A strong right-handed pitcher, Franke played in the Baltimore Orioles farm system in 1980 for the Miami Orioles in the Florida State League. He starred for Northwest Missouri State University from 1978 to 1980. In 1978, Franke received honorable mention as an All-American at Northwest Missouri State. That year, he had the third best ERA in the nation. He had an undefeated record. He was named to the All-Conference and All-District teams. Franke was selected to the All-Conference second team in 1979 and 1980. He led his Northwest Missouri teams to conference titles in 1978 and 1980. His team advanced to the regional tournament every year from 1978 to 1980. He was team captain in 1980. Franke set several records while pitching for Northwest Missouri, and still holds the record for career wins and complete games. He is in the Top 10 for strikeouts and ERA. In 2008, Franke was inducted into the Northwest Missouri State University Athletics Hall of Fame.
He pitched for McCluer North High School and was named to the All-Suburban North district team in 1976. That year, he received honorable mention on the St. Louis All-Metro team. He had two no-hitters in high school. He also played football and basketball at McCluer.
In 1977 and 1978, he was pitcher for the Bloomington Bobcats in the Central Illinois Collegiate League. In 1979, Franke pitched for the Clarinda, Iowa team that finished fourth at the NBC tournament in Wichita, Kansas. In 1981, he led the Red Oak, Iowa team to a second-place finish at the Iowa State NBC tournament. His team advanced to the national NBC tournament in Wichita. From 1983 to 1986, Franke pitched for Emporia, Kansas in the Missouri-Kansas League. He played for Ballwin in the St. Louis County League from 1988 to 1992.
Franke has played and coached amateur baseball for 58 years. He has been playing in senior baseball leagues since 1998. He pitched in the CYC Senior Major League for seven seasons. From 2012 to 2015, he pitched for the Black Sox in the National Amateur Baseball Association. He played in the Denver Baseball Forever League from 2017 to 2021. Since 2022, he has been with the Bud Light team in the St. Louis Baseball Forever League.
