With major league baseball currently in spring training and Women’s History Month nearing its end for this year, we throw the spotlight on Toni Stone, the first woman to ever play in a men’s professional league. Blackhistorymonth AMNEWSBHM
One of Stone’s career highlights was a plate appearance against the immortal pitcher Leroy “Satchel” Paige. She singled sharply off one of Paige’s patented fastballs, slapped her hands and received an appreciative nod from the pitcher.
Born Marcenia Lyle Stone July 17, 1921—although in James Riley’s “Encyclopedia of Negro Baseball Leagues,” he lists 1931 as the year of her birth—in St. Paul, Minn., she was one of the four children. Their parents carefully nurtured them to be good students and to get the best education possible. As early as 10 years of age, Stone began expressing another desire that didn’t include a lot of book learning, unless it was studying how to excel in baseball.
Soon, her reputation was all over town, and by the time she was 15, a scout from the Twin City Colored Giants, a traveling men’s team, sought her out to play in the men’s meatpacking league. While the money was decent, the treatment from hostile fans was at times unbearable, with fans berating and chiding her to get “to the kitchen” and saying this is a “men’s game.” But unkind heckling and Jim Crow restrictions only fortified her desire to excel. There was also the inconvenience and loneliness of being the only woman on the team and in the league, which made it difficult for her to shower, which, obviously, meant separate facilities that were not always available.
Playing in 50 games, Stone hit a respectable .243, and it was during this time that she got a hit off Paige and had an opportunity to play with some of the legends of the game.
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