Stan Spence

Stanley Orville Spence was an American center fielder in Major League Baseball who played from 1940 to 1949. Born in South Carolina in 1915, he batted and threw left-handed. After two part-time seasons with the Boston Red Sox, he became an everyday player for the Washington Senators, with whom he spent 1942 through 1947. In 1942 he finished third in the American League batting race at .323, behind Ted Williams and Johnny Pesky. His most productive season came in 1944, when he batted .316 with career highs of 18 home runs and 100 runs batted in; on June 1 of that year he went 6-for-6 against the St. Louis Browns. Spence returned to the Red Sox in 1948 and finished his career with the St. Louis Browns in 1949. He was selected to multiple All-Star teams during the 1940s. Spence died in 1983 and was among the first inductees into the Kinston Professional Baseball Hall of Fame that year.