A Special Visitor Comes to the Hall Memorial Library

On Tuesday morning, a very special guest came to the in Ellington to read the children there a very special story.

Rocky, the New Britain Rock Cats’ mascot, and a couple of his friends from the Rock Cats came to read Mighty Jackie: The Strike-Out Queen to the children. The story is based on the true story of Jackie Mitchell, the 17 year-old girl who struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

According to Jean Patrick who wrote a book on Mitchell, Mitchell signed a contract in March of 1931 to play with the Chattanooga Lookouts, a Class AA minor league team in Tennessee. Only a few days after she signed the contract, the Yankees came to town.

Patrick says that Mitchell was brought in in the middle of an inning to face Ruth and then Gehrig. After striking out Ruth, she got Gehrig on three pitches.

Author Marissa Moss told the story of Mitchell striking out these great players while adding some fictionalized details to the story.

Andrew, an intern with the Rock Cats, read the story to the children while Rocky added animation and movements. The children laughed at the funny parts of the story and cheered and clapped at the end as Mitchell struck out the Yankees big hitters and won over the crowd who had previously booed her.