Hallman: Much of Toni Stone’s story remains untold
From Charles Hallman at the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder on June 20, 2018:
The ball field on St. Paul’s Dunning Street was renamed for her, and a play was written about her. Yet for the most part, the Toni Stone story and her rightful place in modern history is unknown.
Marcenia Lyle Alberga (1921-1996) was born in West Virginia and moved with her family to the Rondo neighborhood in St. Paul. She almost immediately got involved in sports, especially baseball.
The young Stone convinced her church priest to allow her to play on the church boys’ baseball team as a pitcher and fielder. Later, at age 15, she did double duty playing both softball and barnstorming with the Twin City Colored Giants Black baseball team in 1937.
Stone, whose nickname was “Tomboy,” later changed her name to Toni, headed out to San Francisco, and played with the San Francisco Sea Lions semi-pro baseball team in 1949. She left after one season because the team didn’t pay her as promised. But her days with the Colored Giants put Stone in rarefied company as the only female on a men’s baseball club.
Her place was permanently cemented in modern baseball history when the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro Leagues signed the 5’-7” Stone to a pro contract to replace Hank Aaron, who left for the majors in 1953.
Read the full article here: http://spokesman-recorder.com/2018/06/20/much-of-toni-stones-story-remains-untold/
Originally published: June 21, 2018. Last Updated: June 21, 2018.