Lee Rogers

Lee Otis Rogers
(Buck or Lefty)

• Bats Right, Throws Left
• Height 5' 11", Weight 170 lb.
• School University of Alabama
• Debut April 27, 1938
• Final Game September 29, 1938
• Born October 8, 1913 in Tuscaloosa, AL USA
• Died November 23, 1995 in Little Rock, AR USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Lee Rogers was a pitcher eight years (1934-1941), two in college (1934-1935); one in the Majors (1938); and six in the minors (1935-1937;1939-1941). Rogers was born on Wednesday, October 8, 1913, in Tuscaloosa, AL. He attended the University of Alabama (1934-1935) where he played baseball. He broke into Organized Baseball at age 21 with the Little Rock Travelers of the Southern Association in 1935. He played with Little Rock (1935); Charlotte in the Piedmont League (1935); the Atlanta Crackers of the Southern Association (1936); and Little Rock (1937).

Rogers was 24 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 27, 1938, with the Boston Red Sox. On August 12, 1938 he was traded by the Red Sox to the Brooklyn Dodgers for Johnnie Chambers. Between the two teams, he was (1-3) with 0 complete games in 4 games started, 18 strikeouts and 28 walks in 51⅓ innings pitched with an ERA of 6.14 and a WHIP of 1.617 in 26 games. He played his final MLB game on September 29, 1938 at age 24.

He returned to the minors with the Montreal Royals of the International League (1939); the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association (1940); and Little Rock again (1940-1941); ending his baseball career at age 27. In 1937, his best year in the minors, he was (13-8) with an ERA of 3.59. Overall in the minors, he was (53-53).

Rogers served in the U.S. Army during World War II (BN). He owned and operated the Spaulding athletic goods store in Little Rock, AR from 1939 to 1980 and officiated in high school games and Southwest Conference college games for 15 years. He died on November 23, 1995 at age 82 in Little Rock from complications of a heart attack suffered a month earlier at an Arkansas-Auburn football game and is buried at Roselawn Memorial Park in Little Rock.

Sources

Principal sources for Lee Rogers 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 Southern Association in Baseball, 1885-1961 by Marshall D. Wright and The International League: Year-by-year Statistics, 1884-1953 by Marshall D. Wright and independent research by Walter Kephart (WK) and Frank Russo (FR) and others.

Related Sites

• Lee Rogers at the SABR Bio Project
• Lee Rogers at the Baseball Almanac
• Bio at Baseball Page
• The Baseball Chronology for Lee Rogers
• and a full Bibliography from SABR's The Baseball Index (TBI)