Tarboro Tars was the primary name of a minor league baseball team based in

Tarboro, North Carolina Tarboro is a town located in Edgecombe County, North Carolina, United States. It is part of the Rocky Mount Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, the town had a population of 10,721. It is the county seat of Edgecombe County. The ...

. The team competed in the

Coastal Plain League The Coastal Plain League (CPL) is a wood-bat collegiate summer baseball league, featuring college players recruited from throughout the nation. The league takes its name from the Class D level Coastal League which operated in the area from 19 ...

from 1937 to 1941 and from 1946 to 1952. The team used several other nicknames during its history, and had brief

affiliation Affiliation or affiliate may refer to: * Affiliate (commerce), a legal form of entity relationship used in Business Law * Affiliation (family law), a legal form of family relationship * Affiliate marketing * Affiliate network or affiliation platfo ...

s with the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

and

Philadelphia Athletics The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, the team became the Oaklan ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

. In the team's 12 seasons of play, it qualified for the postseason five times, advanced to the league championship series three times (1937, 1940, and 1948), and won the championship twice (1940 and 1948). Tarboro had previously fielded minor league teams in 1900 and 1901, and for part of the 1921 season when the

Petersburg Goobers Petersburg, or Petersburgh, may refer to: Places Australia *Petersburg, former name of Peterborough, South Australia Canada * Petersburg, Ontario Russia *Saint Petersburg, sometimes referred to as Petersburg United States *Peterborg, U.S. Virg ...

relocated to Tarboro from

Petersburg, Virginia Petersburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 33,458. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines Petersburg (along with the city of Colonial Heights) with Din ...

, in early August.

Notable players

Several players with Tarboro also made appearances in

: * 1937: Soup Campbell,

Snake Henry Frederick Marshall "Snake" Henry (July 19, 1895 – October 12, 1987) was a major league baseball first baseman and minor league manager. Henry played in a total of twenty nine games for the Boston Braves during the and seasons. He compiled a ...

* 1938: Campbell, Henry, Buster Maynard * 1939: Bob Allen,

Bill Donovan William Edward Donovan (October 13, 1876 – December 9, 1923), nicknamed "Wild Bill" and "Smiling Bill", was an American right-handed baseball pitcher and manager. Donovan played Major League Baseball for the Washington Senators (1898), Broo ...

* 1940:

Hank Schenz Henry Leonard Schenz (April 11, 1919 – May 12, 1988) was an American professional baseball player whose career lasted 14 seasons (1939–1942; 1946–1955), including all or parts of six years in Major League Baseball as a member of the Chicago ...

Bill Steinecke William Robert Steinecke (February 7, 1907 – July 20, 1986) was an American professional baseball catcher and manager. A native of Cincinnati who attended DePaul University, Steinecke spent almost 40 years in uniform, but only four games in Major ...

* 1941:

Bob Hooper Robert Nelson Hooper (May 30, 1922 – March 17, 1980) was a Canadian-born pitcher in Major League Baseball from 1950 to 1955. A native of Leamington, Ontario, Hooper attended Montclair State University in New Jersey and served in the United Sta ...

Ray Murray Raymond Lee Murray (October 12, 1917 – April 9, 2003) was an American professional baseball player and manager. A catcher, he appeared in 250 games played over all or parts of six seasons for the Cleveland Indians (1948; 1950–1951), Philade ...

Frankie Zak Frank Thomas Zak (February 22, 1922 – February 6, 1972) was a professional baseball player. The shortstop played all or part of three seasons in Major League Baseball from 1944 to 1946. Zak played for the Pittsburgh Pirates his entire MLB ca ...

* 1946: — * 1947:

Otey Clark William Otis "Otey" Clark (May 22, 1915 – October 20, 2010) was a Major League Baseball pitcher who played for the Boston Red Sox in 1945. He was born in Boscobel, Wisconsin. The 29-year-old rookie stood 6-foot inches and weighed 190 pounds ...

* 1948:

Jake Daniel Handley Jacob Daniel (April 22, 1911 – April 23, 1996) was a professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball for the 1937 Brooklyn Dodgers, primarily as a first baseman. External links

Major League Baseball first basemen ...

* 1949:

Joe Antolick Joseph Antolick (April 11, 1916 – June 25, 2002), was an American professional baseball catcher and manager, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies. He appeared in four games, in , as a 28-year-old rookie. Du ...

Bob Zick Robert George Zick (April 26, 1927 – June 12, 2017) was a professional baseball pitcher. He was born in Chicago, Illinois. He appeared in eight games in Major League Baseball for the Chicago Cubs in 1954. He batted left-handed and threw ri ...

* 1950: Antolick, Zick * 1951: Eric Mackenzie,

Joe Rullo Joseph Vincent Rullo (June 16, 1916 – October 28, 1969) was a professional baseball player. He was a second baseman over parts of two seasons (1943–44) with the Philadelphia Athletics. For his career, he compiled a .212 batting average in ...

* 1952: —

Results by season

Other sources list the team's 1937 nickname as Serpents, 1940 nickname as Cubs, and A's during 1948–1951.
In 1951, Tarboro and the

Greenville Robins Greenville is the name of several places: Canada * Laxgalts'ap, British Columbia, formerly named Greenville * Greenville, Nova Scotia, in Yarmouth County * Greenville Station, Nova Scotia, in Cumberland County * Lower Greenville, Nova Scotia, in ...

withdrew from the league in early June.

References

{{reflist, 30em Baseball teams established in 1937 Baseball teams disestablished in 1952 1937 establishments in North Carolina 1952 disestablishments in North Carolina Defunct minor league baseball teams Defunct baseball teams in North Carolina Boston Red Sox minor league affiliates Philadelphia Athletics minor league affiliates Edgecombe County, North Carolina Coastal Plain League (minor league) teams