Les Rock

Lester Henry Rock
born Lester Henry Schwarzrock

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 2", Weight 184 lb.

• Debut September 11, 1936
• Final Game September 23, 1936
• Born August 19, 1912 in Springfield, MN USA
• Died September 9, 1991 in Davis, CA USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Les Rock was a first baseman five years (1936-1940), all in the minors except for a cup of coffee in 1936. Rock was born on August 19, 1912, in Springfield, MN. He broke into Organized Baseball at age 23 with Bentonville of the Arkansas-Missouri League. At 24 years of age, he broke into the big leagues on September 11, 1936, with the Chicago White Sox. Playing in two games, he had only one plate appearance but an RBI to show for it. He played his final MLB game on September 11th.

He returned to the minors with Dallas in the Texas League (1937); Vicksburg in the Cotton States League (1937); Monroe in the Cotton States League (1938); Sorel and Granby in the outlaw Quebec Provincial League (1939); and Williamston in the Coastal Plain League (1940); ending his baseball career at age 28. In 1940, his best year in the minors, he had 5 home runs and 80 RBI at .337 and was (2-3) with an ERA of 4.26 as a pitcher. Overall in the minors, he had 33 home runs and 255 RBI.

Rock served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II (BN), He retired in 1972 after eight years as a custodian at the University of California, Davis. He died on September 9, 1991 at age 79 at Driftwood Convalescent Hospital in Davis, CA from an attack of acute bronchitis, but he had suffered for some time from cardiovascular heart disease, and was cremated.

Sources

Principal sources for Les Rock 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 and independent research by Walter Kephart (WK) and Frank Russo (FR) and others.

Related Sites

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