Joe Engel

The most famous inning at Engel's ballpark was an exhibition. On April 2, 1931, the Yankees were in town after a rainout, and the starter had given up a double and a single when manager Bert Niehoff called on Jackie Mitchell, seventeen years old. Engel had signed her on March 25. She struck out Babe Ruth and then Lou Gehrig; Tony Lazzeri walked, and the starter came back. Mitchell barnstormed with the House of David, sometimes in a fake beard, retired in 1937, and is buried at Forest Hills Cemetery.

What the plaque says

Joe Engel 1893-1969 The Washington Senators professional baseball team named William Joseph "Joe" Engel president of the Chattanooga Lookouts, its farm team, in 1929. By February of 1930 he had a new $150,000 ballpark, Engel Stadium, which was said to be the finest in the Southern League. Engel and his innovative promotional ideas quickly made him a fixture in Chattanooga. He hosted major league exhibition games, a faux "elephant hunt," house raffles, and even a female pitcher, Jackie Mitchell. Notable players such as Babe Ruth, Harmon Killebrew, Lou Gehrig, "Satchell" Paige, and Ferguson Jenkins all played at Engel Stadium. During Engel's 35-year tenure, he set Southern League attendance records in 28 seasons and saved the team from being sold.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Bessie Smith Cultural Center — 1.1 mi
  Chattanooga's African American museum and performance hall on the old Ninth Street, named for the Empress of the Blues, who started out singing for change on that same street.
• Walnut Street Bridge — 1.5 mi
  An 1890 truss bridge now open to walkers, and the place where Alfred Blount in 1893 and Ed Johnson in 1906 were lynched, the case that led to the Supreme Court's only criminal trial.
• Tennessee Aquarium — 1.5 mi
  A river-themed aquarium that opened on May 1, 1992, on the Chattanooga bank where John Ross kept a trading post, tracing a raindrop from the Appalachians to the Gulf.
• Ross's Landing — 1.8 mi
  The Tennessee River landing where Chattanooga began and where Muscogee (Creek) and Cherokee people were put on boats and ferried out in 1837 and 1838.

More markers nearby

• Bessie Smith — 0.6 mi
• The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga — 0.7 mi
• Walden Hospital — 0.8 mi
• Martin Hotel — 1.1 mi