Marcenia "Toni" Stone-Alberga/
Baseball
Was the first woman to play professional baseball in a men's league. Stone won a position on a semipro team, the renowned San Francisco Sea Lions, black barnstormers in 1947. Stone drove in her two runs in her first two at-bats. Stone received a better offer to join the New Orleans Black Pelicans.
From the Black Pelicans, Stone moved on to the New Orleans Creoles in 1949. Stone batted .265 in her last year with the Creoles. She played second base with the Negro American League's Indianapolis Clowns from 1951 to 1953. Appearing in 50 games for the Clowns, Stone batted .243. She got a hit off od legendary Satchel Paige in 1953 on Easter Sunday.
Stone retired from baseball at the end of the 1954 season. She continued to play recreational baseball until she was sixty years old. She was inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame, Pioneer category, in 1993. (9/98)