Female Baseball Trailblazer Toni Stone Animated In Google Doodle

Photo: Twitter

It’s been a big few years for the legacy of the late Toni Stone, a Negro Leagues second baseman who was the first woman to play regularly in a major American men’s professional sports league.

A play about her career -- called, simply, “Toni Stone” -- debuted off-Broadway in 2019 and has since shown in several U.S. cities. She was recognized by her hometown paper in 2021 with induction into the Star Tribune’s Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame.

On Wednesday, Stone got her most wide-reaching recognition yet, in the form of her very own Google Doodle.

As part of an ongoing celebration of Black History Month, Google is featuring several prominent Black historical figures on its homepage, telling their stories through alterations of the search engine’s iconic logo. The pioneering Stone was depicted by San Francisco-based illustrator and animation director, Monique Wray.

• These women broke barriers in baseball

Born in Bluefield, W.V., in 1921 and raised in St. Paul, Stone was a talented multisport athlete who played with barnstorming baseball teams for several years before heading to the Negro American League. She spent two seasons there, joining the Indianapolis Clowns in 1953 (as a replacement for Hank Aaron) and the Kansas City Monarchs in ‘54.

In 1993, she was inducted into both the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame and the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Three years later, she passed away at the age of 75. Read more.