Remembering Minor Leaguer Frank Stare

Frank H. Stare was born on February 12, 1923 in Murrysville, Pennsylvania. He was signed by baseball scout John Pope to play with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization in 1942 and joined the Oil City Oilers of the Class D Penn State Association.

Stare was a 6-foot-1-inch, bespectacled right-hander with an unassuming personality. He got off to a slow start with the Oilers but finished the season with an 11-11 record in 32 appearances and a 4.09 ERA. He also batted .304 with four doubles, a triple and a home run.

“It has taken Frank a major portion of the season to really find himself and for the fans to find him, but that time has arrived,” announced the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on August 19, 1942. “There is nothing of the razzle-dazzle about this chap who is the first moundsman to wear glasses in organized ball here since the days of Carmen Hill’s service with the outlaw Two-Team League. Frank calmly walks out to do a job for manager Frank Oceak on the mound and keeps trying the entire time he is in the game.” (The Two-Team League of the early 1920s was the culmination of a bitter rivalry between Oil City and nearby Franklin. Both teams lured players from organized baseball with lucrative contract offers).

On March 30, 1943, Stare entered military service. He spent 18 months in Europe with the 571st Anti-Aircraft Automatic Weapons Battalion and saw action at the Battle of the Bulge, the Rhine river crossing and central Germany.

Having missed three years of baseball, Stare returned to the Pirates organization in 1946 and was assigned to the Albany Senators of the Class A Eastern League. The Senators sent the 23-year-old to the York White Roses of the Class B Interstate League where he was 7-5 in 20 appearances with a 4.55 ERA.

Back with York in 1947, Stare was 5-6 with a 6.73 ERA. He married Elizabeth P. Gentzler and had settled in York but his baseball career took him on the move in 1948. The Pirates organization sent him to the New Orleans Pelicans of the Class AA Southern Association, where he was 10-9 in 34 appearances with a 4.61 ERA. In 1949, baseball took him to Alabama with the Montgomery Rebels of the Class B Southeastern where he posted a 10-13 record and 4.24 ERA in 31 appearances.

He was with the Danville Leafs of the Class B Carolina League for the spring of 1950, but an arm injury forced him to retire.

Stare took a position with the U.S. Post Office back in York, retiring in 1980 after 30 years of service. For a number of years he continued to play baseball locally in the Twilight League.

Frank Stare passed away on June 3, 2003 at Manor Care - South in York, Pennsylvania. He was 80 years old and had willed his body to the Humanity Gifts Registry Program of Philadelphia.