Roger Deal never got to play baseball as a kid but for decades he was one of the best-known baseball coaches in Aurora.
He coached hundreds of kids, including his four sons and others who went on to careers in baseball.
Deal was 66 when he died at an Aurora hospice Monday after a long battle with cancer.
Among other things, Deal read books and watched TV to learn how to coach.
“He taught me how to throw a baseball,” said Dean Adams, baseball coach at Grandview High School in Aurora.
Deal “was passionate, he never embarrassed anyone. He knew the right time to praise and the right time to criticize,” said Adams who coaches with one of Deal’s sons, Tim.
Deal’s growing-up years were tough. He came from a broken home and was shifted around by family members.
In fact “he was a hot-rodder” when Carol Pezak met him at the Peppermint Cave, a disco in the Olin Hotel on Capitol Hill.
She was at a table with six other girls and he asked her to dance.
He was a good dancer and “it was instant for both of us,” she said.
Roger Deal was crazy about transforming old cars into hot rods, she said, “but he really wasn’t very good at it. He sold his dream hot rod for $40 and he was paid in pennies,” she recalled.
Roger Deal got serious when he married and they started a family.
His 30-year working career was as an inventory control man in a Safe way warehouse.
But his spare time was devoted to baseball. “I think his own childhood was depressing and he wanted his kids and other kids to have something else,” said his son, Ken Deal, chief deputy U.S. marshal for Colorado.
Deal’s other passions were entering contests. He filled out blanks every week from a sweepstakes magazine, always entering someone else’s name.
“I remember a package arriving for me, and it was 1,200 razor blades,” said Ken Deal.
One son won a trip to a baseball training camp and another time Deal’s entry won 12,000 golf balls.
Roger Deal was born in Omaha on Dec. 17, 1940. He went to high school there and in Golden.
He married Carol Pezak on Nov. 2, 1960.
In addition to his wife and sons, Deal is survived by two other sons: John Deal and Randy Deal, both of Aurora, and six grandchildren. He taught them to play baseball too.
