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Skippy Roberge

 

Date and Place of Birth: May 19, 1917 Lowell, Massachusetts

Died: June 7, 1993 Lowell, Massachusetts

Baseball Experience: Major League
Position: Infield
Rank: Technician Fifth Grade
Military Unit: Company C, 4th Signal Battalion, US Army

Area Served: European Theater of Operations

 

 

The 21-year-old second baseman was playing in the semi-pro Lowell Twilight League in 1938, the same year he led the Lowell YMCA basketball team to the National Championships. That year he approached the Boston Braves for a tryout at Braves Field. “[Casey] Stengel ordered him to don a uniform and sent him out to shortstop,” explained the Lowell Sun in July 1941. “He worked in an infield which included [Elbie] Fletcher, [Tony] Cuccinello and [Eddie] Mayo. The kid scooped up grounders hit at him by George Kelly and tossed ‘em to first base like Eddie Miller.

 

“Stengel called him into the bench and asked him to step up to the plate and drive the wood against the horsehide. Lou Fette was on the mound at the time. ‘Skip’ whaled a few drives to distant parts of the field, and that was enough for Stengel.”

 

Signed by the Braves, he began his professional career in 1939 with the Bradford Bees in the Class D Pony League where he batted .292 with 67 RBIs. In 1940 he batted .301 with the Evansville Bees in the Class B Three-I League.

 

Roberge joined the Hartford Bees in the Class A Eastern League in 1941 and although he got off to a slow start he soon blossomed and his manager, former major leaguer Jack Onslow, became one of his loudest promoters. On July 16, 1941, after helping the Hartford club in a 5-5 13-inning tie at Scranton, he left by overnight train to join the major league club. Arriving too late for the pre-game drill, he was assigned Cuccinello’s famous Number 3 uniform and watched both games of the Pirates-Braves doubleheader from the Boston dugout. “Gee it was surely some surprise when Jack Onslow … told me I had three-quarters of an hour to grab a train out of Scranton for Boston,” he told the Lowell Sun on July 17, 1941. However, I’m not worried, I’m here to play ball and I’m ready for any duty Stengel wants me to perform.”

 

Roberge made his major league debut against Pittsburgh on July 18. He remained with the Braves for the rest of the season and played in 55 games, batting .216. He played 74 games in 1942 and batted .215, splitting time between second base and third base. But his major league career was put on hold when he entered military service with the Army at the Recruit Reception Center at Fort Devens, Massachusetts on January 3, 1943. “I sure hope that when this fuss is over,” he told the Lowell Sun on February 11, 1943, “I’ll be able to take up where I left off and show Mr Quinn, Casey Stengel and the others that the faith they’ve shown in me was not misplaced. I enjoyed the big leagues and I hope I’ll be able to make the grade when I return.” 

 

Assigned to mess duties, Roberge played basketball and baseball at Fort Devens. He batted .368 during the summer and was named to the service all-star Major League team by Army Times.

 

On May 2, 1944, Technician Fifth Grade Roberge left the United States for England. He was stationed at the 10^th Replacement Depot at Whittington Barracks, where he played baseball during the summer months including a game against an All-Star Canadian team on August 7, 1944. "While in England I was on a team which went all over England teaching the finer points of the game," he later recalled.

 

Late in 1944, as Allied forces advanced in mainland Europe, Roberge was assigned to Company C, 4th Signal Company. He was wounded during the Roer River crossing at Linnich in Germany on February 14, 1945, and recuperated at a hospital in Belgium.

 

In December 1945, Roberge boarded a troop ship in Marseilles, France, for the 16 day journey back to the United States. He was discharged from the Army on January 8, 1946, and signed the first contract he received from the Braves.

 

He reported to Fort Lauderdale for spring training in February 1946. “Don’t pinch me,” he told The Sporting News on February 21, 1946, “I may wake up and find it is all a dream.”

 

Roberge’s combat injuries, combined with three years away from the game, severely hampered his progress. He played 48 games with the Braves as the start of 1946 and batted .231, while hitting .310 with the Indianapolis Indians of the American Association for the remainder of the season.

 

Roberge never returned to the major leagues but continued to play in the minors with Milwaukee, Indianapolis and Toronto. He quite the game after 1951 and joined the General Electric Company, working with that organization until he retired in 1977. Roberge remained extremely active in baseball by coaching youth teams in his hometown of Lowell, coaching Keith Academy teams, helping form the city’s Babe Ruth youth league and playing for several local softball teams. Furthermore, he regularly bowled and played golf.

 

Suffering from cancer, Skippy Roberge passed away on June 7, 1993, in Lowell, Massachusetts. He was 76 years old.

 

“A lot of people are going to miss Skippy,” said Mike Skaff, former superintendent of Lowell’s Parks and Recreation Department. “Not only was he a good athlete, but he was a very nice person as well. He really helped me out. And, boy, did the kids listen to him because he was in the big leagues.”

 

“Skippy never talked about himself,” his sister, the late Gertrude Marchand told me in 1996. “He did so many good things that we never knew about until after he died. He helped the boys at the boys club in Lowell and at the recreation park where all the kids went. He got them interested in baseball, coached them, formed a team and that was his life.

 

“He was such a humble, quiet man. He helped people and didn’t want people to boast about him. It came from the heart and not for recognition. He was so good to all of us, the family and my mother and father. There are so many good things that he did and we could never find any fault or bad manners about him. He was just an unusual guy and everybody loved him. He was that kind of a man, never complained or talked against anyone. As far as I’m concerned, he is a saint and he is constantly on my mind.”

 

Roberge was inducted in the Lowell Athletic Hall of Fame and on May 19, 1996 – what would have been his 79^th birthday - the local school gym was dedicated to him. “It was such an honor,” explained Gertrude Marchand, “and a day to remember. On the wall of the gym they put a huge oil painting of him and a beautiful plaque with his name on it and reason why he was so loved.”

 

Thanks to Skippy Roberge’s sister, Gertrude Marchand, who helped me with this biography back in 1996. Gertrude passed away in 1998.

  

Created May 26, 2007. Updated January 28, 2008.

 

Copyright © 2008 Gary Bedingfield (Baseball in Wartime). All Rights Reserved.