[3] In his spare time, he swatted tennis balls with broom handles or just tuned his fastball tossing rocks at targets on train tracks.

Mitchell spent two seasons with the team, including a showdown with the Kansas City Monarchs and a highly touted prospect named Ernie Banks.

[1] Mitchell then was invited to throw batting practice to the Monarchs and earned a contract to join the team, which had a strong pitching staff featuring the legendary Satchel Paige.

[4] In his third attempt to aid Negro leaguers, Mitchell managed to get MLB to finally decide that players on segregated black baseball teams in the late 1940s and 1950s were discriminated against because the so-called white leagues did not fully integrate until 1959.

[4] Mitchell received his due recognition in 2008, when he was selected by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the MLB special draft of the surviving Negro league players.

[5] Mitchell settled in Tampa Bay, Florida and took an active role in teaching children the essentials of reading, writing, and arithmetic as well as moral values and the importance of faith.