From Treasure waiting to be discovered to Baseball fields: Toni Stone’s Story
Marcenia Lyle “Toni” Stone came into the world dressed in Bluefield, Kentucky on July 17, 1921, to Willa and Boykin Stone. The Stone family moved to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1931. At an early age, Toni had a proclivity for baseball and nicknamed “Fiery Girl” given her advantage in what were, at that point, thought about manly pursuits.
She was a characteristic competitor and played football, b-ball, tennis, hockey, golf, swam, and figure skated, yet her heart generally had a place with baseball. Her folks were upset about the little kid’s possibilities as they considered her advantage in baseball to be an impasse for a Person of colour.
Her family minister, Father Keefe, saw the energy “Fiery Girl” had for the game and welcomed her to play in a Catholic association group. Toni turned into an installation in the very close African American community of the Twin Urban communities, with the Minneapolis Representative proclaiming in 1937, “We feel free to that she some time or another will gain the popularity of one Darling Didrickson.”
At fourteen years old, Toni coincidentally found Mentor Gabby Road doing drills with youthful white men at the Lexington Park baseball field. Toni continued to come to watch rehearses until Road, a conceded bigot and KKK part, yielded and let her show her stuff. Toni knew nothing about Road’s set of experiences of bias and Klan enrollment; she simply needed to play and learn.
She appeared all the white young men at the camp and Road let her join, later reviewing, ” I just couldn’t dispose of her until I allowed her an opportunity. Each time I pursued her away, she would circumvent the corner and return to torment me once more.”
As a youngster, Toni saw a gathering of men rehearsing and she asked the individual in control, George White, on the off chance that she could shag balls for themselves and he said OK. After he found that Spitfire could accomplish more than shag balls, he inquired as to whether she might want to troupe (play in a voyaging group) at the end of the week with his group, the Twin City Hued Monsters. Toni persuaded her mom to let her play as a method for bringing in additional cash. She was just sixteen and the main lady in the group. She was a skilled player who drew the consideration of fans and media the.
In 1943, at 22 years old, Toni showed up in San Francisco to comfort her sister who was managing a rough marriage, and to track down another beginning. Toni at last got some work welding on the docks, yet had no viable experience as a welder. When her supervisor acknowledged she didn’t have the foggiest idea what she was doing her character had previously prevailed upon him.
Toni turned into a driver on the docks, joining the positions of Rosie the Driver ladies all around the country during the conflict. In San Francisco, Fiery Girl changed her name to Toni to match her more refined, grown-up life.
Toni found another home in the African American population of the Fillmore locale and a watering opening that fit her fine and dandy, Jack’s Bar. At Jack’s, Toni met Aurelius Rescia Alberga, a neat man brimming with stories and appeal. When Toni begins telling Alberga and the proprietor of Jack’s, Al Love, about her trouping days, not entirely settled to get her into a nearby ball club.
For the 1954 season, the Jokesters would employ two new female players and offered Toni $50 less a month than she had procured in the past season. Director Syd Pollack likewise put in a call to the Kansas City Rulers who made Toni another proposition that was less, yet guaranteed her a spot in the beginning setup. Toni decided to go to the Rulers. Toward the finish of the 1955 season, Toni hung up her spikes.
However, Toni would never truly remain away. In her later years, she trained nearby groups and played in different sporting groups in the Sound Region. A lot of Toni’s time coordinated towards her significant other’s consideration as Alberga progressed in years. At the point when Alberga turned 100 he requested that Toni surrender the “sandlot ball” and Toni set aside her glove for good at 65 years old.
At the point when the Negro Associations Baseball Exhibition Hall opened in Kansas City, ladies players, for example, Toni was back in the aggregate avid supporter memory. St. Paul welcomed Toni back for “Toni Stone Day,” a baseball complex that renamed in her honor, and nearby dramatist Roger Nieboer composed a play called Spitfire Stone that debuted at Extraordinary American History Theater in St. Paul. Toni got shocked when the Ladies’ Games Establishment chose her for their Corridor of Distinction. Of this large number of praises, Toni was most moved by the consideration of her and her Negro Association partners in a display in the Baseball Lobby of Popularity in Cooperstown. Hank Aaron introduced the emblems at a dinner in their honour.
Toni Stone passed on November 2, 1996. She was a genuine baseballer, a trailblazer, and a lady whose adoration for the game radiated through each part of her life.
