Special Report: The Women who had an impact on Major League Baseball

"Behind every great man is a great woman."  


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That phrase could not only apply to the strong women in our lives, but also to women who had a significant impact on Major League Baseball.

In March, we celebrate the women who have positively impacted our society in the past and present day. In this special report, we will share some of the incredible women from the past who have had a significant impact on Major League Baseball. Hopefully, in the near future, we will be able to write about more examples of women who are currently impacting the sport.

Mamie "Peanut" Johnson

(September 27, 1935 – December 18, 2017)

Mamie Johnson was one of the first women to pitch in the Negro Leagues. Johnson's nickname was "Peanut" during her career due to her small height of 5 feet, 3 inches. According to history, she earned the nickname after an at-bat where she faced Hank Baylis of the Kansas City Monarchs. According to news accounts of that day, after a hard strike, Baylis stepped out of the batter's box and said, 'why, that little girl's no bigger than a peanut. I ain't afraid of her,' and then Johnson struck him out.

In June of 2008, Johnson and other players from the Negro League era were "drafted" by Major League Baseball before the 2008 MLB first-year draft. The Washington Nationals selected Johnson.

Johnson was born Mamie Belton in Ridgeway, South Carolina, on September 27, 1935, to Della Belton Havelow and Gentry Harrison. She lived for a time in Long Branch, New Jersey, before moving to Washington, D.C. in the 1940s.  Johnson died at age 82 in Washington D.C. in 2017.

Edith Houghton

(February 10, 1912 – February 2, 2013)

Edith Houghton was the first professional scout for a Major League Team. Houghton grew up in the city of Philadelphia and was interested in baseball from an early age. At the age of 10, she tried out for the Philadelphia Bobbies, a semi-pro team for non-working girls. She quickly became the team star due to both her fielding and batting skill. Edith was the youngest girl on a team made up of mostly teenage girls. In 1925, at the age of 13, Edith traveled to Japan to play baseball against men.

Edith went on to play for several women's pro-teams, such as the Hollywood Girls and the New York Bloomer Girls. After World War II, she approached the Philadelphia Phillies' then-owner for a job with the team. Soon after, the Phillies made national news by hiring Houghton as the first female scout in the Majors. From 1946 to 1952, Edith scouted amateur players, fifteen of whom signed contracts.

In 1964, Houghton left Philadelphia and moved to Sarasota, Florida, where she lived until her death on February 2, 2013. It was eight days before her 101st birthday.

Effa Manley

(March 27, 1897 – April 16, 1981)

Born in Philadephia, Pennsylvania, Effa became interested in baseball when she moved to New York City. She grew up watching the New York Yankees and Babe Ruth. After meeting her husband at a Yankee's game, he got her involved in day-to-day operations of his baseball team: the Newark Eagles. His team played in the Negro Leagues from 1936 to 1948.

Effa displayed skills in marketing and often scheduled promotions that advanced the Civil Rights Movement during that period. She eventually took over the team's day-to-day operations and arranged playing schedules, the team's travel schedule, and managed the payroll.

She had a heart attack and died on April 16, 1981, and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006.

Jackie Mitchell

(August 29, 1913 – January 7, 1987)

Jackie Mitchell was born on August 29, 1913, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. At the age of 17, Mitchell began playing for a women's team in Chattanooga named the Engelettes. She went on to attend a baseball training camp in Atlanta, Georgia. Her appearance at this training camp caught the attention of Joe Engel, who was the team owner of the Chattanooga Lookouts, a AA team which played in the Southern Association.

Engel was known as the "Barnum of Baseball," and frequently used publicity stunts to attract larger audiences to the stadium while attendance dropped around baseball due to the financial hardships of the Great Depression.

According to an article on the Womens' History Museum website, "On March 25, 1931, Engel signed Mitchell to the Lookouts and promoted his team as the only professional baseball team with a female pitcher. One week later, Mitchell was called to the mound in her first professional game."

A month later, the Chattanooga Lookouts played the New York Yankees in an exhibition game, and after the starting pitcher Clyde Barfoot gave up a double and a single, Barfoot was replaced by Mitchell. She ended up facing and striking out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Babe Ruth was quoted in a Chattanooga newspaper as having said: "I don't know what's going to happen if they begin to let women in baseball. Of course, they will never make good. Why? Because they are too delicate. It would kill them to play ball every day."

Jackie Mitchell died in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, on January 7, 1987, and was buried in Forest Hills Cemetery in Chattanooga.