Google doodle honors athlete Tony Stone, first woman to play professional baseball

In honor of the U.S. Black History Month, Google doodle has celebrated athlete Marcenia “Toni” Stone on Wednesday, February 9. He overcame both gender and racial discrimination to become the first woman in history to play professional baseball as a regular in a men’s major baseball league. On this day in 2021, Tony Stone was inducted into the Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame.

The doodle is illustrated by San Francisco, CA-based guest artist Monique Wray. Marcenia ( Marcenia Lyle Stone) was born in West Virginia to Boykin and Willa Maynard Stone.

Toni Stone had two sisters and a brother. Her father was a barber, a graduate of Tuskegee Institute, who also served in the United States Army during World War I. He married a hairdresser named Willa Maynard.

In 1931, Tony Stone moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, where she developed her remarkable athleticism in the city’s public playgrounds and baseball fields. By just 15, the all-male semi-pro Twin Cities Colored Giants broke gender convention by bringing Stone onto its roster. In 1946, Stone went to bat with the San Francisco Sea Lions, marking the start of her illustrious professional career.

Her exceptional batting average of .280 earned her a spot on the bench with the Negro League All-Star team while she continued to travel across the United States playing second base for the minor league New Orleans Creoles.

In 1953, Stone filled the spot of future Hall-of-Famer Hank Aaron as the second baseman for the Indianapolis Clowns, one of the League’s most prestigious teams. Undeterred by taunts during her debut season with the Clowns, Stone hit a single off of Satchel Paige, who is widely considered the greatest pitcher in Negro League history.

Stone played alongside legendary players such as Jackie Robinson throughout her career before retiring from professional baseball in 1954 as a legend. In 1990, March 6 was declared “Toni Stone Day” in her adopted hometown of St. Paul, where future generations of baseball players practice under the lights of Toni Stone Field. She has been honored by several exhibitions in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and in 1993, was inducted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Here’s to you, Toni Stone—thanks for showing the world what determination and unstoppable love for the game can achieve! 

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