A Swell Change of Pace

"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." -Babe Ruth

Yes, one of the greatest baseball players of all time was a sexist ... but he would come to eat those words. When Babe Ruth went down on strikes in an exhibition game in Chattanooga in 1931, it was at the hand of a pitcher derided as a freak. Just a little girl! Sports is a kingdom of men. Always has been. Always will be?

"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." Source: The New York Daily News (April 2, 1931)

That pitcher, that lipstick swinger, was teenage left-hander Jackie Mitchell, one of the most talented female hurlers ever to take the mound, and a pioneer for women in the sport, despite being run out of professional baseball just as her career was starting. She was signed to the Southern Association AA Chattanooga Lookouts at just 17-years-old. And in April of that same year, the mighty New York Yankees stopped by for an exhibition game.

Lookouts manager Bert Niehoff initially started the game with Clyde Barfoot, but after he surrendered a double and a single, the signal was sent out for Jackie Mitchell. Imagine the expressions on the Yankees' faces when the rookie southpaw (in a custom-made baggy white uniform) stepped up on to the mound to face their team. Even worse, imagine the pressure she endured, as the first batter of her baseball career was none other than the "Sultan of Swat" Babe Ruth!

Mitchell's pitching arsenal consisted of only one pitch - a dropping curve ball known as a "sinker" and she used it like no other ace had before (or after). A grinning Bambino took ball one, and then swung at (and missed) the next two. Jackie's fourth pitch caught the corner of the plate for a called-strike infuriating an embarrassed Ruth who promptly threw his bat and stomped back into the Yankees' dugout. For a healthy swig of rye, I suspect.

Next up was none-other than "The Iron Horse" Lou Gehrig who followed the Babe's lead and swung at three in a row for "K" number two. Mitchell had blown away two of the greatest sluggers even to don the pinstripes. God, I wish I'd been there. After a standing ovation, she walked Tony Lazzeri and was pulled in favor of the returning Barfoot. Despite her historical performance on the mound, the Yankees went on to win the contest 14-4.

A few days later, Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis voided Mitchell's contract, claiming that baseball was "too strenuous" for a woman. It was a gross injustice and an obvious ploy to curb the embarrassment of their bruised male egos. MLB formally banned the signing of women to contracts on June 21, 1952.

It is now 76 years since Jackie Mitchell struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in her first (and last) outing as a pitcher. And 55 years have passed since MLB banned women in the sport. Have those delicate (to use Babe Ruth's term) male egos not healed yet? What could they possibly be afraid of? And would the sport become less competitive or just less exclusive if women were allowed to compete? If I had the stuff to strike out Derek Jeter ... Aw, c'mon, put me in coach!