1952
ARCHIE WILSON   OF

Archie Wilson was born on November 25, 1923, in Los Angeles. Before he could begin to consider professional baseball, there was the matter of the Second World War to address. He served in the United States Navy 1943-45.

His first year in professional baseball was 1947, when he played for the Ventura Yankees in the Class-C California League. He was signed out of U.S.C. by the New York Yankees.

In 1948 he played in British Columbia for the Victoria Athletics. He was named to the league All-Star team and led the Class-B Western International League in several categories: batting average, RBIs (132), base hits (244), triples (26), runs scored (137), and total bases (408).

In 1949 and 1950, he played for the Triple-A Kansas City Blues (American Association). In both 1949 and 1950, he played winter ball in Cuba for Marianao.

Archie started the 1951 season playing in the Pacific Coast League for the San Francisco Seals and hit .381 in nine games, but in April was reassigned to the Buffalo Bisons (International League). He was voted league MVP, and also an all-star. In September, his contract was sold to the New York Yankees.

In 1952, he had hit exceptionally well in spring training and made the Yankees. but he was traded to the Washington Senators in May. In June he was traded to his third team of the season in less than two months, this time to the Boston Red Sox. He played some right field, and a couple of games each in left and center, but only got into 18 games in all. When he did, he finally showed a better bat, hitting .263, but only drive in two runs. 

He trained with the Red Sox in the spring of 1953, but pulled a muscle when his spikes caught as a baserunner while working on pickoffs. A month later, still not healed, he was optioned to Baltimore and spent the year playing for the minor-league Baltimore Orioles. He spent most of his next six seasons playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Archie managed in the Washington organization from 1961-63. In 1961 he worked in the Class-D Alabama-Florida League, as skipper for the Pensacola Senators. He put himself into 16 games, playing first base in 12 of them, and batted .350. They were his last professional baseball games as a player.

In 1962 he managed the Raleigh Capitals in the Class-B Carolina League and in 1963, the league now a Class-A league, he managed the Peninsula Senators in Hampton, Virginia.

After 1963 he went on to other things, working as a traffic manager and purchasing manager with the Fruehauf Corp. He retired from there after many years. 

In 2001, Archie Wilson was inducted into the Morgan County Sports Hall of Fame. He died at Decatur General Hospital in Alabama, on April 28, 2007. He had been in the hospital for open heart surgery and one of the nurses mistakenly pierced his lung. Archie was 83 years old.