Curveball: The Remarkable Story of Toni Stone the First Woman to Play Professional Baseball in the Negro League

by Martha Ackmann

From the time she was a girl growing up in the shadow of Lexington Park in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Toni Stone knew she wanted to play professional baseball. There was only one problem--every card was stacked against her. Curveball tells the inspiring story of baseball’s “female Jackie Robinson,” a woman whose ambition, courage, and raw talent propelled her from ragtag teams barnstorming across the Dakotas to playing in front of large crowds at Yankee Stadium. Toni Stone was the first woman to play professional baseball on men’s teams.  After Robinson integrated the major leagues and other black players slowly began to follow, Stone seized an unprecedented opportunity to play professional baseball in the Negro League. She replaced Hank Aaron as the star infielder for the Indianapolis Clowns and later signed with the legendary Kansas City Monarchs. Playing alongside some of the premier athletes of all time including Ernie Banks, Willie Mays, Buck O’Neil, and Satchel Paige, Toni let her talent speak for itself. Curveball chronicles Toni Stone’s remarkable career facing down not only fastballs, but jeers, sabotage, and Jim Crow America as well. Her story reveals how far passion, pride, and determination can take one person in pursuit of a dream.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction, History, Biography, Biography Memoir, Womens

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Martha Ackmann, author of These Fevered Days, Curveball, and The Mercury 13, writes about women who have changed America. The recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, Ackmann taught a popular seminar on Dickinson at Mount Holyoke College, and lives in western Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Stefania Dzhanamova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Toni Stone was once the "special" child of the Rondo neighborhood in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Born the third daughter of Boykin and Willa Stone, a respectable black pair, who owned a barber shop that catered exclusively to whites, Marcenia Lyle Stone was anything but the child her parents wanted her to be. She did bad at school, got into fights, and was about as feminine as a bear. No one but her parents called her Marcenia; to everyone else she was Tomboy Stone, the best athlete around and the girl who was laughed at for not being girly. Her short attention span and her inability to keep still caused problems in the classroom. The teachers labeled her a "special" child — a word that, as she realized, was an euphemism for intelectually slow and made her feel patronized. “I was in a category of my own,” she remembered sarcastically.
To Boykin and Willa's great dismay, their daughter fell in love with baseball — an exclusively boys' game. “It was like a drug,” Stone said. “Whenever summer would come around [and] the bats would start popping, I’d go crazy.” Her parents could not understand her obsession; they thought it was unnatural for a girl to be involved in a male sport. The Stones appealed to Father Keefe, the family’s parish priest, to dissuade Tomboy from playing baseball with neighborhood boys. But she could not and would not give up the sport, so Father Keefe decided to channel Tomboy's ability into a Catholic activity. He spoke to the Stones and suggested their daughter try the Catholic boys’ league, assuring them that he would look out for her. Boykin and Willa relented.
For such an unrefined and misunderstood girl as Tomboy, Father Keefe’s help with playing baseball was more than welcome. Not only did she finally receive neighborhood recognition for the victories she brought the team, but she also attracted citywide attention as the one of Saint Paul’s outstanding girl athletes. In playing baseball, Tomboy Stone had crossed a line. But it wasn’t sin that she was embracing by playing a male sport, as her parents had feared. It was salvation. Catholic baseball affected Tomboy positively. She attended school regularly and read more — although not necessarily school textbooks.
Hungry for inspiration, Tomboy rummaged the local library for stories about athletes who made names for themselves. The absence of women athletes troubled her; it seemed to underscore the opinion that a girl playing ball was a disgrace. Yet, Tomboy kept reading and dreaming. When the Catholic team's coaches ignored her, always pulling the boys aside to teach them the finer points of play, she did not grumble; she continued to devour books that helped her improve her athletic skills and learn game strategy. “I got a rule book and studied it,” she remembered. “I knew it more than the boys.”

The Rondo neighborhood was heaven for a kid who loved baseball. Nearby was Lexington Park — the field Charlie Comiskey built before he took his team to Chicago. It was home to the Saint Paul Saints. Although they were a white team and were never affiliated with the Negro League teams she admired, Tomboy believed she could learn something from them, so she hung around the Park to watch them practice. Soon the persistent girl struck up a friendship with the Saints manager, Gabby Street, under whom the team had won more games than they lost. Although at first Street, who was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, ignored the strange black girl or even told her to go away, she came back over and over again, and he began to smile at her determination. The burning passion for the game he saw in her overshadowed her race and her gender — he gave Tomboy a chance. And when she took to the field, her ability astonished him.
For her fifteenth birthday he gave her a valuable gift — her first professional baseball shoes. For Tomboy they meant much more than desired equipment. They were an important gift of validation — a stranger's belief that one day she, a black girl, might go forward in an exclusively male sport. When Street's baseball camp ended with the summer, Tomboy carefully placed the shoes in their original box. Now she felt her career in professional baseball was just beginning.

Emboldened by Street's interest in herself, Tomboy approached her mother with a new unconventional idea. She wanted to start traveling with a barnstorming baseball team of black men on weekends. Willa reluctantly agreed, and Tomboy joined the Twin City Colored Giants. The team took her seriously because she was a legitimate player who helped them win games and because she attracted curious crowds. Playing on the Twin City Colored Giants showed Tomboy a world outside Saint Paul. She witnessed subtle signs of racism that older teammates tried to shield from her. But this new world also confirmed that she could make a living without becoming a nurse or a teacher, or a secretary — the only professions her family and school envisioned for young women.

All ambitious black ballplayers during the Jim Crow era aspired to one goal: the Negro League. It offered them the highest level of play, equivalent to the white major leagues. However, although baseball players had moved from playing for regional teams such as the Twin City Colored Giants to the Negro League, Boykin Stone was not pleased with what he saw as his daughter’s floundering in baseball. He believed that everyone should have a clear purpose in life, and as she moved into her twenties, Tomboy was still drifting. Her barnstorming earned her a pittance. So when her sister Bernous — "Bunny" — who had joined the army, sent letters home saying she could use company in San Francisco, Willa gave Tomboy some money and hastily dispatched her with little more than a vague plan to meet her sister “somewhere."
Tomboy reached the Bay Area with fifty-three cents in her pocket, without the slightest notion about Bunny's whereabouts, and with no prospects for employment. Yet, ever resourceful and determined, she soon found a job at Foster's Cafeteria and — with the help of the priest at St. Benedict's church in nearby Oakland — a place to stay. Even more incredible, Tomboy was walking down a street when Bunny just happened to look out a nearby window, so the two sisters found each other. Soon Tomboy secured a job as a welder in the South docks. She knew nothing about welding, but when her good-natured boss found out, he had already been disarmed by her eagerness and sincerity and let her drive army trucks instead. She also joined black, and sometimes white, boys for baseball games on Sundays.
It was in Jack's Tavern, one of the many night clubs in San Francisco's integrated Western Addition, that Tomboy would find her luck again. Jack’s was considered an elite establishment, nothing like the usual rowdy nightclubs where drugs abounded and women were harassed. Conversation there was sophisticated. Some said the first place a black person would go in San Francisco was Jack’s Tavern. Tomboy was no exception. There she felt "taken in," and it offered her a great opportunity to transform herself. "Tomboy" — that nickname reminiscent of her "special"-child days — became the sassy "Toni." Even better, at Jack's Stone met Aurelious Pescia Alberga, the son of a Jamaican seafarer, who was active in politics and loved telling stories as much as Toni did. When they heard her stories about barnstorming with the Colored Giants, Alberga and Jack's Tavern owner, Al Love, were thrilled and began thinking how to help Toni join a local team.
They called upon their connections with the local American Legion, and soon Toni joined the American Legion A. H. Wall Post 435 baseball team. Since players in Junior League teams were required to be seventeen or younger, she lopped off a decade of her actual age. Toni also broke the "girl rule," which had been established in 1928 when a young woman from Indiana had tried to play with an American Legion team. However, not everybody in the Legion followed the rules, and some coaches did not consider women baseball players fragile if they could help a team win. Fans loved the amusing stories of eager players out to prove themselves and tended to excuse some irregularities — such as a 26-year-old woman playing a boys' game.

Toni's decision to play American Legion was a smart move for someone who wanted to be taken seriously in baseball. Major league scouts looked closely at Legion players.
Playing Legion ball brought Toni to the attention of area teams, and she joined a local semi-pro team in the Peninsula Baseball League, becoming the only young woman to play Bay Area baseball with men.
Always looking for opportunities to make baseball more than a pastime for herself, Stone talked with the manager of her Legion team — another man she had won over with her determination — and he encouraged her to consider the possibility of West Coast professional baseball. This was a farfetched proposition, but Toni liked it.
As the only woman player on male teams, Toni had long ago realized odds against her were always formidable and skill alone would not persuade a manager. So instead of telling Harold "Yellowstone" Morris, who had won fame as a pitcher for the Negro League’s Kansas City Monarchs, the Chicago American Giants, and the Detroit Stars and now owned the San Francisco Sea Lions, that she was a skillful player, she told him a woman on a team could bring in crowds. In fact, she needed to mention a single name to make her case with Yellowhorse: Jackie Robinson.
On April 15, 1947, Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball’s major leagues when he trotted out to first base at Ebbet’s Field. Toni followed his every move in the pages of her beloved Chicago Defender. She knew he was the only black man among 399 players in the major leagues, and some of the prejudice he had experienced was familiar to her. Like Robinson, she knew what it was like to be the outcast: to be regarded as a barely tolerable experiment. When Brooklyn Dodger general manager Branch Rickey told Robinson that he wanted “a ball player with guts enough not to fight back,” Toni knew what he meant. Just like Jackie, she took the jeers because she wanted to play.
Yellowhorse hired Stone, and by the spring of 1949 she was headed to Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas as the female second baseman. One reporter covering a game in Missouri was so impressed with her tenacity that he remembered her for years. “Let me tell you,” he wrote, “she’ll make your eyes pop out with the way she handles herself.” Gentry Jackson, the Sea Lions shortstop, argued that Toni was more than a curiosity. She played well, took rough language calmly, pushed meandering cows off the road together with the men, and quickly recovered from injuries. She also brought in good crowds at stadiums.
While she earned less than two hundred dollars a month playing, the money was secondary to doing what she loved. It was the tension between her and her teammate John Scroggins, who felt she had humiliated him when she outplayed him at a trash-talking game, and the realization that she was paid less than the men that compelled Toni to leave the Sea Lions and join the Creoles, whose owner, Alan Page, offered her a better deal. Her new team was playing mainly in the South, so she had not only to adjust to new teammates but also to steel herself against daily humiliations.
Toni had a good season with the Creoles, and the press was beginning to take note. She made new friends among her teammates, and they helped her dissect the game. She was batting nearly .300 and displayed "a technique on second that rivals many of the males." When Boykin Stone opened the Chicago Defender in Saint Paul, he was astonished to see his daughter’s photograph and a three-column headline: “New Orleans’ Lady Second Sacker Is Sensation of Southern League.” It came as great surprise that Tomboy, the family’s “special child,” had received national recognition.

Toni also kept the fib going about her age. Younger players were the ones making moves. Almost thirty, she knew she had a limited amount of time for advancing in baseball, and she found herself at a crossroads about her future. Should she keep barnstorming with the Creoles? Or should she quit baseball for good? Eventually, she decided to redouble her efforts and aim for the major leagues.
This decision sparked personal results: by midseason, she had raised her batting average to nearly .300. Neither the fact that she was a twenty-nine-year-old woman nor injuries daunted her. When an injury sent her to a local charity hospital, she barely waited to be "patched up" before riding back to the ballpark on a policeman's horse. No one had seen anything like it. Stone was an inspiration, especially for women, who now asked to shake her hands before and after games. But no recognition meant more to Toni than that of her childhood idol, Joe Louis, whom she called "the champion's champion." During a July game in Iowa, the legendary prizefighter strolled over to the Creoles dugout to congratulate her. Meeting him showed Toni that her goal — as foolish and imporbable it might have seemed — was not beyond reach.

As much as she loved the game, Stone put her dreams on hold in order to get married. It came as a shock to everyone, from her teammates to her family. Toni preferred the company of older men; perhaps that's why she enjoyed Alberga so much. She was grateful for their interesting conversations at Jack's, for his finding her a place on the American Legion, and for his admiration, so she accepted his marriage proposal. Having a husband “gave me respectability,” Toni said.
She did not expect Alberga not to give her his blessing to continue playing baseball, though. A follower of Booker T. Washington's philosophy of accommodation, he believed that by continuing to “force” her way further up the ladder of professional baseball Toni had been too assertive in her desire to open doors that whites had not cracked open yet. When he proposed, Alberga had been aware Toni wouldn't be a housekeeper and childrearer, but he still attempted to reign his wife's ambitions at least a little bit. Her response to Alberga's verdict was just as surprising: she agreed to take a year-long break from baseball. She might have considered her marriage the final test of her dedication.
After the twelve months were over, she got her answer, and it surprised no one. Her passion for the game had not diminished even a bit. Toni Stone's true love was baseball.

With the white major and minor leagues off-limits, Toni saw one viable option open to her: the Negro League. Born out of passion for the sport and a repudiation of racism, the Negro League had a proud tradition, but it had lost some of its luster since Jackie integrated the majors and a stream of younger players joined him.
At the same time when Stone was looking for a way to make it into the League, the Indianapolis Clowns, the current Negro League champions, were searching for someone to replace Henry Aaron — a seventeen-year-old prodigy who had left them after he was scouted by a major league team. As the Creoles’ Alan Page said, a team needed someone who could “hang a glittering star over his locker," a.k.a bring in crowds. Toni Stone seemed like an excellent choice. She accepted the offer of Syd Pollock, who had taken over the Clowns, to play second base for them and reported to spring training in Norfolk, Virginia, in early April 1953. Her dream was coming true.
As the Clowns routed through Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, Toni always held her own on the field, increased gate receipts, and kept the salaries from shrinking.
As the crowds continued to turn out to see Toni play, though, she began to receive not only praises but also scathing criticism. “It is indeed unfortunate that Negro baseball has collapsed to the extent it must tie itself to a woman’s apron strings in order to survive,” wrote one columnist. But Toni Stone paid no attention. She asked for no favors. She was ready to endure this and much more to stay in the game that meant the world for her.
She constantly had to persevere through challenges. On a daily basis, every member of the Indianapolis Clowns confronted humiliations as a black living in Jim Crow America. The stories from Southern restaurants were legion: service refused, contaminated food, smashed plates and cups. Toni struggled with an additional problem — finding safe accommodations. Sometimes rooming houses would offer her — but not the men — a place to stay. “I told [the proprietors] ‘thank you very much’ and got back on that old bus and went to sleep,” she said. Toni believed refusing a room under those conditions was an important show of respect toward her teammates, whom she considered brothers. At times it was the opposite. Seeing a lone woman arrive with a horde of men, hotel proprietors assumed Toni was a prostitute and refused to let her stay, brusquely directing her to the nearest brothel. Her teammates and managers often could not successfully defend her, so Toni discovered the underworld of prostitutes’ hospitality. She developed a network of brothels throughout the South where the "sporting girls" took care of her, sometimes washing her uniform during the night. After Toni complained of the discomfort of taking hard throws to the chest (some intentionally), the women sewed padding into her navy blue Clowns shirt.

As Pollock announced his decision to hire to other young women, Mamie Johnson and Connie Morgan — both inspired by Stone's example — and lower Toni's salary, she felt betrayed. This, coupled with her concern for her aging husband's health, compelled Toni to leave the Indianapolis Clowns.
She joined the Kansas City Monarchs for the 1954 season. This was the beginning of the end of her career. Toni Stone was not getting any younger. What she could do at seventeen and at twenty-seven was difficult to perform at thirty-three. She had a decidedly bad season — and so did the Monarchs overall. The season closed with increased grumblings and occasional flare-ups on the bus. When the end finally came, it occurred in the most mundane of circumstances. Toni had an argument with Monarchs manager Buck O'Neil. The moment staring face-to-face with Buck froze in Toni’s memory for the rest of her life. It was as if everything changed in that single instant. All she could say later was that “something was missing.” It was not that she had lost O’Neil’s support. In truth, she had lost something much deeper — her joy for the game.
Soon Toni turned in her uniform to the Monarchs bus driver, packed her baseball glove, and put the shoes Gabby Street had given her back in their worn box. “I got tired,” she said. “I got so tired.”
The "wave of mounting purposefulness" that fueled Rosa Parks and later the Little Rock Nine and the Greensboro Four did not embolden Toni Stone. Without baseball, she lost sight of her dream and watched from the sidelines as the Negro League community vanished. She would often retreat to the basement of her house amid boxes of baseball mementoes. It was the only way Toni could remember who she had been. “Just don’t forget who you are,” Toni would say to herself, her voice cracking. “Don’t forget, Toni, who you are.”


Toni Stone's favorite word was "scuffle." She used it to underscore the effort needed to work against the odds: resolve, persistence, sacrifice. It was the price people were willing to pay to do what they loved. If anyone suggested that playing black baseball was an easy road, she bristled. “They never was in it!” she argued. During a time when a black person could be lynched for smiling the “wrong way,” Toni faced double prejudice as an African American and a woman. But Fate had handed Tomboy Stone one imperfect chance to achieve her dream, and she made the most of it. She was a courageous pioneer — her memory should live on.

[Susan (aka Just My Op) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marcenia Lyle Stone, nicknamed Tomboy Stone, and later Toni Stone, never set out to break any racial or gender barriers. She just wanted to play baseball. There weren't many opportunities for a young African American girl in the 1930s, much less in the field of sports. So how did she manage to convince a coach who belonged to the KKK to help her? Perseverance, something that helped her thoughout her entire life.

Her story is fascinating, as is the history of African American baseball players during the time of Negro leagues and Jim Crow laws. And it is shameful, a time in history were everyone is equal. Well, everyone who looks and behaves like the typical white male.

Toni had some great supporters as well as the blatant racism and sexism she encountered, but she always had to work hard for everything she gained. She had an unconventional marriage with someone who loved and encouraged her.

I wanted to read about this amazing woman but have to confess that I am not a huge baseball fan, so there were too many baseball details for me and not quite enough about Toni herself. The book was well researched and annotated. I think it is a 4-star read for those more interested in the sport than I am, but for me, it's a 3 ½.

[Tara Chevrestt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tho born as Marcenia Stone, by the time she was fourteen, this woman was known as Tomboy Stone. Why? She loved to run and play baseball. In the 1930s, this was unusual behavior for a girl. Her parents even frowned upon Tomboy's extracuricular activities. Tomboy was on the verge of running away from home when the local priest realized her potential and convinced her parents to allow her to play on the church baseball team. This was only the beginning...

To read full review:

http://wwwbookbabe.blogspot.com/2010/...

[Laura Bernheim · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fact that more people (including myself) don't know about Toni Stone and what she contributed to baseball and mid 20th century history is a shame. I only became aware of her story because of a play I saw, recently.
I recommend this book for anyone who wants to know more about baseball in general and The Negro Leagues in specific. A well documented look at the history of gender and race relations in the United States through Stone's story.

[A.J. Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent story of a woman who transcended being just a pioneer. She has gained immortality for her courage, determination, and passion. This is a great book for teens and pre teens to read. Beyond inspiring. It is also an important historical record of a woman who overcame race and gender to realize her dreams.

[Beth Boyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t recommend this book enough for lovers of history or baseball. They author takes us through the incredible life of Toni Stone, the first women to play in the Negro Leagues. Curveball focuses on Toni’s journey to the Negro Leagues and the discrimination she faced as a woman existing during the Jim Crow era. It’s a beautiful story of love, courage and perseverance.

[Shelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Toni Stone was the first woman to play professional baseball in the Negro League. I first read about Toni in a MG historical fiction, Step Up to the Plate, Maria Singh, which is marvelous. So I was delighted to find this biography. Toni was a fascinating person, and my heart broke for her at the end of her career, when all the sexism and racism and jeers even from her own teammates just shattered her love of the game. Her sad letters to her husband, they were hard to read. But the things she did were amazing--she replaced Hank Aaron on the Clowns, played with the Monarchs, played with Ernie Banks, Willie Mays, Satchel Page and more, was coached by KKK members, the list goes on. The writing was dry, but Toni's story, and the context of her team and the league, carried it all.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

With 573 footnotes and dozens of chapter end notes, there is no doubt that this is a well-researched book. It is a detailed look at the world of the Negro Baseball Leagues, and an important slice of American social history. Unfortunately, what it did not feel like to me is a clear portrait of Toni Stone. It feels like the author did not have much material about Stone herself, and padded the book with plenty of interesting but secondary material relating to the times or to people around Toni. I had hoped to come away with a real feeling of the woman herself. Still, at least now I know Stone’s name.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although not a big fan of nonfiction, in general, I wanted to read this because I love baseball and am very interested in the struggle of women to be successful in fields dominated by men. The book was also written by a childhood friend of my sister! The book did not disappoint. I learned so much about the history of baseball and the struggle of women in the world of a barely awakening Civil Rights movement. In fact, the latter story was most compelling. The research was impeccable and the stories of people who lived through this era will remain in my thoughts for a long time.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a long time, it was hard for both women and African Americans to play baseball professionally. Toni Stone had a double handicap-she was a black woman-but she loved baseball, and she was stubborn enough to keep trying until she made it to the Negro Leagues. Facing challenges that nobody else had to face, she played professional baseball, filling the gap left on the Indianapolis Clowns when Hank Aaron left, opening the way for two other women, and helping to keep the Negro Leagues alive.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can I say about Toni Stone that Ackmann hasn't already said? Not much. She's an all star lady that deserves a lot more recognition. She made a career for herself in baseball from the 30s to the 50s, battling pitchers with the same determination as sexists and racists. Throw the ball. She'll hit it.

From St. Paul Minnesota, across the midwest and in the deep South, and eventually to California, Stone's story is the story of baseball, integration, and the American Dream.

[Sean Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating book, although a bittersweet one. It's depressing to think of how much history and knowledge has been lost because the players in the Negro League didn't have the funds or privileges in order to even keep track of their scores. How many other greats could have been up there along with Babe Ruth etc?

[Caitlin Maxwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love what this book was all about. Learning about Toni Stone and her experiences in life and with baseball were so fascinating to me. I enjoyed all that I learned from this book, and it was certainly well researched, but I wish the writing had not been quite so dry. Otherwise, this book was quite inspiring go read and a great addition to my collection.

[Cin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well researched book. I found it very inspirational and informative. A very nice read. It contains a lot of information so I guess baseball fans would love it more.
I received a free copy of this book from the Goodreads First Reads program. Thanks for sending me this book.

[Andrea Bullock · Rating 3 out of 5]

How many of you have heard of Toni Stone? She played baseball for the Negro Leagues in the 50's, pretty amazing. This book is more like a social history with lots of baseball thrown in. Sad that there still are no women in baseball.

[Mizloo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating look at the Negro Baseball League through the career of one of the few women players.

[Lester O'garro · Rating 5 out of 5]

REMARKABLE STORY OF WHAT YOUNG FEMALES ARE CAPABLE OF...

[Jonathan Love · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Inimitable Perspective of Professional Baseball

Being a big baseball fan, I was surprised I had never heard of Toni Stone (aka, Tom Boy Stone, and Marcenia Lyle Stone). How could such a compelling story of overcoming odds not be in the mainstream the way Jackie Robinson is.

This book is fascinating from the get-go as Toni’s own words describe her motivations, struggles, tenacity, and her love of the game. I tried to picture myself as a white male trying to make it in the baseball world. My cortisol level skyrockets, just thinking about trying to do that. Toni was fearless and didn’t care about the opinions of others. Sure she was disappointed when she was rejected for being a “woman in a man’s world” but she remained committed to the goal.

True comparisons of Toni are not possible as most of her stats weren’t recorded at that time. Journalists were covering white baseball and the black newspapers weren’t capable of following the traveling ballclubs that Toni played. However, I’m going to read this book again with my aspiring baseball/softball playing daughter so she’ll be aware of Toni’s efforts and dedication against all odds.

A sad anecdote from the book about the reaction from fans (white and black alike) when in 1985 Vince Coleman an outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals made the following comment: “I don’t know nothin’ about him. Why are you asking me about Jackie Robinson?” Sadly, that’s actually the thoughts and attitudes of many, if they ever hear of Toni in the first place.

My favorite part was hearing that Toni was ostensibly an Oakland Athletics fan based on the story from Ernie Banks about seeing her at the ballgame.

Other works for consideration:
1. ESPN Article and interview with Martha Ackman
2. San Francisco Chronicle Article
3. Making My Pitch: A Woman’s Baseball Odyssey, by Ila Jane Borders
4. Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty, by Charles Leerhsen

[Gemini · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is so moving. To actually learn about how a woman played professional baseball is so historic. I mean this was such a long time ago but it is still so meaningful. All the struggles that she went through & the barriers she faced on regular basis was astounding. The racism & sexism that she had to deal w/ on a regular basis was horrible but she managed to endure & just focus on the game that she loved so much.
I was so surprised at all the people she was able to come across, some really great ball players that are in the Hall of Fame & even some that aren't. This isn't a book just about baseball, it is also about a girl who was seen as a tomboy because she liked playing sports & her journey through it. I really think it was well written & such an important story to tell, more people should know her name.

[Pauline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took way too long to read this book, but for a woman who loves baseball and the Negro Leagues, this was perfect. Why did it take so long? I was looking up places, people and teams I read about. I learned so much about Toni Stone along with some of my other favorites—Josh Gibson, satchel Paige. If you are a lover of baseball or a champion of women read about this first woman to play professional baseball in the Negro League. It will make you angry and disturb you as you learn of the treatment she received, but it also encourage you as you see her tenacity of spirit against prejudice. I had the privilege of visiting the Negro League Museum and wish I could go back and really search more information about her. This has been a buried piece of history for too many years. I’m thankful I came across this book. Her grave is not far from me, so I’m going to go over and pay my respects.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book covers a piece of history that I didn’t know much about - the Negro Baseball League and its first female player, Toni Stone. While the writing is rather dry, the story is fascinating and it’s clear that the author painstakingly researched the subject. The book describes the skill and determination of Negro League players as well as the racism and lack of support that they faced. Toni’s grit is inspiring, and her single-minded love of baseball is palpable through the pages. At the end of this book, I couldn’t help wondering why Toni Stone has never been recognized in baseball’s Hall of Fame.

[Kimberly Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Baseball history continues to fascinate me! I went to the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City this summer, and this was the first I heard of Toni Stone. This book was in the gift shop, and I wanted to learn more about her. This book is good, and it provides a great story for Toni Stone's life. However, my one complaint or issue with this book is that it's not just about Toni. In an effort to be thorough, the author put in a lot of details about the Negro Leagues in general. You learn a lot about Negro League Baseball, but sometimes it just feels like an overload of information.

[Ellison · Rating 4 out of 5]

About a woman raised in the upper mid-west who is able to be on a boys baseball team, she gets some coaching and is able to be on some traveling teams. She moves to California and plays, then gets involved in the Negro Leagues, meeting some famous people along the way. This shares her experiences, hard times, and accomplishments along the way. Insightful. B/W images.

[Grace Carbone · Rating 4 out of 5]

The word to describe this is right in the title: remarkable. Toni Stone should be remembered as a quintessential part of Negro League History and the example of how great the league could be. A woman playing with men, holding her own, and barnstorming across America when she was told that girls don’t play over and over again.

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating look at Toni Stone, a female pitcher, who broke the gender line in the negro leagues. By the time you come to the end of the book, not only do you wish you saw Ms. Stone play, but, you wish you actually knew her.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the subject, a woman in baseball, but too much history. Not an easy read. Author jumps around with facts from 1950 back to 1920 to whenever. A lot of Negro League history. But all in all I was glad to read about Toni - about baseball, being black, being woman.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love baseball and it's history. It goes without saying I knew almost zero percent of this chapter before reading this book. It's great to learn about a pioneering woman whose playing in the Negro Leagues was truly remarkable.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for much more from this book. It’s supposed to be about Toni Stone but it felt like 50% of it was about other people. The writing was all over the place. It also felt like a school paper.

There’s some good information, but not enough. And too much unnecessary information.

[Gerald Savelson]

Great Read...Baseball fans should enjoy this

[Madeleine McLaughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic Read

Great bio of a lady who deserves to be known by all who love baseball. Toni Stone must go down as a very remarkable person.