Dale Mitchell

From BR Bullpen

Loren Dale Mitchell

Bats Left, Throws Left
Height 6' 1", Weight 195 lb.
School University of Oklahoma
Debut September 15, 1946
Final Game September 26, 1956
Born August 23, 1921 in Colony, OK USA
Died January 5, 1987 in Tulsa, OK USA

[edit] Biographical Information

One of baseball's premier contact hitters during his career, Dale Mitchell had a .312 lifetime batting average in 11 years of major league play. During his seven full seasons as a regular, Mitchell hit .300 or better six times. He was a key player on the 1948 World Series champion Cleveland Indians and made the All Star team in 1949 and 1952.

Born in Oklahoma, Mitchell was a legendary player at the University of Oklahoma, where he set records for highest single-season batting average (.507) and highest college career batting average (.467) that still stand. Prior to his major league career, he worked for the Oklahoma Natural Gas Company along with future minor league star Joe Bauman, delivering bills. Turning pro, Mitchell hit .337 for Oklahoma City in 1946.

Signed by the Indians as a free agent in 1946, he was up the same season hitting .432 in 11 games. The next year (1947), as a rookie, he hit .316 with 10 triples. His batting average was good for # 6 in the league.

In his time as a regular player, Mitchell only once hit under .300, and that was when he hit .290 in 1951. He was in the top 5 in the league in batting average in 1948, 1949, and 1952. He didn't have much power, getting only 41 home runs in a career of more than 1100 games. A pure contact hitter, he almost never struck out (only 119 career strikeouts in nearly 4000 at-bats).

He was the leadoff batter in the 1948 World Series for the Indians, hitting ahead of Larry Doby and Lou Boudreau.

His 23 triples in 1949 were an astounding total. No one had hit 23 triples in nearly 20 years (since Adam Comorosky in 1930), and no one did so again until Curtis Granderson 58 years later.

Toward the end of his career he became a pinch hitter, perhaps because his range in the outfield, never great, seemed to be slipping.

In July 1956, the Brooklyn Dodgers bought Mitchell from the Indians. He finished out his career at age 34 hitting .292 for the Dodgers in the rest of the 1956 season. His last at-bat was as a pinch hitter in the 1956 World Series, when he made the last out in the perfect game pitched by Don Larsen. Dale claimed the called third strike was actually a ball. Since Mitchell almost never struck out, perhaps he was right.

The University of Oklahoma team has played in the L. Dale Mitchell Baseball Park since 1982.