Roger LaFrancois

Roger Victor LaFrançois (born August 2, 1956 in Norwich, Connecticut) is an American former professional baseball player. He played for the Boston Red Sox of the Major League Baseball (MLB) as a catcher in 1982. Listed at 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) tall and 215 pounds (98 kg), he batted left-handed and threw right-handed. He spent the entire 1982 season on Boston's MLB roster, but played infrequently as a third-string catcher behind Gary Allenson and Rich Gedman.

Roger LaFrançois
Catcher
Born: (1956-08-02) August 2, 1956
Norwich, Connecticut
Batted: Left
Threw: Right
MLB debut
May 27, 1982, for the Boston Red Sox
Last MLB appearance
October 3, 1982, for the Boston Red Sox
MLB statistics
Batting average.400
Hits4
RBI1
Teams

Career

LaFrançois attended Eastern Connecticut State University, the University of Connecticut and the University of Oklahoma. In 1975 and 1976, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Orleans Cardinals of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL), and was named a league all-star in 1976.[1][2] He was selected by the Red Sox in the eighth round of the 1977 MLB draft and spent five seasons in their farm system before his 1982 promotion.

In his eight-game MLB career, LaFrançois was a .400 hitter (4-for-10) with four hits one RBI, one run, one double, and a .500 slugging percentage. He started one game at catcher, the final regular season contest on October 3, 1982, against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. LaFrançois went two-for-five, scoring the decisive run as the Red Sox won, 5–3, in 11 innings.[3]

LaFrançois played two more seasons in the minor leagues before retiring as an active player. Since, he has been a manager in the Montreal Expos' farm system and a batting instructor at the minor-league level for several organizations, as well as for the independent league Worcester Tornadoes. In 1986, he returned to the CCBL as catching and pitching coach for the Harwich Mariners.[4]

As of 2016, LaFrançois was serving as the hitting coach for the State College Spikes of the New York–Penn League, Short Season–A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals.

References
  1. "Major League Baseball Players From the Cape Cod League" (PDF). capecodbaseball.org. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
  2. "All Star Team Picked". Barnstable Patriot. Barnstable, MA. July 22, 1976. p. 8.
  3. "Boston Red Sox 5, New York Yankees 3". Retrosheet. October 3, 1982.
  4. Goff, Alex (July 31, 1986). "Harwich Mariner Coach Roger LaFrancois". The Cape Cod Chronicle. Chatham, MA. p. 43.

Further reading
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