His career derailed by his bonus player status, military service and injury, he appeared in 227 games played over all or parts of eight years in Major League Baseball as a utilityman for the Milwaukee Braves (1953–54 and 1957–61), Chicago Cubs (1961) and Philadelphia Phillies (1962).

Roach was born in Richmond, Virginia and attended John Marshall High School;[1] he threw and batted right-handed and was listed as 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall and 190 pounds (86 kg).

Over the next two months he got into 39 games, largely as a backup to Hall of Fame second baseman Red Schoendienst, and was hitting .309 with 42 hits and three home runs on August 3 when Daryl Spencer of the San Francisco Giants slid hard into Roach at second base, badly injuring Roach's left knee.

Although the knee injury didn't end Roach's career, as had been initially feared,[1] his diminished infield range damaged his chances of regular second base duty.

In all or parts of his eight MLB seasons, Roach played in 227 games and had 499 at-bats, 42 runs, 119 hits, 25 doubles, seven home runs, 43 RBI, one stolen base, 24 walks, .238 batting average, .275 on-base percentage, .331 slugging percentage, 165 total bases and nine sacrifice hits.