Remembering Ed Roebuck of the Brooklyn Dodgers

Ever throw a ball or a stone up in the air and try to hit it with a stick on its way down? Difficult, no? Well, there was a kid in the small town of East Millsboro, Pennsylvania, who was better at it than anyone around. With a bat and baseball, he could place the ball anywhere—on the ground or in the air. He could hit it for distance and amazing height. He could also pitch very well. This begins the story of Edwin (Ed) Jack Roebuck, nick-named “King of the Fungoes” born on July 3, 1931.

Roebuck had competition for this article. There was a July shortlist that included Pee Wee Reese and Don Drysdale. They were Dodger stalwarts, certainly of greater fame than Roebuck. But as a writer, how do you pass on someone with that nickname especially when as a teenage ballplayer you couldn’t hit fungoes to save your life?

He was the youngest Roebuck and the only one of six brothers never to follow in his father’s footsteps and work in the coal mines. “My older brother wouldn’t let me.” Roebuck said. “He thought I could do better.” This quote from him about his signing with the Dodgers is from his induction into the Fayette County Hall of Fame. It gives an idea of his early years. “We lived way back in the stick and one day this big, black Buick comes up to the house and I was surprised that he got his car through all the mud and everything. He wanted to take me to Brooklyn and my mother said you’re not taking him anywhere until his brother okays the deal. I had five brothers and three sisters and my one brother Joe said, ‘Go ahead, go with him.’” (Society of American Baseball Research)

Roebuck did do better. He signed with the Dodgers in 1949 after he graduated from Brownsville (Pennsylvania) High School. The 6-foot-2, 185-pound right-hander in 1949 reported to Newport News, a Class B team in the Brooklyn…