Toni Stone never wanted to be a trailblazer. She just wanted to play baseball. Born Marcenia Lyle Stone in 1921, the West Virginia-native became the first woman to play on a men’s baseball team in the Negro Leagues with the Indianapolis Clowns in 1953.
But many baseball fans aren’t familiar with Stone’s story. In its first production, the Indianapolis Black Theater Company (IBTC) hopes to change that. “Toni Stone,” which runs through Oct. 6 at The District Theatre, stars Indianapolis-based actor AshLee Baskin, who performs under the stage name Psywrn Simone, as Stone.
“Toni Stone” captures both the challenges Stone faced as a woman playing in a men’s league as well as the challenges African American ballplayers faced in the Negro Leagues. She faced sexual harassment from her teammates and was often intentionally injured by players from opposing teams.
If you go
Toni Stone
🗓️ 7:30 p.m. Oct. 3-5, 4 p.m. Oct. 6
📍 District Theatre Mainstage, 627 Massachusetts Ave.
💲 Tickets: $30 general admission, $25 seniors and students
“My main takeaway is how unfortunately relevant her struggles still are,” Simone said. “She dealt with misogyny from everywhere; within her home, the era, and that was coupled with racism and all the things she dealt with in a space dominated by men.”
The play, written in 2021 by New York-based playwright Lydia R. Diamond, has been performed around the country, including Chicago, Boston and Washington, D.C.
“She broke a barrier nationwide, and when people outside of Indianapolis put on this play, they’re presenting our history,” IBTC director Ben Rose said.
In the first act of the play, Stone introduces the audience to her male teammates on the Indianapolis Clowns and their strengths.
“You don’t need to try to remember the names,” she says from the stage.“It matters that I tell you, though. If I don’t, history ain’t much trying to remember them.”
‘There are others’: Remembering women in Indiana baseball
When Stone joined the Indianapolis Clowns in 1953, she had big shoes to fill; she replaced Hank Aaron after he was signed to the Boston Braves.
After Stone joined the Indianapolis Clowns, local newspapers reported record attendance at games. The team recruited two other women – second baseman Connie Morgan and pitcher Mamie Johnson. Both were scouted by team manager and sports icon Oscar Charleston and played on the Clowns after Stone retired.
While it was rare for women to play on a men’s team, these three weren’t the only Hoosier women to play professional baseball.
The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) was founded in 1943 by Major League Baseball team owners to keep ballpark attendance up during World War II, when many professional baseball players were enlisted.
Indiana had two teams: the South Bend Blue Sox and the Fort Wayne Daisies. Outside of an exhibit at The History Museum in South Bend, “First in Their Field,” it’s easy to forget the women who played baseball professionally in Indiana.
The Blue Sox were one of two teams in the league to stay in one city for the duration of the AAGPBL, which lasted 12 years. With standouts Dottie Schroeder at shortstop and outfielder Betsy Jochum, the team won back-to-back championship titles in 1951 and 1952.
While the Daisies never won a championship, they made it to the playoffs every year from 1948-1954.
Though the AAGPBL was still in operation when Stone began playing for the Indianapolis Clowns, she couldn’t have played for the league because it was unofficially segregated. Even after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier for men’s professional baseball in 1947, the AAGPBL barred African American women from the league.
Though she didn’t play professional baseball until the 1950s, Stone got her start in baseball playing for her church’s baseball team with the encouragement of her family priest. After her 1954 season with the Indianapolis Clowns, Stone retired to Oakland, California, to care for her husband, Aurelious. Stone died Nov. 2, 1996, at the age of 75.
“For all the Toni Stones we know about, there are others, in other arenas, whose names are buried,” Simone said. “This is a piece of local history that is not widely known, which blows my mind, especially for it to be so close to home.”
Mirror Indy reporter Breanna Cooper covers arts and culture. Email her at breanna.cooper@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on Twitter @BreannaNCooper.
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