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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Sport
Tom Dart

‘Utterly baffled’: the 17-year-old girl who struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig

Babe Ruth Lou Gehrig Kenesaw Mountain Landis Baseball Babe Didrikson Zaharias MLB
Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth look on as Jackie Mitchell, one of the first women to play professional baseball, practices her form.
Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth look on as Jackie Mitchell, one of the first women to play professional baseball, practices her form. Photograph: AP

The Sultan of Swat sounded exasperated. “I don’t know what things are coming to,” Babe Ruth sighed during spring training in 1931.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen if they begin to let women in baseball,” he elaborated to reporters. “Of course, they will never make good. Why? Because they are too delicate. It would kill them to play ball everyday.”

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