just the other day i was looking up information on various parts of Chattanooga history for a project i'm working on here at J103. while scouring the internet, i came across a story of a lady named Jackie Mitchell that played for the Chattanooga Lookouts back in 1931. she was 17 years old when the Lookouts had an exhibition game against the New York Yankees here in Chattanooga, and Jackie pitched against Yankee greats like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig AND struck them out (and in just 3 pitches each i might add). Babe Ruth said this about her:
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.
a few days after Jackie Mitchell struck out the Yanks, baseball commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis (yes, thats his name!) voided her contract and declared women unfit to play baseball as the game was "too strenuous for women."
i posted this on my Facebook wall just the other day and someone even found a video on the legend of Jackie Mitchell that tells the story much better than i could!
Â
Â