Joe Rogalski

Joseph Anthony Rogalski

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 2", Weight 187 lb.
• Debut September 14, 1938
• Final Game September 23, 1938
• Born July 16, 1912 in Ashland, WI USA
• Died November 20, 1951 in Ashland, WI USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Joe Rogalski was a pitcher five years (1936-1940), all in the minors except for a cup of coffee in 1938. Rogalski was born on Tuesday, July 16, 1912, in Ashland, WI. He broke into Organized Baseball in 1936 at age 23 with Wausau in the Northern League. He played for Wausau(1936); Beaumont in the Texas League (1937-1938); and the Toledo Mud Hens of the American Association (1938). Rogalski was 26 years old when he broke into the big leagues on September 14, 1938, with the Detroit Tigers. He was (0-0) with 2 strikeouts and 0 walks in 7.0 innings pitched with an ERA of 2.57 and a WHIP of 1.714 in 2 games in relief, both of which he finished. He played his final MLB game on September 23, 1938 at age 26.

He returned to the minors with Toledo (1939) and the Buffalo Bisons of the International League (1940); ending his baseball career at age 28. In 1937, his best year in the minors, he was (17-6) with an ERA of 2.88. Overall in the minors, he was (59-39).

Rogalski served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps during World War II (BN). He worked at the Kalamazoo Vegetable Parchment Company in Kalamazoo, MI. He died at age 39 at a Hospital in Ashland, WI from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) on November 20, 1951 and is buried at Duquesne Cemetery in Duquesne, PA.

Sources

Principal sources for Joe Rogalski 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 The Texas League in Baseball, 1888-1958 by Marshall D. Wright; The International League: Year-by-year Statistics, 1884-1953 by Marshall D. Wright; and The American Association: Year-By-Year Statistics for the Baseball Minor League, 1902-1952 by Marshall D. Wright and independent research by Walter Kephart (WK) and Frank Russo (FR) and others.

Related Sites

• Joe Rogalski at the Baseball Almanac
• Bio at Baseball Page
• and a full Bibliography from SABR's The Baseball Index (TBI)