Ed Stone (baseball)

Stone was born in 1909 or 1910: while the Social Security Death Index identified him as being born on August 21, 1909, other documents listed him with birthdates of January 2, 1909, August 22, 1909, August 23, 1909, August 21, 1910, or August 22, 1910. He is listed on Baseball Reference as having been born in Black Cat, Delaware, a small community near Wilmington, although some ship manifests identified him as being from Wilmington or Newport. By 1930, he was listed in the census as a resident of Christiana with the occupation of "day worker". ==Career==

Stone played baseball and attended Howard High School, then began a professional career with the Wilmington Giants, coached by Millard Naylor of Howard. Stone, who batted left-handed and threw right-handed, had a professional career that ultimately lasted 20 years. He played briefly for the Wilmington Hornets and then joined the Atlantic City-based Bacharach Giants of the Negro National League in 1931 as an outfielder. After returning to them in 1933 and 1934, he played for the Brooklyn Eagles in 1935 and batted .324 with 56 hits and 37 runs batted in (RBIs), being named an all-star. He also spent time that year with the Pittsburgh Crawfords and toured with Jackie Robinson's All-Stars. Stone was still playing in Mexico by 1948, with one writer commenting that "Ed Stone, who ... swung a heavy bat for the Eagles and the Stars, is really whamming the pellet in Mexico." He returned to the New York Black Yankees in 1950, concluding his career at the age of 41. In his career, he was the Negro League leader among right fielders in assists in four seasons. He had a career batting average of .313 and an OPS of .852. ==Later life and death==

Stone was married to Bernice Stone. According to Ryan Whirty in Delaware Today, after Stone's retirement, he "seemingly dropped off the face of the Earth, and his fate remains virtually unknown." He received a Social Security benefit while located in Long Island City, New York, in 1983, and he died that year on either March 20 or April 11, in The Bronx. His burial location is unknown. He was posthumously inducted into the Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame in 2025. ==References==