Curveball (40 page)

25
. Pollock, 110, 114;
Chicago Defender,
April 15, 1953.

26
. Ernie Banks file, the Ashland Collection, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc., Cooperstown, NY.

27
. Ibid.

28
. Ibid.

29
. Toni Stone interview with Larry Lester, January 3, 1991. Lester private archive.

30
. Ernie Banks interview with the author, September 4, 2009.

31
.
Kansas City Call
, May 22, 1953.

32
. Pollock, 244.

33
. Toni Stone interview with Bill Kruissink.

34
. Pollock, 137.

35
. Ibid., 305.

36
. Ibid., 141–142.

37
. Ibid., 137.

38
. Indianapolis Clowns file, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc., Cooperstown, NY.

39
.
Chicago Defender
, May 28, 1953.

40
. Ibid., May 25, 1953.

41
. Toni Stone interview with Bill Kruissink.

42
. Opening Day coverage from
Kansas City Call
, May 22, 1953;
Kansas City Call
, May 24;
Kansas City Call,
May 29, 1953; Chicago
Defender
, May 16, 1953;
Chicago Defender
, May 28, 1953;
Pittsburgh Courier
, June 6, 1953; Norfolk (Virginia)
Journal and Guide
, May 29, 1953.

43
.
Chicago Defender
, May 28, 1953;
Pittsburgh Courier
, May 30, 1953.

44
. Pollock, 63.

45
.
Pittsburgh Courier
, June 20, 1953.

46
.
Kansas City Call
, May 5, 1953.

47
. Doug Grow, “League of Her Own: Tomboy Stone Dead at Age 75,” Minneapolis–Saint Paul
StarTribune
, November 5, 1996.

48
. “Lady Ball Player,” 52.

49
.
Pittsburgh Courier
, June 20, 1953.

50
. Norfolk (Virginia)
Journal and Guide
, June 20, 1953.

51
. Dr. J. B. Martin, “Negro League President Comments,”
Los Angeles Sentinel
, June 11, 1953.

52
.
Chicago Defender
, June 25, 1953.

53
.
Dallas Morning News
, February 17, 1999.

54
.
Washington Post
, July 13, 1953.

55
.
Atlanta Daily World
, August 24, 1953.

56
. Letter from Aurelious Alberga to Toni Stone, July 30, 1953. Bartlow-Reed private archive.

57
. Bob Hayes, “To This Ms., Diamond Is Made of Dirt,”
San Francisco Examiner
, May 4, 1976.

58
. Pollock, 244.

59
.
Kansas City Call
, July 10, 1953;
Chicago Defender
, July 2, 1953.

60
. Doug Grow, “She Wasn’t Afraid to Swing for the Fences,” Minneapolis
Star Tribune
, March 6, 1990.

61
. Toni Stone interview with Jean Hastings Ardell, April 1992. Ardell shared interview notes with author June 22, 2009.

62
. Bob Motley with Byron Motley,
Ruling Over Monarchs, Giants & Stars
(Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing, 2007), 112.

63
.
Kansas City Call
, July 31, 1953;
Kansas City Call
, August 7, 1953;
Chicago Defender
, July 16, 1953;
Chicago Defender
, July 30, 1953.

64
. “Lady Ball Player,” 52.

65
. Pollock, 245–246.

66
. Toni Stone interview with Kyle McNary, September 1993. McNary private archive.

67
. Belva T. Simmons,
Saint Louis Argus
, July 31, 1953.

68
. Pollock, 255.

69
. Belva T. Simmons,
Saint Louis Argus
, July 31, 1953.

70
.
St. Louis Globe Democrat
, August 8, 1953.

71
.
Kansas City Call
, August 7, 1953.

72
. Jefferson City (Missouri)
Daily Capitol New
s, August 9, 1953.

1
. Langston Hughes, Arnold Rampersad, ed., “Evil,”
The Poems: 1941–1950 (Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, vol. 2)
(Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2001), 29.

2
. Jefferson City (Missouri)
Daily Capital News
, August 9, 1953;
Kansas City Call
, August 14, 1953; Norfolk (Virginia)
Journal and Guide,
August 22, 1953;
Atlanta Daily World
, August 15, 1953; Baltimore
Afro-American
, August 18, 1953.

3
. Sam Lacy, “A to Z” Baltimore
Afro-American
, July 21, 1953.

4
.
Kansas City Call
, August 14, 1953;
Chicago Defender
, August 13, 1953; Alan Pollock with James A. Riley, ed.,
Barnstorming to Heaven: Syd Pollock and His Great Black Teams
(Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2006), 150.

5
.
Kansas City Call
, September 11, 1953;
Chicago Defender
, September 3, 1953.

6
. Cal Jacox, “Press Box,” Norfolk (Virginia)
Journal and Guide
, August 8, 1953; Pollock, 248.

7
. Toni Stone interview with Larry Lester, January 3, 1991. Lester private archive.

8
.
Kansas City Call
, July 10, 1953.

9
. Bill Kruissink, “First Woman in Pro Baseball Remembers,”
Alameda Journal
, April 2, 1996.

10
. Toni Stone interview with Bill Kruissink, March 27, 1996. National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc., Cooperstown, NY.

11
. Pollock, 256.

12
. Ibid., 239.

13
. Toni Stone interview with Larry Lester.

14
. Toni Stone interview with Kyle McNary, September 1993. McNary private archive.

15
. Pollock, 307, 351.

16
. Ibid., 148.

17
. Ibid., 144.

18
. Toni Stone interview with Larry Lester.

19
. Brent Kelley,
Voices from the Negro Leagues: Conversations with 52 Black Standouts
(Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 1998), 160.

20
. Pollock, 307.

21
. National Visionary Leadership Project, Oral history with Ernie Banks.
http://visionaryproject.org/banksernie
.

22
. Toni Stone interview with Kyle McNary.

23
. Ibid.

24
. “Lady Ball Player,”
Ebony
, July 1953, 52.

25
. Toni Stone interview with Jean Hastings Ardell. Ardell interview notes shared with author June 22, 2009.

26
. Maria Bartlow-Reed interviews with the author, July 3, 2006, and March 10, 2008.

27
. Ron Thomas, “Baseball Pioneer Looks Back: Woman Played in Negro Leagues,”
San Francisco Chronicle
, August 23, 1991.

28
. Joseph White, “Female Pitcher in Negro Leagues Enjoyed String ’Em Out,”
Seattle Times
, May 10, 1998; Eugene Meyer, “For Love of the Game,”
Washington Post
, February 24, 1999;
Contemporary Black Biography
vol 40, Ashyia Henderson, ed. (Florence, Kentucky: Gale Group Publishing, 2003);
Sports Connection Digest,
October 22, 1999; Mamie Belton Johnson Goodman interview with the author, April 18, 2005; Tom Mashberg, “‘Peanut’ a Big Deal: Was Negro League Pioneer,”
Boston Herald
, July 23, 2000; Jean Hastings Ardell, “Oral History Mamie ‘Peanut’ Johnson: The Last Female Voice of the Negro League,”
Nine
, vol. 10. 1, 185; Charles Rowe, “Pitcher Johnson a Distinct Figure in Baseball History” Charleston (South Carolina)
Post and Courier
, February 12, 2000; Brent Kelley, “Peanut Johnson: First Woman to Win a Pro Ballgame,”
Sports Collectors Digest
, October 22, 1999.

29
. Mamie Belton Johnson Goodman interview with the author, April 18, 2005; Michele Y. Green,
A Strong Right Arm: The Story of Mamie “Peanut” Johnson
(New York: Dial Books, 2002), 37; Eugene Meyer, “For Love of the Game,”
Washington Post
, February 24, 1999; Mamie Johnson, Mount Holyoke College Public Lecture, April 18, 2005; Kevin Kernan, “Li’l Lady Dazzled Negro League Hit Men,”
New York Post
, June 3, 2001; Steven Goode, “She Was a Pioneer, Playing Pro Baseball with the Great Ones,”
Hartford Courant
, September 30, 1999;
www.visionarypro-ject.org/johnsonmamie
.

30
. Green, 49; Norfolk (Virginia)
Journal and Guide
, September 24, 1953; Mamie Belton Johnson Goodman interview with the author, April 18, 2005; “Morning Edition,” National Public Radio, February 18, 2003; Ardell, 189; Norfolk (Virginia)
Journal and Guide
, March 13, 1954.

31
. Donna DeVore interview with Connie Morgan, approximately 1993. Archives of the Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum of Philadelphia.

32
. Horace Johnson interview with the author, April 14, 2008; Yvonne Morgan Vinson interview with the author, February 25, 2008.

33
. “Constance Morgan, 61 Female National Negro Leaguer,”
Philadelphia Tribune
, October 25, 1996.

34
. Donna DeVore interview with Connie Morgan.

35
. Pollock, 256.

36
. Bill Dunhurt, “Afro Americans Honor Connie Morgan,”
Philadelphia Tribune
, October 19, 1993.

37
. Donna DeVore interview with Connie Morgan.

38
. Toni Stone interview with Larry Lester, January 3, 1991. Lester private archive.

39
. Ibid.

40
. Pollock, 268–270; Luix Virgil Overbrea,
Chicago Defender
, January 2, 1954.

41
. Letter from Aurelious Alberga to Toni Stone, July 20, 1953. Bartlow-Reed private archive.

42
.
Chicago Defender
, September 24, 1953.

43
. Letter from Syd Pollock to Toni Stone, January 2, 1954. Bartlow-Reed private archive.

44
. Baltimore
Afro-American,
February 20, 1954.

45
. Pollock, 112.

46
. Thom Loverro,
The Encyclopedia of Negro League Baseball
(New York: Checkmate Books, 2003), 52.

47
. Letter from Syd Pollock to Toni Stone, January 2, 1954. Bartlow-Reed private archive.

48
. Letter from Bunny Downs to Toni Stone, January 20, 1954. Bartlow-Reed private archive.

49
. “Lady Ball Player,” 52.

50
.
Charleston
(West Virginia)
Daily Mail
, October 8, 1953; Letter from Bunny Downs to Toni Stone, January 20, 1954. Bartlow-Reed private archive.

1
. Bessie Smith, “Long Road” 1931.