I expect most of us feel rather confident in saying that baseball is a man’s game. That undoubtedly is because at its highest levels – minor league baseball and major league baseball – it is played exclusively by men. However, I expect we might be at risk making that claim to three young women who seized the moment in the early 1950’s and took a first step in breaking down the gender barrier in professional baseball.

Perhaps their foray into professional baseball came as a result of a watering down of the Negro Leagues as MLB attracted the best players from those teams. That is, an opportunity presented itself to do what no other women had done before them. Regardless of the circumstances, the Negro Leagues until their final demise in 1960 were still populated by skilled players some on their way up and others finishing distinguished careers. I think suggesting it might have been an opportunity rather than their talent and passion for the game that allowed them to break into professional baseball would certainly be doing them a disservice to them.

Toni Stone made history in 1953 when she joined the Negro Leagues, making her the first woman ever to play professionally in a men’s league. Syd Pollock, owner of the Indianapolis Clowns, had lost his young star second baseman to the National Baseball League. Pollock most likely signed Stone as more of a novelty and an attraction to try to bring back some of his fan base that had followed the string of black players to MLB. His Indianapolis Clowns were one of the premier teams in the Negro Leagues but also were struggling at the turn styles.

Toni Stone
(Photo courtesy of Negro Leagues Baseball Museum)

Pollock was soon to learn that Toni Stone had come to play the game she loved and the one that had rejected her as she tried to gain access to the segregated women’s teams at that time. She was an athlete with skill and a passion for the game. She played like the men and dressed like the men not with skirts or shorts as they did in the strictly white women’s league.

That is not to say she didn’t face the obstacles that we would expect her to face if she was breaking down a gender barrier today. However, she played through it and at one point in July her .364 batting average was the fourth highest batting average in the league behind shortstop Ernie Banks. Banks was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977. Stone appeared in 50 games in 1953 and finished the season with a .243 batting average.

Stone played one more year with the Kansas City Monarchs and retired from professional baseball following the 1954 season. During her time in the league she played against Ernie Banks, Willie Mays and legendary Satchel Paige among others. Oh yes, the young second baseman she replaced with the Indianapolis Clowns was none other than 755 home run Hank Aaron.

Toni Stone died in 1996. Her most memorable baseball moment came when she played against Satchel Paige in 1953 ” He was so good,” she remembered, ” That he’d ask batters where they wanted it, just so they’d have a chance. He’d ask ‘”You want it high? You want it low? You want it right in the middle? Just say. People still couldn’t get a hit against him. So I get up there and he say, “hey, T, how do you like it? And I said, It doesn’t matter just don’t hurt me”. When he wound up–he had these big old feet–all you could see was his shoe. I stood there shaking, but I got a hit. Right out over second base. Happiest moment in my life.”

Mamie “Peanut” Johnson became the first woman to pitch in a men’s professional league when she also signed with the Indianapolis Clowns in 1953.

As a 17-year old Johnson tried out for a spot on a professional women’s team, but was rejected because of her race. However she insists it’s the best thing that could have happened to her career. The rejection led her to a spot in the men’s Negro Leagues, which featured legends such as Satchel Paige. “I got to meet and be with some of the best baseball players that ever picked up a bat, so I’m very proud about that.”

Connie Morgan with Dodgers legend Jackie Robinson.
(AP photo)

The very first batter she faced as a member of the Clowns was outfielder Hank Baylis who is credited with giving Mamie Johnson her nickname of “Peanut”. Baylis questioned how someone her size could pitch in a men’s league. That is, she was no bigger than a peanut. Johnson stood 5’-3”. That encounter had two defining moments. In the short term Hank Baylis promptly struck out and probably was not chuckling on his way back to the dugout. In the long term Mamie Johnson has always been known as Mamie “Peanut” Johnson.

In 1953 Johnson finished with an 11-3 record and followed that in 1954 going 10-1. In her third and final season of professional baseball in 1955 she finished 12-4 for a career record of 33-8. When she wasn’t pitching she played second base with a batting average ranging between .262 and .284.

Johnson left the Negro Leagues in 1955 – “I had a young son, and it was time for me to come home” – and pursued a career in nursing for more than 30 years. She never really left the game and now runs the Negro League Baseball Shop with her son, Gary, in Maryland.

Mamie “Peanut” Johnson is ever grateful for the opportunity to play professional baseball in a men’s league. “Just to know that you were among some of the best male ballplayers that ever picked up the bat, made all of my baseball moments great moments.”

“Those were the three best years of my life,” said Johnson. “Just to know I was good enough to be there was a tremendous thing for me.

Prior to the 2008 First Year Player Draft a draft was held to honor those black players from the Negro Leagues who were still living, Mamie “Peanut” Johnson was drafted as the first selection by the Washington Nationals the team closest to where she now lives. That makes her the only female to ever be drafted by a MLB team.

The third female member of the Indianapolis Clowns trio was second baseman Connie Morgan who replaced Toni Stone when Stone’s contract was sold by the Clowns to the Kansas City Monarchs.

Before signing with the Indianapolis Clowns Morgan had played for five seasons with the North Philadelphia Honey Drippers, an all-girls baseball team while batting .368. A diminutive 5’-3”, 135 pound athlete she played basketball in the off-season.

When Morgan discovered that women were playing with the Clowns she wrote to team owner Syd Pollack requesting a try-out. She did receive an invitation to try-out when the Clowns went to Baltimore to play an exhibition game. The 19-year old impressed Pollack and was offered a two year contract.

She hit around .300 while sharing second base duties with Ray Neil and batting third in the line up. Clown’s manager Oscar Charleston called her “one of the most sensational” female players he had ever seen.

The highlight of Connie Morgan’s career came on July 12, 1954 when she returned to her home town for a game with the Kansas City Monarchs in Philadelphia’s Connie Mack Stadium.

She died in 1996 but not before being inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.