Jean-Pierre Roy Then

Name

DOB

Birthplace

Uniform #

Jean-Pierre Roy

06/26/1920

Montreal, Canada

34

I went straight to SABR to read about Jean-Pierre Roy because I had read the bio project in the SABR website http://sabr.org.   Rory Costello wrote this one too just like the prior one on Olmo.

What interesting lives these men have led.  They played in  the US, Canada, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Venezuela and let’s not forget serving their country.    If they were not holding other jobs in the offseason they were off to play elsewhere in the Winter Fall, any time!

This French-Canadian played just three big-league games in his career but he like Rory Costello says “hopscotched” around Cuba, Mexico, Brooklyn and Montreal

I would like to read more about this Mexican magnate Jorge Pasquel and his brother who raided the American leagues luring players to jump to the Mexican leagues.   Roy jumped but he never played because he was not eligible.  But back in Cuba, other men were.  Guilty by association got him suspended from Organized Baseball in 1947.

For this “Ladies Man” it was joining and rejoining teams in Canada, US, Cuba (one of his favorite places), Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and even Panama.  From this SABR Biography project at:  http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/154a8e59

For the 1950 summer season, Roy rejoined Hollywood, where he went 2-2, 4.09. Off the field, he was also performing for a different crowd. The suave crooner’s nightclub act included numbers in English, Spanish, and French — “things like ‘Bésame Mucho,’ which was popular at the time, and ‘La Vie en Rose.'” Jean-Pierre recalled to Ronald King in 2004, “The manager, Fred Haney, didn’t like that. So I bought back my contract and went elsewhere.” [40]

Even Luis Olmo then Manager in Santiago, Cuba invited him but he slipped in the dugout and hurt his elbow.  He went back to Montreal where he made one last fling with the Provincial League in 1955.

Jean-Pierre now

from the SABR article:

In 1956, Roy did some TV broadcasting for the Royals on CBF-TV. [47] He’d previously noted his intention to continue his nightclub singing career. Perhaps it was on a related note that he moved to Las Vegas, where he spent roughly 10 or 11 years in jobs ranging from croupier to real-estate agent.

In 1968 when the Montreal Expos joined the National League, Jean-Pierre became an analyst on both radio and Television.

From the same SABR Biography project on Roy:

Since retiring, the elder statesman of Montréal baseball has received several honors. In July 1995, he was inducted into the Expos Hall of Fame, and the Québec Sports Pantheon did likewise that September. In April 2001, the Québec Baseball Hall of Fame followed suit.

These days Roy spends his winters in Pompano Beach, Florida. He and his wife, Jane Duval Roy (his prior marriage ended with no children) head back north to Canada from May to October. There they live in the town of Nicolet, across the St. Lawrence from Trois-Rivières. Jean-Pierre has been working on an autobiography, and it will surely be a pleasure to hear this raconteur tell his own stories in full.

Read the rest of the Biography  Jean-Pierre Roy from SABR.   Is a fascinating read.

ref: SABR.org