Alex Sickinger: one of Five Pacificans selected for induction into Sports Hall of Fame – Pacifica Tribune, Pacifica, CA

 

Alex Sickinger:

Five Pacificans selected for induction into Sports Hall of Fame – Pacifica Tribune, Pacifica, CA

For Alexandra “Alex” Sickinger, baseball runs in the family. The daughter of a San Francisco Giants minor league prospect, Sickinger grew up in Pacifica with glove, ball and bat always close at hand. Natural talent, a relentless work ethic and love for the game have taken her from the sandlot to the top of her sport as a professional women’s baseball player.

At Oceana High School, which did not offer girls softball as a sport, she tried out for the boys’ baseball team as a sophomore, becoming the starting second baseman on the varsity team. She later moved to starting catcher and received All-League recognition in both her junior and senior years. Upon graduating, she turned down a full-ride softball scholarship to pursue women’s baseball.

A 1997 graduate, Sickinger was the youngest player on the field when the Ladies Professional Baseball League began play in 1997. Drafted out of high school at age 17, she needed an exception from the league’s age limit to sign a contract. The youngster proceeded to lead the San Jose Spitfires to the league’s first World Series Championship, winning Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors along the way.

In 2002, Sickinger helped form the California Women’s Baseball League and was twice chosen as its Most Valuable Player. She was recruited for the 2003 United States National team in the Women’s World Series of Baseball, winning a Gold Glove award for defensive play. In 2004, she received all-tournament honors while playing for the USA Baseball Women’s National team, which won the Gold Medal at the Women’s World Cup of Baseball in Canada.

Regarded as one of today’s best women baseball players, Sickinger and teammates have visited the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, where they autographed items for future display. She also participated in ceremonies featuring players from the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (made famous by the movie “A League of Their Own”) during 2007 Major League Baseball All-Star Game festivities in San Francisco.

A San Francisco State University graduate, Sickinger is the national director of training for Fitniks, a children’s fitness club based in Santa Rosa. She continues to roam the diamond, coaching girls’ softball and playing baseball across the country for the four-time Women’s National Champions, The Boston Sox.

Toni Stone, 75, First Woman To Play Big-League Baseball – By ROBERT MCG. THOMAS JR. – New York Times – November 10, 1996

Toni Stone, 75, First Woman To Play Big-League Baseball – By ROBERT MCG. THOMAS JR. – New York Times – November 10, 1996

“Toni Stone, a scrappy second baseman who became a footnote to baseball history in 1953 as a member of the Negro League’s Indianapolis Clowns when she became the first woman to play as a regular on a big-league professional team, died on Nov. 2 at a nursing home in Alameda, Calif. She was 75 and had lived in Oakland, Calif., for many years.

The cause was heart failure, a friend said.

She was, by her own account, a tomboy who grew up to be a ‘big, sassy girl.’ When Syd Pollock, the Clowns’ owner (and a sometime business partner of Abe Saperstein, the owner of the clowning Harlem Globetrotters), decided he needed a woman on the Clowns to help attract fans, it was hardly surprising that he chose the 5-foot-7 1/2-inch, 148-pound St. Paul native who had been playing baseball with the boys since she was a girl and with the men ever since…”

First African-American woman to play in the Negro Leagues, on the men’s Indianapolis Clowns team.