1944-1945

Francis Barrett was born in Ft Lauderdale, Florida, on July 1, 1913. He went to public school at Fort Lauderdale, and then four years of high school at St. Leo’s High School in the town of St. Leo, an English-style prep school. He did play high school baseball, American Legion baseball, and then some semipro ball. At St. Leo, he pitched for the baseball team, was an end for the football team, center on the basketball team, and the weight man on the track team.

His pro career started in 1935, in the St. Louis Cardinals system, pitching for the Albany Travelers in the Class-D Georgia-Florida League. He was on a Columbus (Georgia) Red Birds contract, and they gave him another shot in spring training 1936, but he fell, injured a shoulder, and was not retained.

He was assigned to pitch in Huntington, West Virginia for the local Red Birds until optioned to the Union Springs Springers in Alabama. In January 1937 his contract was sold to the Mobile Shippers, with whom St. Louis had a working agreement. He was with Rochester in 1938, but spent most of the season with Mobile again.

In 1939, Frank was with the Texas League’s Houston Buffaloes and pitched a 1-0 no-hitter against Beaumont in August. He did train with the Cardinals in the spring of 1940, but was optioned to Columbus (this time, the Columbus in Ohio in the Double-A American Association) and worked for the Columbus Red Birds from 1940 well into 1944. In June 1944, he was traded to the Boston Red Sox.

Frank's Red Sox debut gained him his first victory in the first game of a June doubleheader at Fenway Park, against the visiting Philadelphia Athletics. He largely worked as a closer however, with two starts, but 26 finishes among 38 appearances. He was 8-7 with a 3.69 ERA, and eight saves.

He worked the full season in 1945, though ended up working about the same number of innings. He had a better earned run average, more than a run better at 2.62 and his record was 4-3, exclusively in relief with again 26 closes.

Frank wasn’t going to make the 1946 Red Sox. He’d been released to the Louisville Colonels, and in March signed to play with the Indianapolis Indians in the American Association, a Boston Braves affiliate. In June, the Boston Braves bought his contract and he pitched two scoreless innings of relief in his Braves debut. He worked in 23 games, all in relief, closing 11, and posted a 2-4 record with a 5.09 ERA.

In January 1947, he was released back to Indianapolis. In 1947 and 1948, Frank pitched for Indianapolis again, the team becoming a farm club of the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 1949 and 1950, he worked for the Double-A New Orleans Pelicans. In August, his contract was been purchased from New Orleans and he appeared in five games for Pittsburgh, all in September. He finished his final short stint in the majors 1-2, with a 4.15 ERA.

In March 1951, Frank was named manager of the Burlington, North Carolina Bees (Class-B Carolina League), also a Pirates farm club. In June, he was transferred to manage the Butler (Pennsylvania) Tigers in the Class-C Middle Atlantic League, a team the Pirates had just acquired. In 1952, he managed the full year of the Kitty League Mayfield Clothiers, a Class-D Pirates team and in 1953, he was asked to manage in Leesburg.

Frank opened Red Barrett’s Drive-in Restaurant in 1953 and operated it until 1966 and a Phillips 66 service station was his from 1954 to 1978.

Frank Barrett died on March 6, 1998, at 84 years old, at the Leesburg Regional Medical Center, in Leesburg, Florida.