“Toni Stone was inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1993, 40 years after this photo was taken.“
“No other woman ever matched Toni Stone’s accomplishments in baseball—during her nearly two decades of play or since. She was the first woman to play professional baseball on men’s teams in the Negro League of the 1950s”.
Ernie Banks (Yang, 2020)
Who was Toni Stone?
Toni Stone, also known as Marcenia Lyle Stone, was born in 1921 in West Virginia. She had a loving family consisting of her mother, father, two sisters and brother. Starting at an early age Stone was a natural baseball player. She would play baseball with the boys in her neighbourhood, which is where she received the nickname “Tomboy” (Davis, 2016). Toni participated in several sports when she was younger. Her mother bought her figure skates to see if she could participate in a more ‘ladylike’ sport, however, baseball was the activity that she enjoyed most. Her first opportunity to play for a team was when she tried out for the Claver Catholic Church boy’s baseball team, which is similar to Little League today. However, the coach was uninterested by her performance, which drove her determination higher. After trying out and playing for small teams, Stone was dissatisfied with the coaching and abilities of the team. By the age of 16, Stone was playing weekend games with Twin City Colored Giants, where she made about $2-3 per game. With the dream of playing baseball full time, she dropped out of high school to peruse her career. After dropping out, she moved to San Francisco, met her husband, and took on the new name “Toni Stone” which she felt fit her personality better than “Marcenia” (Davis, 2016).
While living in San Francisco, Stone became close friends with Alroyd “Al” Love who was the owner of a local tavern. He introduced her to the American Legion Baseball team, which was the network of amateur baseball teams for teenagers. Stone lied about her age due to the age restrictions for the team, where she subtracted ten years off her age, claiming that she was 17, when she was 27. She played for that team between the years of 1943-1945. By the spring of 1949, Stone had worked her way up to the San Francisco Sea Lions, where she got to play for the team. Nevertheless, she ended up quitting after finding out that she was being paid less than the male teammates on her team. Fast forward to 1953, Stone was signed by Syd Pollack, who was the owner of the Indianapolis Clowns to play second base (Davis, 2016). This was a turning point in her life as Stone was the first of three women to play professional baseball for the Indianapolis Clowns, which was previously an all-male negro league baseball team.
The Indianapolis Clowns was a former all-male negro league. Although there were several all-American leagues that Stone could have hypothetically joined, they were reserved for white women. Prior to Stone joining the team, the Negro leagues were at a difficult point in their career. They were losing several of their top players to the majors while dealing with financial difficulties. Pollack sought out Toni as “a gate attraction- come see the girl phenom”. Pollack thought that signing on Stone, their first female player, would create an attraction from the crowds and support the team financially. He even tried to get Stone to wear a skirt for the sex appeal, like the women who played for the All-American Professional League, yet Stone refused (Davis, 2016). Nevertheless, Stone thrived on the team, and made a legacy for herself, but she did not accomplish this all without a fight.
“There’s always got to be a first in everything”
Toni Stone (Jackson, 2018)
Integration of Women in Baseball
The 19th century was a turning point in the world of baseball. After the banning of participation in the major and minor league play, African Americans built “The Negro League”, which is where Black and Latino players were allowed to participate and compete in games (Lactot, 2004). In 1947, racially segregated baseball came to a halt, as Jackie Robinson was signed onto the Brooklyn Dodgers. Furthermore, the 19th century was also a critical point regarding female athletes, and their careers. It is where the integration of women in sports began. Women were not seen as athletes in the eyes of men, and they were not allowed to play in male dominated sports, as they thought this was a threat to fertility. Nevertheless, individuals still wanted women to keep up their physical activity. Within the late 19th century, eugenics was on the rise among society (Goellner et al, 2011). The idea of eugenics formed by favouring the ideal human race, where they encouraged white individuals to engage in physical activity, while they sterilized Black individuals, being seen as inferior (Goellner et al, 2011). Eugenics also increased reproduction among white individuals and decreased reproduction among Black individuals. At this time, the goal was for women to be kept out of male sports, and to focus on maintaining their physical activity, in order to promote beauty, and femineity (Goellner, 2014). The ideology of eugenics eventually changed, and so did women in sports. There was a passing of a law called Title IX, which was a law that prohibited sex-based discrimination within education among the U.S. This helped women integrate back into the field of sports and gain their rights to athletics (Eitle, 2005).
Misogynoir in Sports
Throughout the sports world, Black athletes have constantly faced issues surrounding race and gender stereotyping. The issue that demonstrates the anti-Black racism present is the term Misogynoir, which was coined by Moya Bailey (2010). The term also contributes to the invisibility of Black women, and how their accomplishments are unrecognized, yet it is their representation that is amplified (Withycombe, 2011). Historically, Black women have dealt with racism and sexism far more than any Black man, or white women have experienced. This is particularly seen when discussing Black athletes, and Toni Stone is a direct victim of this issue (Withycombe, 2011). Being both Black, and the only women on an all-male baseball team lead her to face several issues, such as racism, sexism, and stereotyping. When Stone signed onto the Clowns, she was given an opportunity, however Pollack had ill intentions. Pollack signed her on in order to gain fans, not to create gender diversity throughout the team. Similar to Serena Williams, Stone was underpaid and undervalued than the men who were on her team. The way she was treated by both her teammates and her coach, were directly correlated to her gender and race. In addition, Black female athletes often experience criticism on their bodies (Withycombe, 2011). This stems from the history of slavery and colonialism where Black women were deemed as hypersexual beings, where they would exploit women (Zenguis et al, 2019). This therefore plays into the oversexualization of Black women. For instance, Pollack desired Toni to wear a skirt to dive into the sex appeal of having a woman on their team, however, Stone refused, breaking the barrier of over sexualization of women.
Breaking Through Barriers
“Of course, it was common for both opposing players and fellow teammates to make sexist remarks and actions toward the women, and it was expected the women would either brush them off or stand up for themselves without assistance from management.”
Marry Craig (Craig, 2022)
Although Stone had several fans, she also received a great amount of backlash. Several fans were not able to comprehend the fact that a woman was playing on an all-male baseball team. One fan stated, “Why don’t you go home and fix your husband some biscuits?”, hinting that Toni should be at home cooking rather than playing baseball (Davis, 2016). Similar to Jackie Robinson’s white teammates unprepared to have a different coloured teammate, Stone’s teammates were skeptical. She was often confronted by aggressive crowds and was shunned by her fellow teammates and opposing teams. For example, they would try and injure her when she was sliding into the base.
Furthermore, when Stone signed onto the team, she was creating a first. She was the first women to play Negro League Baseball, breaking the gender line while Major League Baseball was creating strides with racial integration. Stone encountered both racism and sexism throughout her journey as a professional baseball player. Being both the first women to join an all-male baseball league, along with being a women of colour made her career very difficult. Nevertheless, Stone was honoured by the way the men treated her on the team. Although they berated her for being a woman on an all-male team, she was proud when she would outplay them. For example, she would show off her scars, or she would recall times when they would try and outrun her, however she always came out as the winner.
Stone was presented with challenges off the field as well. When the team would change into uniform, she would have to change in the room that was used by the umpires. When the team would go on road trips, she would stay in brothels, where people would make assumptions that she was a prostitute. Her teammates would also make sexual remarks and sexual harass her on their bus rides. In addition, Stone did not get enough time on the field as she would have imagined. Out of the 175 games that the Clowns played in 1953, Stone got to play in 50 of them. She was not able to have the same perks as the guys on her team, as they benched her multiple times, even though she was one of the best players on the Clowns, therefore showcasing the sexism that was apparent throughout the team.
A New Pathway to Sports
Toni Stone created a legacy for herself. She paved the way for integration of women into sports teams. Stone played well throughout her entire season, where she batted .302 leading the league. Following Stone, Pollack signed on two more women by the end of the 1953 season, Connie Morgan, and Mamie Johnson. Stone essentially led a pathway for these two women, and many others to follow. They looked up to her, where they were both eager to build onto the success that Stone had created for herself. Hundreds of individuals, specifically women, looked up to her, and wanted to be her when they grew up. Stone eventually left the league after a disappointing season and anticipating cracks in the team. Although Stone paved the way for women in sports, she also paved the way of combatting racism and sexism within society. She fought every day to be accepted on the team, she endured sexual and verbal harassment. Several years after Stone retired from baseball she stated, “don’t forget who you are,” something impossible for these women to do during their careers”. The combination of being the first Black female baseball player shaped her into who she was and paved the way for women in sports for further centuries.
References
Amira Rose Davis; No League of Their Own: Baseball, Black Women, and the Politics of Representation. Radical History Review 1 May 2016; 2016 (125): 74–96. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/01636545-3451748
Bailey, M. (2010, March 14). They aren’t talking about me… Crunk Feminist Collective. Retrieved from http://www.crunkfeministcollective.com/2010/03/14/they-arent-talkingabout-me/
Eitle, T.M. (2005). Do gender and race matter? Explaining the relationship between sports participation and achievement. Sociological Spectrum, 25(1), 177-195. DOI: 10.1080/02732170590883997
Goellner, S.V., Votre S.B., & Pinherio M.C.B. (2011). ‘Strong mothers make strong children’: Sports, eugenics and nationalism in Brazil at the beginning of the twentieth century. Sport, Education and Society, 4(1), 555-570. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2011.561307
Goellner, S.V. (2014). Body, eugenics and nationalism: Women in the first sport and physical education journal published in Brazil. The International Journal of the History of Sport, 1(1), 1278-1286. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2013.866552
Lanctot, N. (2004). Negro league baseball: The ride and ruin of a black institution. University of Pennsylvania Press.
Withycombe, J. L. (2011). Intersecting Selves: African American Female Athletes’ Experiences of Sport, Sociology of Sport Journal, 28(4), 478-493. Retrieved Oct 24, 2022, from https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/ssj/28/4/article-p478.xml
Zenquis, M. R., & Mwaniki, M. F. (2019). The Intersection of Race, Gender, and Nationality in Sport: Media Representation of the Ogwumike Sisters. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 43(1), 23–43. https://doi.org/10.1177/019372351882333
KNPE 397 