1931

Virne “Jackie” Mitchell became the first woman to play for an all-male pro baseball team. In an exhibition game against the New York Yankees, she struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. She could have told those Yankees to kiss her balls, but she did not.

As a girl in Memphis, she’d allegedly been tutored in baseball by a neighbor and minor-league pitcher, Charles Arthur “Dazzy” Vance, who would go on to lead the National League in strikeouts for seven straight seasons. Mitchell was a multi-sport athlete and joined a baseball school affiliated with Chattanooga’s Class AA minor-league team, the Lookouts, and attracted attention with her sinking lefty curveball.