On This Date in Minnesota History: July 21

July 21, 1921 – Marcenia (Toni) Stone, the first of three women to play Negro league baseball, was born in St. Paul, Minn., on this date.  “The first female player in the Negro Leagues, Stone was not met with open arms. Most of the men shunned her and gave her a hard time because she was a woman. Stone was quite proud of the fact that the male players were out to get her. She would show off the scars on her left wrist and remember the time she had been spiked by a runner trying to take out the woman standing on second base. ‘He was out,’ she recalled.

Even though she was part of the team, she was not allowed in the locker room. If she was lucky, she would be allowed to change in the umpire’s locker room. Once, Stone was asked to wear a skirt while playing for sex appeal, but she would not do it. Even though she felt like she was 'one of the guys,' the people around her did not. While playing for the Kansas City Monarchs, she spent most the game on the bench, next to the men who hated her. ‘It was hell,’ she said.

Toni Stone became one of the first women to play as a regular on a big-league professional team in 1953. In 1985 Stone was inducted into the Women’s Sports Foundation’s International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. In 1990 she was included in two exhibits at the Baseball Hall of Fame, one on 'Women in Baseball' and another on ‘Negro League Baseball’. In 1993 Stone was inducted into the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame, as well as the Sudafed International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Stone

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