LeAnn Rimes Strikes Out 'Babe Ruth'

Posted Friday, September 6, 2002 at 12:11 PM Central

by John Couture

Singer/Actress LeAnn Rimes has agreed to play the lead in The Girl Who Struck Out Babe Ruth. The movie is set to tell the true story of Jackie Mitchell, a Tennessee born teenager who became the only woman to strike out baseball greats Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig back-to-back.

Rimes will play Mitchell, the 17 year old pitching phenom whose Chattanooga Lookouts played the New Yankees in an exhibition game in 1931 as they were traveling to Spring training. Despite the dubioud feat, the baseball commission voided her contract a few days later claiming that baseball was too "strenuous" for women.