Joseph Albert Armand "Skippy" Roberge (May 19, 1917 – June 7, 1993) was an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player, an

infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field, between first base and third base. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns pla ...

whose professional career lasted for ten seasons between 1939 and 1952 (with 1943–1945 missed due to military service during World War II) and included 177

games played Games played (GP) is a statistic used in team sports to indicate the total number of games in which a player has participated (in any capacity); the statistic is generally applied irrespective of whatever portion of the game is contested. Associat ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

for the

Boston Braves The Boston Braves were a Major League Baseball club that originated in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, and played from 1871 to 1952. Afterwards they moved to History of the Atlanta Braves#Milwaukee, Milwaukee (and became the Milwaukee Braves). ...

(1941–1942; 1946).

Early years

Skippy Roberge was born in

Lowell, Massachusetts Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, United States. Alongside Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, it is one of two traditional county seat, seats of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in ...

, on May 19, 1917.Baseball-almanac.com
/ref> He attended Keith Academy, now part of Lowell Catholic High School, from 1933 to 1937,Lowelcatholic.org
/ref> where he was the football quarterback, All-American forward for the basketball team, and shortstop and pitcher for the baseball team.
/ref> He did not attend college. After high school, Roberge joined a semi-pro baseball team in the Lowell Twilight League, and the Lowell

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

basketball team, where he played until 1938 when he tried out for the Braves, then nicknamed the Boston Bees.

Manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

Casey Stengel Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel (; July 30, 1890 – September 29, 1975) was an American Major League Baseball right fielder and Manager (baseball), manager, best known as the manager of the championship New York Yankees of the 1950s and later, t ...

liked what he saw and assigned Roberge to a Class D farm team, the Bradford Bees, for 1939. The next year, in 1940, Roberge moved up to the Class B team, the

Evansville Bees Evansville is a city in Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 118,414 at the 2020 census, it is Indiana's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the most populous city in S ...

, then to the Class A team, the Hartford Bees, before entering the Majors.

Baseball career

Roberge was a right-handed backup utility

Infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field, between first base and third base. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns pla ...

for the

from 1941 to 1942, 1946. Listed at , he made his Major League debut at the age of 24. He never started a game, but finished his career with 508 at-bats and a .220 batting average, with 3 home runs. *1941 (55 games): 15 RBIs, .216 batting average. *1942 (74 games): 12 RBIs, .215 batting average. *1943–1945: Roberge served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

during World War II (see below). *1946 (48 games): 20 RBIs, .231 batting average. All in all, Roberge batted in 177 games with a career slugging percentage of .283. He also fielded in 163 games with 17 errors, and a .972 fielding percentage.

Military service

Roberge served with the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

Company C, 52d Infantry Regiment (Anti-Tank), 4th Signal Battalion with the rank of

Technician Fifth Grade Technician fifth grade (abbreviated T/5 or Tec 5) was a rank of the United States Army from 1942 to 1948. The rank was created to recognize enlisted soldiers with special technical skills, but who were not trained as combat leaders. History ...

. The first few months while stationed in England, he played and taught baseball as part of a traveling squad around England. But in late 1944, as the Allied Forces advanced, Roberge was sent to the front lines, where he was wounded in the

Roer River The Roer (, ) or Rur (; ) is a major river that flows through portions of Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. It is a right (eastern) tributary to the Meuse (). About 90 percent of the river's course is in Germany. It is not to be conf ...

crossing at

Linnich Linnich is a town in the district of Düren in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the River Rur (Roer river), approx. 10 km north-west of Jülich. Economy Linnich is the home of SIG Combibloc, the specialist fo ...

, Germany, on February 14, 1945, which earned him the

Purple Heart The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the president to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, ...

. Roberge was discharged in December 1945.

Later years

Even though his war wound hindered his return to the majors, Roberge continued to play baseball in the minor leagues. He briefly retired from the game for the 1951 season, but spent one final season in the minors playing for the Double-A

Little Rock Travelers The Little Rock Travelers were an American minor league baseball team located in Little Rock, Arkansas, and members (1902–1910, 1915–1958, 1960–1961) of the Southern Association, which as a Class A, A1 or Double-A circuit was typically tw ...

in 1952 before leaving professional baseball at the age of 35. He then worked the next 22 years back in his hometown at the

General Electric Company The General Electric Company (GEC) was a major British industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and Arms industry, defence electronics, communications, and engineering. It was originally founded in 1886 as G. Binswanger and Company as an e ...

, while coaching local youth leagues. Roberge was inducted into the Lowell Catholic High School's Athletic Hall of Fame. Roberge died in his hometown of Lowell on June 7, 1993, at the age of 76, and is buried in St. Joseph Cemetery in Lowell.

References

Baseballinwartime.com
Family Article. {{DEFAULTSORT:Roberge, Skippy 1917 births 1993 deaths United States Army personnel of World War II Boston Braves players Bradford Bees players Evansville Bees players Hartford Bees players Indianapolis Indians players Little Rock Travelers players Major League Baseball infielders Milwaukee Brewers (minor league) players Baseball players from Lowell, Massachusetts Toronto Maple Leafs (International League) players United States Army non-commissioned officers