On March 26, 1931, the baseball world was stunned as a 18-year female pitcher named Virne Beatrice "Jackie" Mitchell of Chattanooga, TN, signed a minor league contract with the hometown Lookouts. Several days later, Mitchell took to the mound for an April 2 preseason game against the New York Yankees, striking out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. With her exploits reported the next day in newspapers across the United States, Jackie Mitchell became a household name Mitchell's story is detailed in a new book by women's baseball historian John Kovach. Jackie Mitchell: The Girl Who Loved Baseball. It is the most complete look at the life and career of Mitchell. As a young girl, Jackie and her family lived in Memphis, Tennessee. The family lived in close proximity to then minor league Memphis Chicks pitcher (and future Baseball Hall of Famer) Arthur Charles "Dazzy" Vance. It was Vance who reportedly taught a young Jackie to throw a baseball. While previous books about Mitchell center around her appearance against the Yankees, readers will learn a number of new things about Mitchell, both on and off the baseball field. Some of those things include: - Jackie playing for her first organized team, the Engelettes in 1930 - Jackie pitching for or against teams from eight different minor leagues - The only female pitcher to hold two major league teams scoreless - A first-ever, year-by-year record of Jackie's pitching career - Jackie's challenge to Babe Didrikson to pitch against her According to popular culture, the possibility that she would be soon a starting member of the Lookouts pitching staff was dashed when Baseball Commissioner, Kennesaw Mountain Landis reportedly banned females from playing professional baseball after her appearance. There is no written evidence of Landis ban according to Kovach. Following the game in Chattanooga, many of the teams she would play for would state that her contrast was "on loan" to their club from the Lookouts. As a female athlete in the 1930s, Mitchell played both baseball and basketball. Through her basketball playing, Mitchell encountered the legendary Mildred "Babe" Didrikson, playing on her "All American's Basketball Team" as well as the "Stars of The World", managed by Grover Cleveland Alexander. Kovach creates a unique chapter from interviews with Jackie between 1931-33. Readers will again hear Jackie in her own words tell what it was like to face Ruth and Gehrig; her love of baseball as well as what it was like to play with the bearded House of David team. The book also touches upon the post-athletic life of Mitchell until her death in 1987. Readers will learn about the deaths of her mother, father and younger sister as well as her brief marriage to Eugene A Gilbert.

During the biggest game of her life . . . a girl pitches to the world’s best slugger. Chattanooga, Tennessee, 1931. Jackie Mitchell is a girl pitcher on a minor-league baseball team, the Chattanooga Lookouts. In her day, few women played sports. But her skill earned her a spot on a men’s team. When the New York Yankees come to town, Jackie must face Babe Ruth at the plate. Can she strike out one of the greatest players in baseball?

Lucile “Ludy” Godbold was six feet tall and skinnier than a Carolina pine and an exceptional athlete. In her ?nal year on the track team at Winthrop College in South Carolina, Ludy tried the shot put and she made that iron ball sail with her long, skinny arms. But when Ludy qualified for the first Women's Olympics in 1922, Ludy had no money to go. Thanks to the help of her college and classmates, Ludy traveled to Paris and won the gold medal with more than a foot to spare. Hooray for Ludy! Based on a true story about a little-known athlete and a unique event in women's sports history.

In 1931, seventeen-year-old Jackie Mitchell pitches against Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game, becoming the first professional female pitcher in baseball history.

Baseball is much more than the national pastime. It has become an emblem of America itself. From its initial popularity in the mid-nineteenth century, the game has reflected national values and beliefs and promoted what it means to be an American. Stories abound that illustrate baseball's significance in eradicating racial barriers, bringing neighborhoods together, building civic pride, and creating on the field of play an instructive civics lesson for immigrants on the national character. In A People's History of Baseball, Mitchell Nathanson probes the less well-known but no less meaningful other side of baseball: episodes not involving equality, patriotism, heroism, and virtuous capitalism, but power--how it is obtained, and how it perpetuates itself. Through the growth and development of baseball Nathanson shows that, if only we choose to look for it, we can see the petty power struggles as well as the large and consequential ones that have likewise defined our nation. By offering a fresh perspective on the firmly embedded tales of baseball as America, a new and unexpected story emerges of both the game and what it represents. Exploring the founding of the National League, Nathanson focuses on the newer Americans who sought club ownership to promote their own social status in the increasingly closed caste of nineteenth-century America. His perspective on the rise and public rebuke of the Players Association shows that these baseball events reflect both the collective spirit of working and middle-class America in the mid-twentieth century as well as the countervailing forces that sought to beat back this emerging movement that threatened the status quo. And his take on baseball’s racial integration that began with Branch Rickey’s “Great Experiment” reveals the debilitating effects of the harsh double standard that resulted, requiring a black player to have unimpeachable character merely to take the field in a Major League game, a standard no white player was required to meet. Told with passion and occasional outrage, A People's History of Baseball challenges the perspective of the well-known, deeply entrenched, hyper-patriotic stories of baseball and offers an incisive alternative history of America's much-loved national pastime.

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.

In fact, not until 1952 was there a rule barring women from being professional players.