Effa Manley - Trailblazing Team Owner

Effa Manley was pissed. The Brooklyn Dodgers had done it again. They signed away Don Newcombe from her Newark Eagles without so much as a ¨thank you ma´am.¨ Branch Rickey had now taken Jackie Robinson from the Monarchs, Roy Campanella from Baltimore, and Don Newcombe with no payment or compensation of any kind. She had already lost Monte Irvin for just $5,000 to the Giants, and knew that it was only a matter of time before the rest of her Championship Team would be playing for MLB organizations, even though none had yet made the final leap to play in the Major Leagues. Larry Doby was a different story. While Bill Veeck writes in Veeck As In Wreck that he offered $10,000 for Doby, with another $10,000 if he made the team, and that Manley was ¨thrilled,¨ she was more resigned to losing Doby, and had been waiting for his call. The day before Veeck called, she was alerted to the fact that Veeck´s scouts had been following Doby in particular ever since Robinson had signed. In a 1977 interview, she explained that she really had no bargaining power in the negotiation, and basically had to take whatever was offered. The total amount paid was $15,000 -- $10,000 up front and $5,000 later when Doby made the minor league team. The last thing she said to him? She made Veeck promise that he would never pay Doby less than $5,000 per year, which is what he would have been making for Newark. The whole 2+ hour interview is posted below and worth a listen.

Born in Philadelphia, Effa was raised by her mother, who was white, and her step-father who was black. Her biological father was a white man from New York, all of her siblings were half white/half black. She talks about her childhood being raised ¨as a Negro,¨ and by growing up in a black neighborhood and with a black family she had a unique experience that shaped her world view. Shortly after marrying her husband Abe Manley, she helped lead boycotts in New York of local businesses that refused to employ black workers, and while operating the Newark Eagles, she organized ¨Anti-Lynching Day"at the ballpark in 1939, and became treasurer of the Newark Chapter of the NAACP. 

The Newark Eagles were founded by Abe Manley and Effa - with Effa serving as the Chief Financial Officer, lead Spokesperson, and head of Promotions. For her team, Manley did the best she could to provide the best working conditions in the league. Following the 1946 Championship, she and Abe invested in a state-of-the-art team bus, which was the envy of the league. Each player was presented with a diamond championship ring, and throughout their ownership of the Eagles, Abe and Effa made every effort to keep the working conditions of the players at the forefront of their minds.

The team was sold in 1948, for just $15,000, and the new owner moved the team to Houston. Her husband Abe passed away not long after the team was sold. Afterwards, she focused again on the NAACP and moved out to Los Angeles, where she lived for most of the rest of her life. She also co-wrote a book with Leon Herbert Hardwick called Negro Baseball . . . Before Integration. Manley was inducted into the Hall of Fame posthumously in 2006 - and is the only woman inducted the Hall to date.

Further Reading:

Full interview with Effa Manley at University of Kentucky, 10/19/1977

Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum profile

Black Past . com profile by Amy Essington

Article on Effa Manley by Mickey Gallagher ¨The First Lady of Baseball¨

SABR Article by Bob Cook

Miss Toni Stone - The First Lady of Men´s Professional Baseball

The City of Saint Paul declared March 6th, 1990 as ¨Toni Stone Day¨ in the city and in 1996 dedicated a field in her name near Concordia College on the corner of Griggs Street and Marshall Avenue. 

Why name a field after Toni Stone? Marcenia Lyle Stone was born in Bluefield, West Virginia in 1921. When she was 10 years old, her family moved to Saint Paul, MN. She loved baseball and despite attempts by her parents to stop her from playing, she was persistent. The neighborhood kids nicknamed her Tomboy, and when her folks asked a priest to come to the house to talk her out of playing, she ended up joining the boys' team at the priest´s Church. By the age of 15, she was playing on local Girls softball teams and still played baseball on the side. I say ¨on the side" but it was with the semi-pro barnstorming team, the Twin Cities Colored Giants. She was the regular at second base, playing all over the Midwest and in Canada. According to newspaper reports from the time, Stone was also a pitcher for the team.

She would go on to play for several local teams in the Twin Cities, and depending on the source, may have gotten a boost from St. Paul Saints Manager Gabby Street, in form of a new pair of cleats and a spot in his baseball academy. I have my doubts about this story, in part because Gabby Street was a KKK Member, but also because there doesn´t seem to be a contemporary version of the account.

She would move to California in the mid 40s to be with her ailing sister, and would continue to play wherever she could find a roster spot. She would marry in 1949, and with the encouragement of her husband (there is some conflicting info on the level of support) she would join the local American Legion team coached by Al Love. Because of the American Legion rules, she claimed to be 17 instead of 27. She would later join up with another semi-pro team, the San Francisco Sea Lions. The Sea Lions were loosely affiliated with the Negro Leagues.  Even though Major League Baseball had integrated with Jackie Robinson in 1947, the all women´s league, the AAGPBL, did not. Toni, as she was now known, didn´t care. Toni was still one of the best players on the men´s team.

Despite a pair of RBI in her first game with San Fran, she didn´t stay long, as the team did not pay her what they promised. She moved on to play in New Orleans for the Creoles, another minor league team. In the spring and summer, Toni would seek opportunities with teams in the Negro Leagues, then return to Oakland after the season ended. Her big break came in 1953 - the Indianapolis Clowns had just lost Hank Aaron to the Braves, and were in need of a replacement at second base. Call it a mix of publicity and skill, but Toni Stone was exactly the player the team was looking for. When she made her debut, she became the first woman to play in men´s professional game.

In her first season with Indianapolis, Stone played in over 50 games. She had to change into her uniform in broom closets, sometimes in the umpire´s dressing room if she was lucky. She would often start games but be pulled early so she could shower without the men in the locker room. With each new team, there would be a period of adjustment when she would endure catcalls and come ons from her teammates, spectators, and opponents - but her play on the field usually brought her teammates around to respect her as a ballplayer above all else. Her batting average in 1953 was .364, good for fourth best in the league.

She was traded to Kansas City before the 1954 season, Indianapolis signed another woman, Connie Morgan to play second base, as well as a pitcher Mamie ¨Peanut¨ Johnson. Toni once again had to play through the derision and disrespect from her own team and the rest of the league, and 1954 would be her last in the Negro Leagues. Following the season, she returned to Oakland. She would continue to play and coach on local semi-pro teams into her sixties.

She was inducted into the International Women´s Hall of Fame and the International Women´s Sports Hall of Fame in 1987. Shortly after her passing in 1996 a play about her life Tomboy Stone was performed in Saint Paul at the History Theater. A new play about her life, Toni Stone, will debut at the Roundabout Theater Company Off-Broadway this May.

Further Reading:

Black Past Article by Euell Nielson

SABR Bio

Minn Post Article by Wendy Jones

Interview with Toni´s niece / Article from MN Spokesman-Recorder by Charles Hallman

NYT Obit

SF Gate Obit

Off The Shelf: I Was Right On Time, by Buck O'Neil

Shortly after the debut of the seminal documentary Baseball by Ken Burns, Buck O'Neil found himself getting more and more requests to speak and travel and share the stories of his life and the Negro Leagues. With the assistance of Steve Wulf and David Conrads, O'Neil put many of those anecdotes in print as a memoir. I Was Right On Time is a straightforward re-telling of O'Neil's life from birth through his playing, coaching, and scouting days. The book contains many of the stories shared in the documentary, though he is about to fill in the stories with greater detail.  

The Negro Leagues had been long overdue for discussion and recognition by the rest of the sporting world for decades. At the time this book was published there was finally a more keen interest in the men and women that shaped the game. O'Neil's book is greatly overshadowed by his magnetic presence- it seems like a more sterile and silted version of the enthusiastic and passionate man many of us got to know through his interviews.

He names his all-time team from the Negro Leagues in the book, starting with the prodigiously powerful catcher Josh Gibson. Gibson's story of incredible talent and eventual tragedy is worthy of many deeper re-tellings.

Buck Leonard was compared to Lou Gehrig offensively, and Hal Chase defensively. Buck O describes Buck L as the most studious ballplayer he ever knew, and would often be seen in the hotel lobbies working on crosswords or buried in a book before games or travel. As Gibson's teammate, they led a formidable offensive attack in Pittsburgh and captured 9 consecutive pennants. 

At second base, Buck selected the diminutive Newt Allen, a 22 year veteran in Kansas City and Saint Louis. Newt was known for his strong throwing arm and impressive speed.

At Short, Buck chose Willie Wells. He compares Wells to Ozzie Smith in the field, with excellent range and powerful throws from the hole. Wells was also a great hitter - statistical records of course for the league are still being disputed and collected, but he's credited with a .320 lifetime average over 22 seasons in the Negro Leagues. He hit .420 in 1930 for the Saint Louis Stars, and was known to aggressively take the extra base, stretching singles into doubles and doubles into triples.

At the Hot Corner, Buck named the great Ray Dandridge, who was never given a chance in the majors but did see some time in the Giants' farm system towards the end of his playing days. The photo above is from his time in Minneapolis with the Millers.

Buck's anecdote about Ray's bowlegs - "On the field, they said a train would have a better chance going through Ray's legs than a baseball, and I do believe they were right."

Turkey Stearnes is Buck's selection in Left Field. He was six time HR leader, and was known to talk to his bats. He would carry the bats around in a special case, not unlike Ichiro today.

While Buck talks at length about Cool Papa Bell (There's even a great story about the legend that Cool Papa was "so fast, he could turn off the lights and jump into bed before the room got dark"), the fact is that Oscar Charleston was going to be the Centerfielder on Buck's team. The truth is we'll never know how great he was, but names like Cobb, Ruth, Mays, etc. are a good start. Charleston was a complete player in every sense of the word. He was said to be able to "cover more ground than grass," hit for power and average, and in his later years was a respected mentor to young players. As Buck put it "This man not only encompassed the Negro Leagues, he symbolized the Negro Leagues, with his heart and his spirit and his talent." 

From a Turkey in Left to a Mule in Right. Mule Suttles rivaled Josh Gibson in terms of raw power. He swung a 50 ounce bat! Suttles was a coal miner like Honus Wagner, and his roughness was on display with every moon shot he blasted into the stands. His numbers are Ruthian, with astronomical slugging and on base figures. 

Buck's best friend during their playing days was also one of the greatest pitchers of all time. There are many great stories about Satchel in the book, including the story about why he called Buck "Nancy" for most of his life. Paige of course was finally given the opportunity to pitch in the majors when he well past his pitching prime, but his ability and knowledge were still impressive enough to help lead Cleveland to their most recent World Series victory.

This book was a quick read, and a fun read. I'd also recommend Joe Posnanski's travelogue with Buck O'Neil, The Soul of Baseball. There are some great stories in I Was Right On Time, it's definitely worth your time.