Google Doodles featured Toni Stone, who was the first woman to play in the Negro Leagues, and played for the Kansas City Monarchs.
KANSAS CITY (WDAF) -- Google is giving a shoutout to a former Negro Leagues Baseball star.
Toni Stone was featured as the Google Doodle of the day Wednesday. Stone grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota as Marcenia Lyle. She changed her name to Toni Stone after joining the Negro American League. She played second base for two years and was the first woman to play in a pro sports league.
You can learn more about her life and time in the league through the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City.
According to the museum, Stone played 50 games for the Indianapolis Clowns and hit .243. She signed with the Clowns in 1953 as a replacement for Hank Aaron. Stone was then traded to the Kansas City Monarchs in 1954.
Stone was inducted into the Women's Sports Hall of Fame and the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame in 1993. She died in 1996 at the age of 75.
The Google Doodle tribute is part of the celebration of Black History Month. San Francisco-based illustrator and animation director, Monique Wray created Stone's animation, according to Major League Baseball.
“[Stone] being a Black woman, you know that that obviously has something to do with her not getting that sort of shine that she deserved for the significance of who she was and what she did,” said Wray. “But it’s good that now, at least, we’re doing that work and making that push.”
Wray said she studied reels of second basemen, images of Stone, and video of baseball in the 1950s to capture what Stone would have looked like on the baseball diamond to create the animated Google Doodle.
