Curveball

April 1, 2010
The life and times of a black woman determined to play professional baseball amid the racism and sexism of midcentury America.

To the young Toni Stone (1921–1996), who grew up in St. Paul, Minn., baseball was"like a drug." It was all she wanted to do, and she was as good, if not better, than most boys. She played where she could and at age 16 began her professional career with the barnstorming Twin City Colored Giants, experiencing the rough-and-tumble life of semi-pro baseball. She also learned to play the game better, and in 1943 she moved to San Francisco to join the prestigious San Francisco Sea Lions. From the Sea Lions she moved on to the New Orleans Creoles, and there faced the daily humiliations of the Jim Crow South. Throughout her early career, Stone also had to prove that she was not a circus sideshow but a player of high skill, and her talents eventually led her to the Negro League, the pinnacle of black baseball. However, times were slowly changing, signaled by Jackie Robinson's signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, and the Negro League was dying. Stone ended her professional career in 1955, but played and coached until her death. Ackmann offers a multilayered narrative, telling the personal story of Stone, bringing to life the joys and frustrations of black baseball and effectively evoking the racial hatred and sexist disdain of the time. Other black players of her era—Henry Aaron, Willie Mays, Ernie Banks—went on to greatness in the big leagues, but age and gender denied Stone this chance. She played nonetheless and, as she once said, worked hard to"find the heart of the game."

Expertly captures Stone's significant life and the impressive strength of her will.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

February 1, 2010
After top players from the Negro Leagues were able to follow Jackie Robinson into the majors, Negro League owners looked for new ways to draw attendance. In 1953, Marcenia Lyle "Toni" Stone was hired by the Indianapolis Clowns to replace Hank Aaron at second base. Author Ackmann (gender studies, Mount Holyoke Coll.) didn't get to meet Stone, who died in 1996, but she draws out Stone's story through the periodical record and her own interviews with surviving colleagues. The story of a woman given a chance to pursue her dream of being a pro ball player, yet aware that she was being used as a gate attraction, shunned by many teammates and so often alone, reminds us of how far we've come but also of how far we still have to go. A fine addition for all baseball shelves.

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 26, 2010
Toni Stone was 32 when she joined the Indianapolis Clowns, becoming the first woman to play in the Negro Leagues, and laying claim to the second base position recently ceded by Hank Aaron, who had moved on to the majors. Before then, Stone had spent years playing semi-pro and participating in barnstorming tours (the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, made famous by the movie A League of Their Own, didn’t allow black women). Stone stayed in the Negro Leagues only two years, posting less than spectacular numbers, and Ackmann has a hard time supporting her claim that her presence wasn’t first and foremost a publicity stunt. What makes Curveball stand out are the moving stories of racism faced by the black players, and Stone encountered more of it than most: while traveling, she often had to sleep in brothels while her male teammates, also barred from hotels, slept in boarding houses. Records of Stone’s games and life are scant (she died in 1996), and Ackmann has done her research, but in the end, conjecture, filler, and footnotes rob the book of intimacy and excitement.