Long before Brandon Workman had a day of appreciation in his honor back in 2013, Bowie was hometown of another celebrated baseball player.
His name was Ulysses Stoner.
Former Bowie High School boys’ basketball coach Gayno Shelton recalled how a former student found Stoner living in Enid, Okla.
His full name was Ulysses Sampson Grant Stoner, and what makes his story all the more interesting is his family background.
LuRainey May and William Caldene Stoner had 18 children together; however, four died as infants and another daughter died after being struck by lightning.
(And you thought you could procreate?)
Ulysses was the 17th of 18 children, and he inherited the nickname “Lil” because his brother, Ted, was unable to pronounce “Ulysses.”
That Stoner became a major league baseball pitcher despite a childhood incident whips up Ulysses’ story into an inspiring yarn.
Older brother William McKinley “Mac” Stoner was chopping wood in the backyard of their Bowie home when Ulysses came over.
“Lil” told his brother, “Chop my finger off Mac.”
“Mac” obliged and delivered a hatchet blow on Ulysses’ index finger on his right hand. He ran into the house crying. And the finger was hanging on for dear life.
LuRainey wrapped Ulysses’ finger, had her son lie still in bed, and sent for a doctor. All the doctor could do was to bandage the digit.
Then there was the wait. Would Ulysses’ finger reattach itself?
After a few days, the doctor returned and took the bandage off. The finger was now slightly crooked, but it had managed to reattach itself.
This deformity later helped Ulysses when he became a pitcher, and the baseball moved well when he threw it.
Scouts took note as Stoner’s curve and fastball both dropped, tailing off to especially left-handed batters.
“Lil had wanted to play baseball since he was a 10-year-old in short pants,” LuRainey once said in an interview with a newspaper.
Stoner became a “sandlot” legend. Back in those days, baseball was played on sand, a far cry from the artificial turf field we enjoy in Bowie now. Read more from this column in the Oct. 15 Bowie News.

Editor’s Note: The Storm Center column is the expressed written views of sports editor Eric Viccaro and not The Bowie News.

Ulysses Stoner was Bowie’s first-ever pro baseball player during the 1920s. (Baseball card part of The Sporting News collection)