Dave laroche biography

Hall of Fame staffers are also baseball fans and love to share their stories. Here is a fan's perspective from Cooperstown.

You can gauge a little bit about the age of a fan, and what generation he or she comes from, by using certain names in baseball history.

Say the name “LaRoche” to younger fans, and they will almost certainly turn to thoughts of Adam LaRoche, the now retired first baseman who played for the Chicago White Sox, Washington Nationals, and the Atlanta Braves, among other teams. But say the name “LaRoche” to a fan who is 50 or older, like me, and thoughts will gravitate to the father of Adam, former big league reliever Dave LaRoche.

If we continue the theme of word association, the name of Dave LaRoche conjures up images of blooper or “eephus” pitches. All these years later, more than three decades after he retired from pitching, the blooper pitch is what we seem to best remember about LaRoche. In a way, that’s a good thing, because the pitch is fun to watch, almost comical in nature, and brings immediate smiles to our faces. In another way, it’s somewhat unfortunate, because Dave LaRoche assembled a fine career that encompassed far more than a gimmick pitch he threw a few times in the early 1980s.

In 1983, Topps