Skip to content Try Ads-Free Fark It's Not News, It's Fark How To FarkLog In | Sign Up » Forgot password? Turn on javascript (or enable it for Fark) for a better user experience. If you can read this, either the style sheet didn't load or you have an older browser that doesn't support style sheets. Try clearing your browser cache and refreshing the page. Discussion Entertainment Social media, electronics, hashtags, and discontinued food are all on the Fark Weird News Quiz, May 30-June 5 Breaking Ball Edition (fark.com) More: Weird, Jacket, Question, Shirt, Quiz, Breast, Fark, Pink Floyd, right breast pocket 77 clicks;posted toMain »and Discussion »on 06 Jun 2025 at 11:58 PM(45 minutes ago) | Favorite | Watch | share: Copy Link 5 Comments Enable JavaScript for Fark in order to vote for entries. Log in (at the top of the page) to enable voting. View Voting Results:SmartestandFunniest (0) Funniest Welcome to the Fark Weird News Quiz! If this is your first time here, you can start the Quiz by clicking on the logo next to the headline above, or here: https://www.fark.com/quiz/1998 Once your score is tallied, you can click on any of the correct answers to be taken to the Fark thread about that story. If you don't have a Fark account, you can still take the Easy Quiz here: https://www.fark.com/quiz/2000 ox45tallboy (0) Funniest 35 minutes ago Jackie was born in 1913 in Chattanooga, TN to a respectable doctor and baseball fan. One of the first things he did when Jackie learned to walk was head to the baseball diamond to teach the rules of baseball and the basics of play. Jackie took a liking to the sport and played in the Post-WWI equivalent of Little League and was quite successful, earning the notice of a neighbor by the name of Dazzy Vance. Dazzy was a professional baseball player who had some talent, but was never quite the top pitcher on any of the teams he played for. In an effort to stand out, he began working on his own type of pitch which he called the "drop ball" - a type of curve ball that would curve downward instead of out away from the batter (we now call it the breaking ball). Dazzy saw that this young player had some talent and decided to teach this pitch, and Jackie picked it up and managed to master it even at a young age. Jackie was playing for a scrub league team and got the opportunity to go to a baseball camp in Atlanta, and this is where things start getting interesting. Joe Engel, the president and owner of the AA Chattanooga Lookouts, was at that baseball camp and saw a kid who was consistently striking out everyone. Joe was part of that great tradition of minor league baseball promoters like Bill Veeck. and he saw a real opportunity here and offered Jackie a contract. See, back then, there was no age limit on contracts, as no one had ever thought there needed to be because why would anyone sign a teenager? Back then, Major League Baseball teams engaged in a practice called "barnstorming". Since no one had invented TV yet, these teams would travel around the country and play exhibition games against local teams so that local people could say they got to see X famous athlete play, and maybe create a fan for life. This sort of thing was a huge reason that professional baseball became so popular, and it kept people interested in their team even if they could only read about them in the paper - seeing them once a year was like seeing your favorite artist on tour. Well, the way the timing worked, Jackie's first day as a Chattanooga Lookout was going to be one of these games. The major league teams were on their way back up north from spring training in Florida and wanted to play a few warm-up games before heading into the season. On April 2, 1931, the starting pitcher for the Lookouts gave up a double and then a single, so the manager pulled him and motioned for Jackie. And if you've done the math, you see that the Lookouts manager was about to send in a 17-year-old kid against the power hitter positions of third and fourth in the lineup. But Jackie had that drop ball that no one in the minor leagues, much less the major league team now playing, had seen before. First pitch - ball one. Second - swing and a miss. Third - swing and a miss. Fourth - called strike three. The batter was furious over that last one and risked being thrown out of the game by verbally abusing the umpire. His teammates had to pull him back to the dugout. Then came the fourth batter. Three straight swing-and-a-misses. And the crowd went nuts. Because this isn't what they came to see. They came to see the mighty New York Yankees. They came to see Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig hit back-to-back home runs, not back-to-back strike outs. And not only strike outs, but strike outs to a 17-year-old kid pitching their very first professional baseball game, who had never before faced a real pro player. A 17-year-old girl. Virne Beatrice "Jackie" Mitchell had her contract voided by baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis a few days later, with Landis declaring women were unfit to play the sport as it was too "strenuous". Or maybe it was too strenuous for him to get chewed out when a girl showed up the two most famous players in the league. Either way, the ban on women playing professional baseball lasted until 1992. As far as Jackie, she was intent on proving she could play as well as anyone, so she joined an itenerant barnstorming team called the House of David. After only a few years, she became disgusted with the way the promoter was handling her. She didn't mind the advertising that she was a woman, but asking her to do things like pitch from the back of a donkey meant she wasn't being taken seriously as a player. Jackie retired from baseball at the age of 23 and took a job with her father and eventually married and settled down. Although there's no permanent memorial to her in the Chattanooga Lookouts' ballpark (there is one on an exercise path at UT Chattanooga), you can find her story of seven pitches that struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig on a wall in the "Diamond Dreams" exhibit of a certain museum located in Cooperstown, New Jersey, on the second floor just one section away from the Hall of Fame's tribute to Babe Ruth. Anyway, take the Quiz and come back and tell us how you did and if you knew women were once allowed to play pro baseball until they got too good at it. Good luck, and let me know if you have any issues. ox45tallboy (0) Funniest 32 minutes ago What is this thing trying to be? Seriously, unless your dad was in a 80s New Wave band, do not buy this for him. Also, this guy looks like he's only allowed to model long-sleeve stuff. ox45tallboy (0) Funniest 34 minutes ago Prof. Professional Professor (0) Funniest less than a minute ago Nuts. I've been playing golf rules lately and STILL managed to get two right. One day! ONE DAY I TELL YOU! Displayed 5 of 5 comments Enable JavaScript for Fark in order to vote for entries. Log in (at the top of the page) to enable voting. View Voting Results:SmartestandFunniest Redisplay/refresh comments If you're having problems voting, quoting, or posting comments, try disabling any browser add-ons that might disable Javascript (NoScript, AdBlock, etc).See our FAQ. Forgot password? Create an account to make comments Remember me If you can see this, something's wrong with your browser's CSS support. (Or you're a spambot.) If you are using the NoScript browser extension, you may have problems posting comments, especially if they contain images.For a fix, see this FAQ entry.If you still have problems, contact Farkback. Before adding a comment, please take a minute to review our posting rules and our legal/privacy policy. By commenting, you agree to these terms. You might also want to take a look at our FAQ. Want to see behind the curtain? Try It's how we feed the squirrel learn more | sign up Support Fark Sign up for the Fark NotNewsletter! Headlines of the Month Fark NotNewsletter TotalFark signup BareFark signup Purchase FarkUnits Purchase OhFark Top Comments Top Submitters Top Smart Comments Top Sources/Topics Top Funny Comments Press/Publicity Link Voting Sports Forum Fandom Forum Entertainment Forum Politics Forum Fark Parties Fark Party Forum PS/Photo Browser Photoshop Forum Farktography Forum Discussion/TF Live Forum Top Commented Top Commented ▼ Top Commented Top Clicked My Recent Commented Recent Mentions Javascript is required to view headlines in widget. Links are submitted by members of the Fark community. When community members submit a link, they also write a custom headline for the story. Other Farkers comment on the links. This is the number of comments. Click here to read them. You need to create an account to submit links or post comments. Click here to submit a link. Also on Fark A person making the average US income will earn about a two and a half million dollars in gross lifetime earnings. That's what houses START at in this new Dallas suburb ( star-telegram.com ) » (2 comments) Social media, electronics, hashtags, and discontinued food are all on the Fark Weird News Quiz, May 30-June 5 Breaking Ball Edition ( fark.com ) » (5 comments) Fans will now need to pay to watch the White Sox lose ( nbcchicago.com ) » (1 comment) Enjoying the pristine waters of Minnesota's Boundary Waters wilderness? Too bad, Trump's giving the land to a foreign mining co ( theguardian.com ) » (17 comments) A story about some old bird (author is subby's kid) ( theautopian.com ) » (2 comments) Entertainment Monkee almost jumped the shark ( avclub.com ) » (4 comments) Know a few comic book extremists or MAGAts you feel like sending into a frothy, possibly stroke-inducing rage? Just forward them this article ( apnews.com ) » (18 comments) Sometimes, emotional support doesn't come from your partner or your parents. Sometimes, it comes with whiskers and a paw ( yahoo.com ) » (1 comment) The latest trend in craft beer stupidity: Ultra-foamy pours ( forbes.com ) » (42 comments) FBI Director Kash Patel: 'My house just got swatted yesterday' ( newsweek.com ) » (42 comments) Fark :: Main | Discussion | Sports | Business | STEM | Entertainment | Fandom | D'awww | Food | Politics Total Fark :: TotalFark | TF Live | TF Advice | TF Discussion | Commented | Top Voted | Greenlit FArQ :: About Us | Quick Answers | Posting Rules | Farkisms Contests :: Photoshop | Farktography | Caption Buy Fark :: Fark Book | Fark Store Submit a Link » Copyright © 1999 - 2025 Fark, Inc | Last updated: Jun 07 2025 00:44:05 Contact Us via Farkback | Report a bug/error msg | Terms of service/legal/privacy policy | Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information Runtime: 0.166 sec (166 ms)