mitchell also played semi-pro Basketball
While Jackie Mitchell was the second, Lizzie Arlington was the first woman to play for a professional organized baseball team.
The Women’s Pro Baseball League (WPBL) is planned to debut on August 1, 2026, with four teams representing Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.