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Toni Stone was the first woman to play in the Negro Leagues [1]
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Date: 2025-06-09
Toni Stone (left) shaking hands with boxing great Joe Louis. Credit: Miami Times (Miami, FL), April 11, 1953, p. 5, via the Library of Congress
“Why don’t you go home and fix your husband some biscuits?”
Toni Stone heard it all as the first woman to play baseball in the male Negro Leagues. She played for the New Orleans Creoles, the San Francisco Sea Lions and the Kansas City Monarchs in the early 1950s.
“The fans did turn out, and some rooted for Stone’s success, but in the convention-bound ‘50s, not all of them were ready to embrace the idea of a woman playing on a men’s team,” the National Baseball Hall of Fame states. “They yelled at her from the stands.”
Born in 1921 in West Virginia, she was named Marcenia Lyle Stone. Because she loved playing baseball with the boys, Stone was called a “tomboy.” She moved to San Francisco and began calling herself “Toni” in 1943.
Stone played basketball, skating, golf, swimming and hockey, but baseball was her passion.
Baseball “was like a drug,” Stone said in a 1991 interview. “Whenever summer would come around (and) the bats would start popping, I’d go crazy.”
At 15, Stone played for the Twin City Colored Giants. In 1946, she joined the San Francisco Sea Lions, and played for the Creoles from 1949-1952.
Stone signed with the Indianapolis Clowns in 1953 to replace Hank Aaron at second base. Her contract later was sold to the Kansas City Monarchs. She retired after the 1954 season.
According to Crescent City Sports, Stone “was a legitimate ballplayer. She usually played several innings at second base each game before being substituted.”
Honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991 and inducted into the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1993, Stone died in 1996.
“I loved my trousers. I loved cars,” Stone said according to the Negro Southern League Museum. “I wasn’t classified. People weren’t ready for me.”
For more tales from New Orleans history, visit the Back in the Day archives.
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