Sports History On This Day: March 20

March 20, 1934 – Babe Didrikson Zaharias, one of the greatest female all-around athletes of all time, pitched a hitless inning for the Philadelphia Athletics MLB team in their season exhibition game versus the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Miss Didrikson, who hails from the state of Texas walked the lead hitter, Danny Taylor on a called ball 4 after building a 3-2 count on him. She then followed that by hitting the next batter with a pitch, placing Dodgers on first and second with nobody out. Things didn’t look good for the Olympic Gold Medal winner from the 1932 games at that point. That was until the crack A’s defensive infield bailed her out with a triple play!

Babe D. tossed a slow curveball according to the Detroit Free Press article reporting from Fort Myers, Florida training camp in the March 21, 1934 edition of the paper to batter Joe Stripp. Stripp’s liner went to Shortstop Dib Williams, who then flipped it to second baseman Rabbit Warstler who then made the turn to Jimmie Foxx at first for the 6-4-3 triple play!

To find more great daily sports history make sure to check out the Sports Jersey Dispatch and Pigskin Dispatch.

Photo of Babe Didrikson Zaharias in 1938
The photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, in the public domain Special thanks to the resources of Newspapers.com and OnThisDay.com for the information obtained.

Babe Didrikson Episodes on Truly the GOATs

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