John Roseboro

John Junior Roseboro (May 13, 1933 – August 16, 2002) was an American professional baseball player and coach.

Roseboro was born in Ashland, Ohio to Cecil Geraldine (née Lowery) and John Roseboro Sr. on May 13, 1933.

He had a younger brother named Jim who played football as a halfback at Ohio State University.

He attended Ashland High School where he played both baseball and football.

He was the catcher on the baseball team but, preferred playing halfback for the football team and won a football scholarship to attend Central State University.

During this time, Roseboro was spotted by Dodgers scout Hugh Alexander working out with the baseball team (due to poor grades, Roseboro was ineligible to play for the baseball team).

Alexander liked what he saw and invited him to try out for the Brooklyn Dodgers when they came to play in Cincinnati.

Roseboro was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur free agent before the 1952 season and, began his professional baseball career with the Class-D Sheboygan Indians of the Wisconsin State League.

He posted a .365 batting average with Sheboygan in 1952 to finish second in the league batting championship.

After Roseboro was promoted to the Class-C Great Falls Electrics of the Pioneer League in 1953, he was drafted into the United States Army which forced him to miss the remainder of the 1953 season and the whole of the 1954 season.

Upon completing his military service in 1955, he played in the Class-B Cedar Rapids Raiders of the Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League and the Class-A Pueblo Dodgers of the Western League.

Before the 1956 season, he was promoted to the Triple-A Montreal Royals of the International League.

He played as a catcher in Major League Baseball from 1957 until 1970, most prominently as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

In June 1957, after five years in the minor leagues and shortly after his 24th birthday, he was promoted to the major leagues.

During his first season in the major leagues, Roseboro served as backup catcher for the Dodgers' perennial All-Star catcher Roy Campanella and was being groomed to be Campanella's replacement.

However, in January 1958, he was promoted to the starting catcher's position ahead of schedule when Campanella was badly injured in an automobile accident that left him paralyzed from the shoulders down and ended his athletic career.

In his first full season, with the team having moved to Los Angeles, Roseboro hit for a .271 batting average, along with 14 home runs and 43 runs batted in.

He was also named as a reserve player for the National League in the 1958 All-Star Game.

In 1959, Roseboro led the league's catchers in putouts and in baserunners caught stealing, helping the Dodgers win the National League pennant.

The Dodgers went on to win the 1959 World Series, defeating the Chicago White Sox in six games.

A four-time All-Star player, Roseboro is considered one of the best defensive catchers of the 1960s, winning two Gold Glove Awards.

He was the Dodgers' starting catcher in four World Series with the Dodgers winning three of those.

After having a below par season in 1960, Roseboro rebounded in 1961 posting career highs with 18 home runs and 59 runs batted in.

He also led the National League catchers in putouts and double plays and finished second in fielding percentage and in assists to earn his first Gold Glove Award when the Dodgers finished the season in second place behind the Cincinnati Reds.

He also earned his second All-Star team berth as a reserve player in the 1961 All-Star Game.

During spring training 1962, Roseboro was amongst the group of black Dodger players, along with Tommy Davis, Maury Wills, Jim Gilliam, and Willie Davis, who approached Peter O'Malley, son of the Dodgers' owner, and demanded that segregation come to an end at Dodgertown.

Unlike the spring training facilities for players, the facilities for spectators, including the seating in Holman Stadium, were still racially segregated.

Their demands were met and all signs in the stadium marked "Colored" were removed.

Roseboro and Davis both later encouraged black spectators sitting the formerly segregated seats to sit wherever they wanted to.

Roseboro earned his third All-Star berth, as a reserve in the 1962 All-Star Game.

The Dodgers battled the San Francisco Giants in a tight pennant race during the 1962 season, with the two teams ending the season tied for first place and meeting in the 1962 National League tie-breaker series.

The Giants won the three-game series to clinch the National League championship.

In 1963, Roseboro helped guide the Dodgers' pitching staff to a league leading 2.85 earned run average as, the team clinched the National League pennant by six games over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Roseboro made his presence felt in the 1963 World Series against the New York Yankees when he hit a three-run home run off Whitey Ford to win the first game of the series.

The Dodgers went on to win the series by defeating the Yankees in four straight games.

The Dodgers dropped to seventh place in the 1964 season, however Roseboro hit for a career high .287 batting average and led the league's catchers with a 60.4% caught stealing percentage, the ninth highest season percentage in major league history.

Roseboro is known for his role in one of the most violent incidents in baseball history, when San Francisco Giants pitcher Juan Marichal struck him in the head with a bat during a game between the rival Dodgers and the Giants on August 22, 1965.

Roseboro was involved in a major altercation with Juan Marichal during a game between the Dodgers and San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park on August 22, 1965.

The Giants and the Dodgers had nurtured a heated rivalry with each other dating back to their days together in New York City.

As the 1965 season neared its climax, the Dodgers were involved in a tight pennant race, entering the game leading the Milwaukee Braves by half a game and the Giants by one and a half games.