Edward Jack Roebuck (July 3, 1931 – June 14, 2018) was an American professional baseball relief pitcher and

scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement **Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom **Scouts BSA, sectio ...

, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 11 seasons (–; –) for the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers, Washington Senators and

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

. He appeared in the World Series with the Dodgers in

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

and

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim ...

. During his playing days, Roebuck stood , weighing . He threw and batted right-handed.

Pitching career

Brooklyn

Roebuck was born in East Millsboro, located in the heart of Southwest Pennsylvania's

coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

country. After attending Brownsville Area High School, he began his 19-season playing career in the Dodgers' organization in 1949, and was called to the majors in after winning 45 games over three years for the Triple-A Montreal Royals. Working out of the Brooklyn

bullpen In baseball, the bullpen (or simply the pen) is the area where relief pitchers warm up before entering a game. A team's roster of relief pitchers is also metonymically referred to as "the bullpen". These pitchers usually wait in the bullpen if t ...

, the rookie got into 47

games A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (such ...

, second only to relief ace Clem Labine's 60 games pitched, and posted 12 saves to lead the pennant-winning team. His earned run average was an effective 2.57 as late as July 22, but a succession of rough outings inflated his final ERA for 1955 to a poor 4.71. Roebuck made one appearance in the 1955 World Series against the New York Yankees, pitching two scoreless innings in Game 6 in relief of Russ Meyer in a 5–1 Brooklyn defeat. But the Dodgers came back the next day, October 4, 1955, to win Game 7 and Brooklyn's only world championship, 2–0, behind Johnny Podres'

complete game In baseball, a complete game (CG) is the act of a pitcher pitching an entire game without the benefit of a relief pitcher. A pitcher who meets this criterion will be credited with a complete game regardless of the number of innings played—pitche ...

shutout. The next season, Roebuck had only one save in 43 games and led the National League in wild pitches, while the Dodgers repeated as league champions. In Game 2 of the 1956 World Series, he halted a five-run Yankee rally in the second inning against

starting pitcher In baseball (hardball or softball), a starting pitcher or starter is the first pitcher in the game for each team. A pitcher is credited with a game started if they throw the first pitch to the opponent's first batter of a game. Starting pit ...

Don Newcombe by getting

Joe Collins Joseph Edward Collins (born Joseph Edward Kollonige; December 3, 1922 – August 30, 1989) was an American Major League Baseball player born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. On September 25, he began his major league career playing for the New York Y ...

to ground out, then left for a

pinch hitter In baseball, a pinch hitter is a substitute Batting (baseball), batter. Batters can be substituted at any time while the dead ball (baseball), ball is dead (not in active play); the manager (baseball), manager may use any player who has not yet ...

in the Dodger half of the inning. Brooklyn scored six runs in that frame and went on to defeat the Yankees 13–8 behind the stellar, seven-inning relief work of Don Bessent. Roebuck made two more appearances, in Games 4 and 7, surrendering a home run to Mickey Mantle in the former game, and pitching two shutout innings of mop-up work in the latter, both Yankee victories. In , the Dodgers' last season in Brooklyn, Roebuck won eight of ten decisions and improved his earned run average to 2.71. He also made his only career MLB start, going five innings on June 5 against the Cincinnati Redlegs and allowing two runs in an eventual 3–0 Dodger defeat.

Los Angeles

His first two seasons as a Dodger in Los Angeles were ruined by a sore arm (), then a year-long minor league demotion () that cost Roebuck the chance to earn a second World Series ring. Roebuck was able to return to form at Triple-A and spend the next six full seasons in the majors, although he again experienced arm trouble in , worked in only five games, and spent part of the year on the Dodgers' voluntarily retired list. But he rebounded again. In , he was the Dodgers' most successful bullpen ace, helping them to a first-place tie with their archrival, the San Francisco Giants, after the full slate of 162 games. But Los Angeles dropped the

1962 National League tie-breaker series The 1962 National League tie-breaker series was a three-game playoff series that extended Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1962 regular season to determine the winner of the National League (NL) pennant. The games were played from October 1 to 3, ...

, two games to one. Roebuck worked in all three games, allowing no runs and only two

hits Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block * ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998 * ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014 - a British compilation album se ...

in 4 innings pitched over his first two outings as the teams split, one game apiece. In the decisive third game, officially the 165th regular season contest each team would play in 1962, Roebuck relieved Podres in the sixth inning and held the Giants scoreless for the next three frames, as the Dodgers took a 4–2 lead. But in the top of the ninth inning, defensive lapses enabled the Giants to claw back against Roebuck. After being struck on the hand by a Willie Mays line drive single back through the box, he left the game with one out, a run in and the bases loaded. His successor on the mound, Stan Williams, then allowed a

sacrifice fly In baseball, a sacrifice fly (sometimes abbreviated to sac fly) is defined by Rule 9.08(d): "Score a sacrifice fly when, before two are out, the batter hits a ball in flight handled by an outfielder or an infielder running in the outfield in fair o ...

to tie the game and issued a bases-loaded walk to give the Giants the lead; an insurance run then scored on an error. San Francisco won the 1962 National League pennant, with Roebuck charged with only his second loss in 12 decisions on the season, although his 64 appearances and ten victories were career bests.

Washington and Philadelphia

That season-ending, ninth-inning collapse affected Roebuck in ; he struggled on the mound for the Dodgers, with his ERA climbing by over a run to 4.24, and he was traded to the Senators on July 30. He got into 28 games for Washington's manager, former Dodger teammate Gil Hodges, before he was sent back to the Senior Circuit early in . Teaming with Philadelphia's bullpen ace, Jack Baldschun, he responded with a standout season for the Phillies, notching 12 saves in 60 appearances and a career-best 2.21 ERA. But a disastrous, late-September losing streak cost the Phillies the National League title. In , Roebuck posted five relief victories and three saves, but his workload and effectiveness diminished. The Phillies assigned him to Triple-A San Diego for and recalled him in midyear, but he dropped two decisions in six games and was released. During his big-league career, Roebuck had a very high winning percentage, compiling a mark of 52 wins and 31 defeats (.627) with seasons of 8–2 (1957), 8–3 (1960) and 10–2 (1962) for the Dodgers. He compiled 62 career saves and an ERA of 3.35. He worked in 460 games, all but one in relief, and in 791 innings pitched, he allowed 753

and 302

bases on balls A base on balls (BB), also known as a walk, occurs in baseball when a batter receives four pitches that the umpire calls '' balls'', and is in turn awarded first base without the possibility of being called out. The base on balls is defined in Se ...

, with 477

strikeout In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is deno ...

s. A competent batsman, Roebuck collected 28 hits (including two home runs) and batted .204 lifetime in the majors. Roebuck was also known as one of the game's finest

fungo A baseball bat is a smooth wooden or metal club used in the sport of baseball to hit the ball after it is thrown by the pitcher. By regulation it may be no more than in diameter at the thickest part and no more than in length. Although histor ...

hitters, who endeavored to hit fungo home runs from home plate in every MLB stadium. In 1964, still an active player with the rival Phillies, Roebuck was asked by Roy Hofheinz, owner of the Houston Colt .45s, to hit the highest fungo fly balls he could in order to determine the ideal roof height for baseball's first domed stadium, the Astrodome, still under construction at the time.

Longtime scout

After his playing career ended, Roebuck was a

for a number of teams, including the Dodgers, Phillies, Atlanta Braves,

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

and Boston Red Sox. He retired in 2004 and died June 14, 2018, at age 86 in Lakewood, California, where he had lived since 1958. He was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Long Beach).

References

External links

Ed Roebuck
at SABR (Baseball BioProject) {{DEFAULTSORT:Roebuck, Ed 1931 births 2018 deaths Almendares (baseball) players American people of Polish descent Atlanta Braves scouts Baseball players from Pennsylvania Boston Red Sox scouts Brooklyn Dodgers players Cincinnati Reds scouts Elmira Pioneers players Fort Worth Cats players Los Angeles Dodgers players Los Angeles Dodgers scouts Major League Baseball pitchers Montreal Royals players Newport News Dodgers players People from Fayette County, Pennsylvania People from Lakewood, California Philadelphia Phillies players Philadelphia Phillies scouts Pittsburgh Pirates scouts St. Paul Saints (AA) players San Diego Padres (minor league) players Washington Senators (1961–1971) players American expatriate baseball players in Cuba American expatriate baseball players in Nicaragua Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Long Beach)