Monday, June 22, 2015

1950 Tri-State League All-Star Game

It is currently the All-Star Break for the Southern League. While doing some research for foreign born players for Knoxville teams I came across Jack Aragon.

Angel Valdes (Reyes) Aragon was born in Cuba in 1915.  According to Baseball-Reference.com his minor league career started with the 1937 Greenwood Giants of the Cotton States League.  He caught for the 1939 Knoxville Smokies of the Southern Association.  He was back in Knoxville in 1950 and 1951 as a player / manager.  The following article lists Aragon's first name as Art.  I don't know why.

In 1950 his team went 0-12 to start the season.  By the time that the Tri-State League had their All-Star game in July the they had improved to a very respectable 49-36, hanging on to second place, right behind Spartanburg.

I'm not sure how the All-Star team was selected in that league, but it looks as if the first place team played the All-Stars.  Maybe a Best versus the Rest.

Greensboro Daily News - July 14, 1950

According to the newspaper Knoxville had four players on that All-Star team.  Al Neil and Harvey Gentry were scheduled to play in the outfield and Hugh Oser and Joe Asbill were lined up to pitch.


The reporting of the All-Star game was very slim at GenealogyBank.com.  This was the only note I found.  The All-Stars pummeled the Spartanburg Peaches 19 to 4.

Greensboro Daily News - July 18, 1950

The Sporting News, from the PaperofRecord.com site, came through with some game details.
The Sporting News - July 26, 1950

The only player of the Knoxville All-Stars to make it to the major league was Harvey Gentry who played in five games for the New York Giants in 1954.  He came to bat four times and got one hit for a .250 BA. 

Note: Selection to an All-Star game does not guarantee any future success in the sport.

No comments:

Post a Comment