Frank Rosso

Francis James Rosso

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 180 lb.
• Debut September 15, 1944
• Final Game October 1, 1944
• Born March 1, 1921 in Agawam, MA USA
• Died January 26, 1980 in Springfield, MA USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Frank Rosso was a fielder seven years (1939-1948), all in the minors except for a cup of coffee in 1944, losing two years to the Military and one year to inactivity. He was born on March 1, 1921, in Agawam, MA. He broke into Organized Baseball in 1939 at age 18 with Salisbury in the Eastern Shore League. He was inactive in 1940, 1941 and 1942. He pitched for Springfield in the Eastern League (1943) and the Jersey City Giants of the International League (1944).

According to TSN on April 14, 1945 he was discharged from the U.S. Marines (BN) during World War II and broke into the big leagues on September 15, 1944, with the New York Giants. He had no decisions in two games of relief with 1 strikeout and 3 walks in 4 innings pitched with an ERA of 9.00 and a WHIP of 3.500. He played his final major league game on October 1st at age 23.

He returned to the minors with Jersey City (1945); the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League (1946-1948); and the Chattanooga Lookouts of the Southern Association (1948); ending his baseball career at age 27.

In 1946, his best year in the minors, he was 11-9 with an ERA of 2.68. Overall in the minors, he was 49-51.

He coached football, baseball and basketball at Westfield (MA) High School and was athletic director from 1956 until 1978 when poor health forced his retirement. He died at age 58 at Mercy Hospital in Springfield, MA on January 26, 1980 and is buried at St. Thomas the Apostle Cemetery in West Springfield, MA. His wife Sally Rosso still lived in Agawam, Mass as of 2007. He had son, Brian who lived in Glastonbury, CT and a daughter Cheryl Nelson, who lived in Hampton, NH. He also had four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Sources

Principal sources for Frank Rosso include newspaper obituaries (OB), government Veteran records (VA,CM,CW), Stars & Stripes (S&S), Sporting Life (SL), The Sporting News (TSN), The Sports Encyclopedia:Baseball 2006 by David Neft & Richard Cohen (N&C), old Who's Who in Baseballs (none) (WW), old Baseball Registers (none) (BR) , old Daguerreotypes by TSN (none) (DAG), Stars&Stripes (S&S), The Baseball Necrology by Bill Lee (BN), Pat Doyle's Professional Ballplayer DataBase (PD), The Baseball Library (BL), Baseball in World War II Europe by Gary Bedingfield (GB) ; and others The Pacific Coast League: A Statistical History, 1903-1957 by Dennis Snelling; The International League: Year-by-year Statistics, 1884-1953 by Marshall D. Wright;The Southern Association in Baseball, 1885-1961 by Marshall D. Wright and independent research by Walter Kephart (WK) and Frank Russo (FR) and others.

Related Sites

• Frank Rosso on Retrosheet
• Frank Rosso at the Baseball Almanac
• Bio at Baseball Page
• and a full Bibliography from SABR's The Baseball Index (TBI)