1950-1951
BUDDY ROSAR   C

Warren "Buddy" Rosar was born in Buffalo, New York on July 3, 1914. Growing up within blocks of the Buffalo Bisons’ ballpark, Buddy had a great deal of exposure to baseball. Though he pitched some at Buffalo’s East High School from an early age, his primary position was catcher. In 1933, as a senior, Buddy led the East High Panthers to an undefeated season to seize the Cornell Cup, denoting the regional championship.

He also excelled in semipro ball with the Buffalo Karts and in three years of American Legion play, leading the Legion team to state and sectional finals and serving as co-manager in at least one of the three years. In the spring of 1933, shortly before his high-school graduation, the International League Bisons offered Rosar a contract to play for the hometown squad.

Buddy spurned the Bisons’ overture, signing instead with the New York Yankees. He was assigned to the Class A Binghamton (New York) Triplets, but a fractured vertebra, an injury initially sustained in a high-school basketball game, ended his stay with the Triplets. When he recovered, he was reassigned to the Class C Wheeling (West Virginia) Stogies in the Middle Atlantic League. 

In 1935 he was with the Class B Norfolk (Virginia) Tars. Leading the Piedmont League with 26 homers, his .347 average, 29 doubles, and 276 total bases all placed among the circuit leaders. 

In 1936 Buddy advanced to Binghamton. Besides handling the bulk of play behind the plate, thanks to a rash of injuries to his teammates, he saw occasional duty at the infield corners. Though the homers dropped off precipitously, Buddy hit home runs in double digits in just one more season. His .344 average and 35 doubles again placed among the league leaders. 

In 1937 Buddy was promoted to the Newark Bears and the Bears won the International League pennant by 25 1/2 games. Eight decades later are still considered one of the greatest minor-league teams ever.

As the 1938 backup to future HOF catcher Bill Dickey, Buddy was slowed in his advance after he sustained another split finger in spring training. He was reassigned to Newark and flirted with a .400 average throughout most of the year and his season-ending .387 led all Double-A hitters.

In 1939, he made it to the Yankees, but got a mere 11 at-bats through the first 69 games of the season. Bill Dickey was batting .212, so Buddy earned more playing time through the end of the season. He finished his rookie season with a .276 BA.

In 1940 he began receiving more play, before another split hand in May, sidelined him for 25 games. He surged to a .347 batting average in September. Though he more than doubled his plate appearances from the preceding year, these offensive displays were still played out in the shadow of Bill Dickey. This would remain so over the next two years as Dickey’s playing career wound down.  In 1941, Buddy and Dickey were both on hand at New York’s Polo Grounds on the AL All-Star Game squad.

After a July home win against the Chicago White Sox, Buddy bolted the Yankees, without permission, to take the police entrance exam and be present for the expected birth of his son. Manager Joe McCarthy may have shown more leniency toward the new father had Bill Dickey not been nursing an injury. Angered by Buddy’s absence, team president Ed Barrow threatened to trade him, but settled on a $1,000 fine.

In December, he was traded to the Indians. After flirting with a .300 average through June 1943, her got a second consecutive All-Star Game berth and finished the season with a .283 BA.

During the offseason Buddy worked at a war materiel factory in Buffalo, a position he refused to vacate in the spring of 1944. He worked at a local plant during the day and joined the club at night and on weekends, both home and away. Though he scheduled his vacation days to accompany the Indians on several road trips, player-manager Lou Boudreau was still not pleased with the part-time arrangement. 

The winter of 1944-45 played out nearly the same way. Amid rumors of a trade to the Browns, Buddy returned to the Buffalo factory, again threatened to retire from baseball. For the second consecutive year he refused to report to spring training, as the Indians dangled him before other clubs. He was traded to the Philadelphia Athletics in May 1945. When the season ended, the war was over and the defense job was no longer an option for him. 

In 1946 he reported to spring training for the first time in three years. His strong Grapefruit League campaign contributed to an equally strong year, as Buddy became one of the consistent bright lights, in the debacle that was the Athletics’ 105-loss season. For the first of two consecutive seasons he led the league in caught stealing and assists by a catcher. For the first of three consecutive years, and the first time in his career, Rosar played in the All Star Game. And for the first of two straight years, he earned a smattering of consideration for the AL Most Valuable Player award. 

But in 1947 injuries began to overtake the aging catcher. Despite two more All-Star selections, he played fewer games in each year. In October 1949, he was traded to the Red Sox and earning the bulk of the backstop duties, but missed more than two weeks with a broken hand. Within days after the season ended, the Red Sox released him.

The veteran catcher returned to the hamlet of Eggertsville, New York, his home outside Buffalo. Despite his age, he was not ready to retire, so the following spring, he worked out with the Buffalo Bisons hoping to attract major-league interest. 

After holding down a variety of offseason occupations as a factory worker, dairy-truck driver and, in the 1940s, a New York Central Railroad policeman, he went to work as an engineer at the Ford Motor Company plant in Buffalo.

In 1960 the National Baseball Hall of Fame received Buddy's catchers mitt to commemorate both the longest tie game in AL history, played on July 21, 1945, in which her caught the entire 24 innings, and the Art Fowler's no-hitter, which he also caught, two months later. In 1963 he was in Cleveland Stadium to commemorate the 1948 world champion Indians in an Old Timer’s exhibition.

Buddy Rosar passed away on March 13, 1994, in Rochester, NY at age 79.