Thursday, July 23, 2009

Billy Rogell, Detroit Tigers Shortstop


Bill Rogell, at the time of his death at age 98 in 2003, was one of the last living links to Baseball in the 1920's. His career began in 1925 and ended in 1940. He was on the Pennant Winning Detroit Tigers in 1935. The Tigers won a trip to the World Series in 1934 as well, but lost. During game 4 of the series, Rogell was throwing the ball to first base to make a triple play, and hit Dizzy Dean square on the head! He later remarked that if he knew Dean's head was there, he would have threw the ball harder! He threw out the first pitch at the final game in Tiger Stadium, nearly 70 years after playing his first game there.
When i wrote to him I asked what he thought of Baseball today. He wrote back that "There are too many big league clubs. The good players are spread out too much..." He stated that he only watched Little League games.

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