Born:
June 10, 1917
Granite City, IL
Died:
December 2, 1949
Albuquerque, NM
Career
1946-47 Salem Trailblazers (PCBL) General Manager / player
Frank Shone was born in Granite City, Illinois, and was a baseball player with eyes on the major leagues. He was signed in 1939 by Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics and was assigned to the Johnstown club in the Class-D Pennsylvania State League. He moved on to the Cincinnati farm system on 1940, playing for Reds' Lenoir , Ogden and Columbia affiliates. 1943 found him out west, signing on with the Portland Beavers of the PCL. A quick baserunner and decent hitting outfielder, Shone stuck with the Beavers for 4 seasons, hitting .304 in 1945 with 39 stolen bases. At this time, the PCL's caliber of play was so great that they petitioned to be recognized as a third major league, but were denied and classified as AAA, or the highest ranking of a minor league. In his four years in Portland, Shone had become quite popular in the town and surrounding areas, and in the fall of 1946 was offered the job of being the general manager for the Salem Trailblazers basketball team, giving him a job during baseball's off-season. The Salem club quickly ran into attendance problems, and therefore financial problems. He found himself pressed into duty in two games by head coach Len Yandle, scoring no points in his brief appearance on the floor. On January 28, 1947, Shone was optioned to Beaumont (Texas) in the New York Giants farm system, getting him even closer to major league baseball. Not long after leaving the Trailblazers, the basketball team merged with Spokane and eventually failed to finish the 1946-47 season.
When Salem merged with Spokane in February of 1947, Shone found himself out of basketball. Looking forward to baseball season, Shone batted only .243 at Beaumont and was let go by the Giants. He wound up signing with the Albuquerque Dukes in 1948, and played sparingly in 1948 and 1949. In December of 1949, a few months after the close of the Dukes season, Shone was killed in a one-car accident just outside of Albuquerque. He was 32 years old.
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