Phil Roof Finds Happiness Again Beyond the Fields of the International League
Monday, April 9, 2007 at 10:30PM 
Phil Roof throws BP at the Minnesota Twins spring training camp, 2007.
Photo: Brian Ross/MLN Sports
MAJOR BLOGS - www.majorblogs.net - Imagine living in a house that is full, but empty.
A wife wracked with pain from endless bouts of chemo and radiation, and a middle-aged brother-in-law with special needs and special attention.
No one to talk to. No one talking to you.
This was Phil Roof's life for most of 2005. Roof, familiar to International League fans as the skipper for the 2003-2005 seasons of the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings, found out that his beloved wife of 41 years, Marie, was diagnosed with cancer in April and endured months of treatment that left her weak, tired and in pain before she died in December near their Kentucky home.
Phil and Marie were the legal guardians of her then 43-year-old brother, Tommy Klemenz, born with Down Syndrome, who lived with the couple at their in Boaz, Kentucky home. After Marie died, Phil was left to care for Tommy.
Phil is one of the nicest men inside of baseball or out, respected by all who have crossed his path. Baseball was the only thing that he loved nearly as much as Marie.
Roof was signed out of high school by the Milwaukee Braves in 1959 for a then-staggering $35,000 bonus. He played catcher for eight big-league teams from 1961 to 1976, beginning with the Braves and ending with the Toronto Blue Jays. He hit just .215 with 43 homers and 210 RBI in his 857-game career. He stayed in baseball for five decades as a player, then a coach, then as a minor-league manager.
A gentle man with a deep Christian faith, Phil never complained about the hand life dealt him. In fact, he prayed every night for a miracle.
He did not pray to find happiness after Marie, but happiness has found him. Her name is Linda Sanger, and a best friend of his cousin Lucy for six decades.
“Her husband died 10 years ago,’’ Phil says. “She knows what it’s like to lose a spouse. Lucy suggested we meet.’’
They met last July at a wedding reception. Phil was captivated by her warm personality, and her vast knowledge of sports. Linda’s children had attended the University of Kentucky, and she was a huge Wildcats football and basketball fan.
“The sports connection was great,’’ Phil says.
He asked to see her again. She said yes. In November, over dinner, he asked for her hand in marriage. She said yes again.
At first, Phil’s daughters were concerned that it might be too quick.
"I told them, 'I'll be 66 in March. I don't want to wait a long time,’’ Phil says. “I found someone I love and want to marry."
Make no mistake: Marie was his soul mate, his confidante, his lifeline.
Life after Marie was tough. It was just Phil and Tommy now. When he wasn't taking Tommy to daycare, he was reading about the game he left behind on the Internet, or watching big-league games on TV, or attending grief counseling.
"It was awfully lonely,'' he says. “We were married 15,023 days.”
He had contemplated retiring after managing the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings in 2004, but Marie talked him out of it, because she knew how core the game was to Phil’s being.
The Red Wings were 6-7 and visiting Buffalo on April 20, 2005, when Roof got the phone call from home that changed his life forever. It was Marie: An MRI had determined there was cancer in her back and lungs.
Roof immediately left the Red Wings and, in effect, baseball after 46 years. He was back in Kentucky that night and spent the summer caring for Marie at their home. He drove her to her treatments, including a few weeks at the famed Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., a visit expedited by the Minnesota Twins management.
Nothing worked. The cancer spread to Marie’s brain, and in December 2005 she died at age 63, with Phil by her side. She left behind four daughters and seven grandchildren.
A few weeks later, Phil joined a grief counseling group. There, he spotted a 76-year-old man who had lost his wife five years earlier. The man seemed much older than 76 and appeared broken, inconsolable.
“He was down and out,’’ Phil recounts. “I told my daughter, ‘Darla, I am not going to let grief take hold of me like that,’’’ Phil recounts.
He was invited to spring training by the Minnesota Twins, his longtime employer. Then he went home and followed baseball in the sports pages , on the Internet and on television.
That summer, he found Linda. He took her to St. Louis in September for a baseball game between the Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Pirates. Albert Pujols hit three home runs that day, and Phil says “I called every one of them right off the bat.’’
He taught her about the grand old game. She taught him about second chances at love.
The couple was married on Feb. 18. Six days later, Phil was out on the mound throwing BP at the Twins spring training camp as an instructor. He’ll work in Fort Myers for a few weeks, then head home to Kentucky with his bride. They’ll live in the duplex Linda bought last year.
"I wouldn't ask her to come live in my house with all of Marie's possessions there," Roof says respectfully. When asked about his future plans, particularly for the fond Rochester faithful, he will not be returning to baseball.
“We’re going to travel and see the world I bit,” said Roof. “Do the things that I couldn’t do when I was on a baseball schedule all year.”
Tommy has gone to live with his twin, Greg, and his wife Mindy, in Louisville.
“They said it was time for the Klemenzes to step up,’’ says Phil, who will remain Tommy’s legal guardian. ‘I’ll be calling all the time to make sure he’s OK.’’
When the baseball season starts, Phil will do what he did last year. He’ll read the sports pages, surf the Internet and follow the big-league games on TV.
Only this time, he’ll have someone by his side and Marie in his heart.
“I’m a very lucky guy,’’ he says.
Some people around Rochester seem to think that this is too soon, or that he isn’t showing proper respect to Marie getting re-married so quickly. She wanted him to follow his passion, and live his life well. In his remaining years he will get to see the world abroad that he has missed while dedicated to the world of baseball. He will have someone who loves him and will care for him to enrich his life. Phil Roof has given so much to baseball, to Rochester, and most of all to his family. He deserves every bit of happiness that he gets back.
- Jim MANDELARO
Jim Mandelaro, a regular contributor to our electronic magaine, MLN Sports Zone is in his 17th season covering the Rochester Red Wings for the Democrat and Chronicle.
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Reader Comments (2)
The "Phil Roof" aura is pretty remarkable isn't it? Always the professional. Always the gentleman. Always the winner. I loved watching him guide the young men here in Salt Lake City, UT. Thanks for the affirmation that this great man is still loving life after Marie . . .AYT
Thanks for this opportunity to talk a little about Phil. He and my brother played professionally together and Phil was always the gentleman. After my brother passed away, I would see Phil at Spring Training. He always came over to talk to me and my wife, regardless of how busy he was. I was never able to find out what happend to him after 2005, although he did tell me that his wife was quite ill. I tried contacting him through the twins organization but I received no response. I wish him well in his "new" life outside of baseball. He certainly contributed much to the game and I will never forget him.