Friday, April 20, 2018
#201 Phil Roof
Long
time reserve backstop….Went with the repartee and antonym nickname "Babe"….Well
traveled donning the uniforms of eight teams….began with Milwaukee (Braves)
with a solo year splitting time in Cleveland and California….found a four year home the A’s organization and
was their most used catcher in 1966-67…Returned to Milwaukee (Brewers) for year
and half starting 1971…..settled in for 6 years in Minnesota….finished up with
a handful of game Chisox and first year edition of the Toronto Blue Jays….Struggled at the plate spent ½
of his 16 years below .200 BA….exited with a .217 BA….Had anomaly in 1975 hitting
.302 and 7 home runs in 126 at bats….that year maybe, occasionally he was Babe….had
a brother Gene, who was Phil’s 17 year junior with very brief MLB career the
early eighties.
His Blue Jays claim to fame is that he was the first Blue Jay. He was signed as a free agent prior to the expansion draft.
ReplyDeleteThank you for writing, you helped me spot a sentence I corrected. What you said made think about first year franchises in general they acquire a familiar name to the community. In Roof's case he was briefly a Toronto Maple Leaf AAA player in the early 60's.
ReplyDeleteAs a Twins fan I enjoyed Roof's 1975. He got TV interviews and really seemed to have good time.