Tarboro Tars was the primary name of a

minor league baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

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 area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the town had a population of 10,721. It is the county seat of Edgeco ...

. 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 Plain League which operated in the area f ...

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 platf ...

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) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...

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, they became the Oakland ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

. 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 (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 33,458 with a majority bla ...

, in early August.

Notable players

Several players with Tarboro also made appearances in

: * 1937: Soup Campbell, Snake Henry * 1938: Campbell, Henry,

Buster Maynard James Walter "Buster" Maynard (March 25, 1913 – September 7, 1977) was an American professional baseball player whose 14-year career included 224 games in Major League Baseball for the New York Giants during all or portions of four seasons bet ...

* 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), Bro ...

* 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 * 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 St ...

, Ray Murray,

Frankie Zak Frank Thomas Zak (February 22, 1922 – February 6, 1972) was an American 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 en ...

* 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 poun ...

* 1948: Jake Daniel * 1949: Joe Antolick,

Bob Zick Robert George Zick (April 26, 1927 – June 12, 2017) was an American 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 an ...

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

Joe Rullo Joseph Vincent Rullo (June 16, 1916 – October 28, 1969) was a professional baseball player. Rullo attended South Philadelphia High School where he was not selected for the school's baseball team because he was too small. He nonetheless earn ...

* 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 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 Tarboro, North Carolina Coastal Plain League (minor league) teams