Who is Toni Stone? Get to know the Baseball Legends’ Path to the Big Leagues
If you looked at Google.com at all today (February 9th), you’ll see a sketch of former Negro leagues player Toni Stone. What’s significant about Toni Stone, you may ask? Well, she was just the first women to play as a regular for an American professional baseball team. Let’s talk about her!
Baseball Beginnings
Toni Stone is first recorded as starting to play baseball when she was 10 years old, playing with the boys in her neighborhood in St. Paul, Minnesota. The boys gave her the nickname “Tomboy” as a result of this, something Stone’s mother was not happy with. And, despite excelling at skating, swimming, track, basketball, and football, baseball was her first love. She would even skip school at times to play!
Later, her family’s Catholic priest encouraged her to tryout for the Claver Catholic Church boys’ baseball team. Despite the coach of the team being not very interested in helping her grow as a ballplayer, she continued to learn and play throughout her childhood.
Professional Ballplayer
Toni started our her professional playing career barnstorming with the Twin City Colored Giants, where she would be paid $2-$3 per game. Then, in 1943, she moved to San Francisco, where her sister lived, in hopes of building her baseball career there. There, through the introduction of a friend, she began playing for the local American Legion baseball team, where she had to lie about her age in order to play.
After playing with the American Legion team for two years, we pick up Stone’s baseball story again in 1949. That year, she made it onto the roster of the San Francisco Sea Lions. That is, until she found out that she was being paid less than the male players on the team and joined the New Orleans Créoles until 1952.
Finally: The Big Leagues
Toni’s official big league start came in 1953, where she played second base for the Indianapolis Clowns, the same position Hank Aaron had played for the team before he joined the MLB. In 50 games for the team, she batted .243, and drew a lot of crowds for the team in the process. She also drew a lot of ire from men across the league, who heckled her or treated her more roughly than they did other players. Still, she soldiered on, getting traded to the Kansas City Monarchs. Her time with the Monarchs was brief, mostly because of the lack of playing time. She would retire following the season, and move to Oakland, CA with her husband.
Legacy
While Toni Stone’s big league career was brief, her story is necessary for the story of baseball to be told. Despite all the adversity she faced as a black woman, she still found a way to play the game she loved, and did it professionally. Unable to join the All American Girls Professional Baseball League because she was black, and unfairly treated at times in the Negro leagues because she was a woman, she still made her dream come true. That’s something we should all be able to look back on and admire.
Image Source: Google.com
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– Pat Shuman (@PShu1996 on Twitter) Check out my other articles here!