Loren Dale Mitchell (August 23, 1921 – January 5, 1987) was an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professiona ...

left fielder In baseball, a left fielder, abbreviated LF, is an outfielder who plays defense in left field. Left field is the area of the outfield to the left of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the numbering sys ...

. He played eleven seasons in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...

(MLB) from 1946 to 1956 for the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central division. Since , they have ...

and

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the club moved to Los Angeles, Californi ...

."Dale Mitchell Statistics and History"
"baseball-reference.com. Retrieved June 8, 2017. A native of

Colony, Oklahoma Colony is a town in northeastern Washita County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 136 at the 2010 U.S. census, a decrease of 7.5 percent from 147 in 2000. It was named for the Seger Colony, founded in 1886, which taught modern agricultu ...

, he threw and batted left-handed, and was listed as tall and .

Career

Mitchell was a standout at the

University of Oklahoma , mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State" , type = Public research university , established = , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.7billion (2021) , pr ...

from 1942 to 1946, with a career batting average of .467 and a senior season average of .507. Both marks are still Sooner records. Mainly a line drive hitter to all parts of the field, Mitchell hit .432 in 11 games for the Indians in his rookie season in 1946. He became a regular in 1947 and hit .300 or better six of the next seven seasons. In 1948, Mitchell hit for a career-high .336 average, had 203

hits Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * '' H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block * ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998 * ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014 - a British compilation album s ...

, led the league in

singles Singles are people not in a committed relationship. Singles may also refer to: Film and television * ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series * ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe * ''Singles'' ...

(162), and led the Indians to victory in the 1948 World Series. He finished third in the 1948

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league b ...

batting race behind

Ted Williams Theodore Samuel Williams (August 30, 1918 – July 5, 2002) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 19-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, primarily as a left fielder, for the Boston Red Sox from 193 ...

(.369) and

Lou Boudreau Louis Boudreau (July 17, 1917 – August 10, 2001), nicknamed "Old Shufflefoot", "Handsome Lou", and "The Good Kid", was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 15 seasons, primarily as a ...

(.355). In 1949, Mitchell led the AL in hits (203), singles (161) and triples (23), struck out only 11 times in 640

at-bats In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a batt ...

, and made his first appearance in the

All-Star Game An all-star game is an exhibition game that purports to showcase the best players (the "stars") of a sports league. The exhibition is between two teams organized solely for the event, usually representing the league's teams based on region or d ...

. He received his second All-Star nod in 1952, and in 1954 led the Indians to an AL record 111 wins in a 154-game season and the American League pennant. Mitchell posted a career .312 batting average, 41

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s and 403

RBIs A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the bat ...

in eleven seasons in major league baseball. For the period between 1943 and 1960, only Williams and

Stan Musial Stanley Frank Musial (; born Stanislaw Franciszek Musial; November 21, 1920 – January 19, 2013), nicknamed "Stan the Man", was an American baseball outfielder and first baseman. Widely considered to be one of the greatest and most consis ...

hit for higher averages. A good contact hitter as well, he struck out only 119 times in 3,984 at-bats and received 346 walks, for an outstanding 2.91 walk-to-strikeout ratio, the eighth best ratio in major league history. He compiled a .985

fielding percentage In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball. It is calculated by the sum of putouts and assists, di ...

in the majors. Mitchell played for the Cleveland Indians in all but 19 of the 1127 regular-season games in which he appeared. Near the end of the 1956 season, the Brooklyn Dodgers purchased Mitchell's contract from Cleveland. Mitchell is perhaps best remembered, however unfairly, for making the final out in

Don Larsen Don James Larsen (August 7, 1929 – January 1, 2020) was an American professional baseball pitcher. During a 15-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, he pitched from 1953 to 1967 for seven different teams: the St. Louis Browns / Baltimore O ...

's perfect game during Game 5 of the

1956 World Series The 1956 World Series of Major League Baseball was played between the New York Yankees of the American League and the defending champion Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League in October 1956. The series was a rematch of the 1955 World Series ...

for the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one ...

against Mitchell's new team, the Dodgers. Mitchell, pinch-hitting for Brooklyn

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or dr ...

Sal Maglie Salvatore Anthony Maglie (April 26, 1917 – December 28, 1992) was an American Major League Baseball pitcher and later, a scout and a pitching coach. He played from 1945 to 1958 for the New York Giants, Cleveland Indians, Brooklyn Dodgers, New Y ...

, took a called third strike to end the only perfect game in Series history. Mitchell, who is tied for seventh place as one of the all-time toughest hitters to strike out (34-1 ratio), always maintained that the third strike he took was really a ball. The Dodgers would go on to lose the series in seven games, and Mitchell retired afterward. Dale Mitchell died from a heart attack in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region wit ...

, in 1987 at the age of 65. The

L. Dale Mitchell Baseball Park The L. Dale Mitchell Baseball Park is home to the University of Oklahoma Sooners baseball team. About Mitchell Park was named after Dale Mitchell, a mid-1940s Sooner letterman who holds OU's career and single-season batting records. The park w ...

at the University of Oklahoma is named in his honor.

References

External links

Baseball Historian

Dale Mitchell Biography at Baseball Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Dale 1921 births 1987 deaths American League All-Stars Baseball players from Oklahoma Brooklyn Dodgers players Cleveland Indians players Major League Baseball left fielders Oklahoma City Indians players Oklahoma Sooners baseball players People from Washita County, Oklahoma

Career

See also

References

External links