Roger LaFrancois

Roger Victor LaFrançois (born August 2, 1956 in Norwich, Connecticut) is an American former Major League Baseball catcher who played for the Boston Red Sox 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.

LaFrançois attended Eastern Connecticut State University, the University of Connecticut and the University of Oklahoma. He was selected by the Red Sox in the eighth round of the 1977 Major League Baseball 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.^[1]

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.

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

External links

• Baseball Reference