Lucille Richards (; December 26, 1925 – May 20, 2016) was an

All-American Girls Professional Baseball League The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) was a professional women's baseball league founded by Philip K. Wrigley, which existed from 1943 to 1954. The AAGPBL is the forerunner of women's professional league sports in the Uni ...

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball positions, baseball or softball fielding position between second base, second and third base, which is considered to be among the Defensive spectrum, most demanding defensive positions. Historically, the ...

who played for the

Racine Belles The Racine Belles were one of the original teams of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League playing from through out of Racine, Wisconsin. The Belles won the league's first championship. The team played its home games at Horlick F ...

and

South Bend Blue Sox The South Bend Blue Sox was a women's professional baseball team who played from through in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. A founding member, the team represented South Bend, Indiana, and played their home games at Bendix F ...

during the 1946 AAGPBL season. Listed at 5' 4", 130 lb., Stone batted and threw right handed. She was dubbed ´Lou´ by her friends and teammates.''The Women of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: A Biographical Dictionary'' - W. C. Madden. Publisher: McFarland & Company, 2005. Format: Paperback, 295 pp. Language: English. Player profile and information
''All-American Girls Professional Baseball League website''. Retrieved on June 4, 2016. Born in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, Stone worked in the shipyards before joining the AAGPBL in 1945. She was selected to fill in the gap for Racine at shortstop and later was sent to South Bend, as the league usually shifted players as needed to help teams stay afloat, but she never lived up to the expectations around her. Stone posted a

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of .040 (2-for-50) with a .158

on-base percentage In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) measures how frequently a batting (baseball), batter reaches base (baseball), base. An official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic since 1984, it is sometimes referred to as on-base average (OBA ...

in 19 games, driving in two runs while

scoring SCORE may refer to: *SCORE (software), a music scorewriter program * SCORE (television), a weekend sports service of the defunct Financial News Network *SCORE! Educational Centers *SCORE International, an offroad racing organization *Sarawak Corrido ...

once. After baseball, she married Joe Richards and they had two girls, Jacqueline and Judith.Obituary
Contributed by Jon Richards. ''All-American Girls Professional Baseball League website''. Retrieved on June 4, 2016. Alongside her husband Joe, she coached for the Holbrook Little League Rotary Club baseball team during 25 years. Besides, she worked for the Wallace Bus Company for the Holbrook Public School System, driving her bus for 20 years before retiring. Lou Stone Richards is part of the AAGPBL permanent display at the

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by a private foundation. It serves as the central collection and gathering space for the history of baseball in the United St ...

Cooperstown, New York Cooperstown is a village in and the county seat of Otsego County, New York, United States. Most of the village lies within the town of Otsego, but some of the eastern part is in the town of Middlefield. Located at the foot of Otsego Lake in ...

, which was opened on November 5, 1988 in honor of the entire league rather than individual baseball personalities.Before A League of Their Own
''National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum website''. Retrieved on June 8, 2016. She died in 2016 in

Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts Buzzards Bay is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Bourne in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 3,859 at the 2010 census. It is the most populous of the five CDPs in Bourne. Geography Buzzards Bay i ...

, at the age of 90.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Lucille 1925 births 2016 deaths All-American Girls Professional Baseball League players Baseball players from Boston 21st-century American women