Jackie, the Girl Who Threw Out Two Boys of Summer Legends

Jackie Mitchell was a natural but never made it to the big leagues because she was born into the wrong gender at the wrong time. Still, she made a splash by fanning two of baseball's greatest: the Sultan of Swat and the Iron Horse, in succession. Instead of a big league contract, Jackie's achievement got her minor league contract invalidated by the baseball commissioner because baseball was too strenuous a game for delicate women. She didn't know that of course.

Marissa Moss turned this into a wonderfully illustrated biographical book for children. Its title is: Mightie Jackie The Strike-out Queen. Misogyny lives on in 21st Century America, but we will have to agree that much has improved since the mid-1900s. Jackie Mitchell is a case in point. One wonders how what she did would be reported today, with cell phone cameras, UTube and internet.