Toni Stone – The First Woman to Play Major League Baseball
Toni Stone - The First Woman to Play Major League Baseball
Toni Stone was born in West Virginia as Marcia Lyle Stone. She became the first woman to play professional baseball full-time. She played for the Indianapolis Clowns in the all-male Negro leagues and later became the first woman to be a regular on a major-league baseball team in the United States. The story of her life is a fascinating one and her career will live on for years to come. However, not everyone is as familiar with her as some people are.
Connie Morgan replaces Marcenia Lyle “Toni” Stone Alberga
Toni Stone made sports history when she signed a seasonal contract with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League in 1953. She played second base, a spot vacated by Hank Aaron when he signed with the Milwaukee Braves in 1948. However, her success didn’t live up to the greatness of Jackie Robinson, and she retired after just one season with the team. Connie Morgan took her place.
Before becoming a professional baseball player, Toni Stone was a talented saxophonist and played in the minor leagues of the Twin Cities. She even joined several all-black baseball teams, including one in Chicago. After pursuing a baseball career, she moved to San Francisco, where she worked odd jobs and met her future husband, Captain Aurelius Pescia Alberga. They lived in the Bay Area for several years and married in the 1950s.
Despite her struggles, she eventually achieved recognition as a barrier-breaker and was inducted into the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame.
League
The film A League of Their Own was a huge inspiration for Toni Stone, as it portrayed the challenges women in the game faced while trying to break the color and gender barrier. She was a role model for many Black women who followed her example in baseball. She and her sister, Marcia Stone Alberga, were both pioneers and trailblazers. And their work and perseverance helped the first professional female baseball league.
While the Clowns marketed Stone as a “girl” player, she regarded herself as a professional. She refused to play in a skirt when asked by the team owner. This demonstrates her professionalism despite her limitations. In addition, Stone had a positive impact on the Indianapolis Clowns’ success. She exhibited professionalism, which was not easy to come by in those days.
Toni Stone played baseball in the men’s league
In the spring of 1949, the San Francisco Sea Lions picked up Stone and drafted her for their team. At sixteen, she began to play weekend games for the team for two to three dollars per game. Stone became disgruntled with her team’s owner when she learned that she was paid less than her male teammates. Soon, she was moving east to play for the New Orleans Black Pelicans and then the Creoles.
In fact, the Clowns didn’t allow women to play in their leagues. Stone was forced to change in the umpires’ room. Because she had been a woman in baseball for almost a decade, she was able to identify with the people who acted sexily toward women.
Despite this gender discrimination, Toni Stone went on to play professional baseball for the Indianapolis Clowns, replacing Hank Aaron at second base. Stone played a variety of sports growing up, including basketball, soccer, and football, but chose baseball because of its cultural significance. Aaron and Ernie Banks praised her baseball skills and called her “smooth.”
addition Information
In addition to playing professional baseball, she also played semi-pro ball for the Indianapolis Clowns in her early years. Later, she signed with the Kansas City Monarchs. She played for many teams and played against countless baseball legends, but she faced plenty of sexism in the men’s game. She even endured taunts and abuse from fans and players. It was a tough road for Stone, but she persevered.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame included Stone in the Women in Baseball exhibit, as well as in the “Negro League” exhibit. Stone was also inducted into the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame, and the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. In 1990, her hometown of St. Paul, Minnesota, dubbed March 6 “Toni Stone Day” to honor her achievements in baseball.
Stone was married to Aurelius Rescia Alberga
After meeting Alberga at a Jack’s Tavern, Toni moved to the Fillmore district. The dapper man was charming and full of stories. Toni met Alberga, who was a prominent member of the California Black community. Alberga was determined to make Toni the first Black player on the Fillmore baseball team. They were married in December 1950.
She cared for her husband
Despite her own dissatisfaction with her marriage, Toni Stone continued to support her husband throughout the years. During their relationship, she and her husband managed to shave about 10 years off of her age. After meeting her husband, Stone began to play professional baseball. In 1949, she joined the San Francisco Sea Lions, where she earned around $200 a month and $2 a day for meals. After the team moved to New Orleans, she played for the Creoles.
After retiring from the game, Stone tended to her husband’s needs by playing pickup games with California American Legion teams and playing sandlot baseball. She later married the first lieutenant of the Officer Reserves Corps, Aurelius Alberga, and moved to Oakland, California, where she worked as a nurse. She stayed with her husband until his death in 1987, and he was included in two exhibits at the Baseball Hall of Fame to honor her life-saving efforts.
Stone began caring for her husband at a young age, and when she was sixteen, she began playing baseball with the Twin City Colored Giants. Her father was an Army veteran who served in World War I and married Willa Maynard, a stylist who had also attended Tuskegee Institute. Upon meeting Alberga, Stone told him about her barnstorming experiences and how she had become a professional pitcher. They stayed together until Alberga’s death.
Biography of Stone
Although the play is not a full biography of Stone, the cast includes a number of important figures and moments in her life. She excelled at figure skating at her mother’s insistence, despite the racially charged world she lived in. Her marriage to a white man, who was several decades older than her, was also difficult for her family. The playwright, Kathy Diamond, felt a responsibility to capture the life of Stone.
In 1954, Stone retired from professional baseball and moved to Oakland to care for her sick husband. In 1990, her hometown of St. Paul, Minnesota, declared a day in her honor. The Women’s Sports Hall of Fame inducted her in 1993. In 1996, she passed away in a nursing home. Her husband was buried in Oakland, California, where she was a regular resident for nearly 20 years.For Any Further Information Please Visit This Site.
