Experience in Minors Causes Major Changes in Ex-Angel Manager : Fregosi Has New Outlook

He was the prodigal son returning to manage the California Angels. Gene Autry’s favorite. The shortstop and clubhouse leader for 10 of his 18 major league seasons.

“I thought it was my club; I thought I would manage the Angels forever,” Jim Fregosi said the other day.

The Angels foreclosed on forever in May of 1981.

He was dismissed just 2 1/2 years after his managerial appointment.

The resulting hurt and bitterness, the feelings of betrayal, have dissolved amid what Fregosi calls a growth, maturity and better understanding of the baseball business.

He is now the manager of the Chicago White Sox, knowing this time that he was hired to be fired.

Fregosi is now 44. He’s older, wiser and coming off 3 1/2 years as a dues-paying manager of the Louisville Redbirds of the American Assn. He can look back and say he shouldn’t have been given the Angel job to start with, that he was too immature, couldn’t cope with problems and still carried too much of a “player’s mentality.”

“If there was anything I could change, I really believe I would have gone to the minor leagues to manage first,” he said. “I’m much better prepared and qualified now. I really feel there’s nothing I can’t handle.”

That premise will be tested. The White Sox have been something of a traveling sideshow, not to mention a team of suspect ability. Ken Harrelson, the vice president of baseball operations, said of the Sox: “We’re not an outstanding baseball team, but no one else in the division is outstanding either. We are good enough to contend. There’s no doubt about that.”

Distracted, perhaps, by the long simmering uncertainty over Manager Tony LaRussa, the daily debate as to where Tom Seaver would be traded and the recent firing of a popular executive, assistant general manager Dave Dombrowski, the White Sox were 26-38 when LaRussa was fired 10 days ago.

They have since won 5 of 7 for Fregosi, whose contract gives him until the end of the ’87 season to fulfill some of his boss’ expectations.

Said Harrelson: “I don’t really think Jimmy has a chance to be a good manager. I think he has a chance to be a great manager.”

Chance? There is this certainty: Fregosi has a chance to right a teetering ship in a toddlin’ town that responds with passion to the Cubs and White Sox. The team he manages has won only one American League pennant in his 44 years. The situation he inherits can only get better, or so it seems. There’s the inevitable pressure, of course, but he is no longer the favorite son returning to manage the hometown team. Now, too, he knows a little more about himself and a whole lot more about forever.

Four years before the arrival of another Italian shortstop named Rico Petrocelli, the Boston Red Sox failed to protect James Anthony Fregosi in the 1961 expansion draft.

Fregosi was selected by the fledgling Angels and made his major league debut in September at 19. He did not return to the minors until 1983, when he accepted the Louisville managerial job.

Often the Angels only link to respectability, Fregosi batted at least .277 six times in 10 seasons, appeared in six All-Star games, kept an eye on the way Bill Rigney managed, played hard on and off the field and was basically past his peak when traded to the New York Mets in 1971 for Nolan Ryan.

Autry had already weighed the idea of making Fregosi his player-manager and said publicly that it seemed inevitable Fregosi would manage the club one day.

But it was not until June of ‘79, when Fregosi was a utility player for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Autry was publicly dissatisfied with the unemotional leadership of Dave Garcia, that the Cowboy got his man.

In less than 24 hours, Fregosi moved from the bench at Three Rivers Stadium to the manager’s desk at Anaheim Stadium, where he seemed to make an immediate impact.

The spirited Angels finished second in ‘78, then won their first ever division title in ‘79, losing the playoff with Baltimore in four games. After that, Buzzie Bavasi, then general manager, made the biggest mistake of his mistake-riddled administration, by allowing Nolan Ryan to leave as a free agent.

The loss of Ryan compounded April injuries to Brian Downing and Don Baylor, the most damaging of an endless summer of injuries. The Angels ultimately finished sixth in 1980, 30 games under .500, a stunning disappointment. It was during the ensuing winter that Gene Mauch joined the club as director of player personnel, a phantom position that seemed to undermine Fregosi’s confidence and will.

Fregosi became more suspicious and convinced that the front office included a group of second-guessers--Mauch, Bavasi and Don Drysdale, who was then an Angel broadcaster and is now with the White Sox. Fregosi withdrew, waiting for the inevitable without resistance. The press found him unapproachable, the players unemotional and uncommunicative.

Said a player at the time, responding to the daily debate over Fregosi’s status:

“They’ve simply laid so much BS on Jimmy that he’s now finally given up.”

The firing came on May 28. Mauch took over with the Angels 22-25.

There were no miracles. The Angels went 29-34 over the rest of that split season.

“They brought me back as a 36-year-old man and treated me as if I was still the 17-year-old kid,” Fregosi said in October of 1981.

He said that he would never again work for Autry and criticized the front office for creating an environment that diluted his authority. He went on to blast the organization for its historical absence of continuity in personnel and philosophy.

Now, 4 1/2 years later, displaying his new perspective, Fregosi reflected on those remarks and called them “foolish.”

“My feelings were hurt,” he said. “My Italian blood was flowing. It’s all in the past. I mean, I had some bad feelings at the time, but it was simply a case of immaturity. I hope I still have some good friends in that organization.

“One of the first calls I got after taking the White Sox job was from Autry. I got a telegram from Mike Port wishing me good luck except on the dates we played the Angels.

“People have asked me what my thoughts will be going back to play the Angels and all I can really say is that it’s just another club. I want to beat them all. I particularly want to beat the Angels if they’re in first place.”

That’s the way it is as the White Sox open a three-game series at Anaheim Stadium tonight. It’s Fregosi vs. Mauch, but don’t look for a feud. Louisville was a transfusion for the bad blood.

But was he second guessed?

“I was being beat on from all sides, but I can see now how that’s part of the game,” Fregosi said. “It’s natural, the way it is. The important thing is how you handle the outside influences, not what they are. I mean, you can’t be distracted from what you have to do. You work hard, give an honest effort.

“Now I’m better prepared to do that. I had a lot to learn but didn’t realize it then.

“I thought I was a big-league manager when I was with the Angels but I know now I wasn’t.

“I mean, it came so quickly and easily at first.

“Then when things went bad I couldn’t adjust. I wasn’t mature enough to handle it. I withdrew. I withdrew from the press and the people around me who were trying to help. Instead of being myself I went into a shell. You can’t manage in a shell.”

He managed one winter in Puerto Rico, but that was a vacation rather than schooling.

It wasn’t until he went to Louisville that he had both the time and inclination to sort it out.

Among his realizations:

--He was trying to be too much like a player. To manage successfully “you can’t be one of the boys. I mean, I’m still a players’ manager as long as the players do what I want, but whether they like me or not doesn’t mean a damn thing to me now.”

--He was wrong in failing to establish rules for the Angels. The White Sox have a curfew and dress code. In addition, the players are not allowed to remain in the clubhouse during a game.

“The way I handled it before was BS,” Fregosi said. “I’m a much stronger believer in discipline now.

“If you have it in life, it probably carries over to the field. Veterans and kids both, I think everyone needs direction. . . . I think they need it, and that the majority want it.”

--He had been managing, in great measure, for himself, but now has a better grip on how a chain-of-command works and an organization functions.

“We had an eight-game lead when the Cardinals called up six players in one week,” Fregosi said. “You learn to adjust instead of making excuses. If I had a player hurt when I was with the Angels, it was like I was hurt.

“That one year when we had all those injuries (1980) . . . well, instead of adjusting, I felt sorry for myself and used it as an excuse.”

Fregosi also believes that his previous impetuosity has yielded to patience, that he has become a better teacher and is considerably more knowledgeable about the pivotal topic of pitching, having lacked a full-time pitching coach at Louisville.

“I believe that pitching is my strength now,” he said.

It was Fregosi who supervised Todd Worrell’s switch from starter to reliever last year at Louisville and the earlier move by Terry Pendleton from second base to third. Of the 25 Cardinals on last year’s World Series roster, Fregosi managed 17. It would have been 18 except that Vince Coleman was injured in a freak accident involving a tarp roller before the Series started.

“As fantastic as Jimmy has been for baseball in Louisville, he’s done even more for the players in the Cardinal organization,” Mo Mozzali, the Cardinals’ chief scout, told the Chicago Sun-Times recently. “I’ve never seen anybody better working with young players.”

Said Dyar Miller, who pitched under Fregosi in California and is now a roving instructor with the Cardinals:

“The biggest change I’ve seen in him is his patience. Before, he didn’t have a lot of tolerance for guys who didn’t know how to do things right. He couldn’t understand why they made silly mistakes. Now he’s a lot more patient with everybody.”

The Fregosi Redbirds won the American Assn.’s pennant playoff in two of his three years, losing the third year in he final game after leading the league in wins.

In 1983, his first year, the Redbirds became the first minor league team ever to draw more than 1 million in attendance.

Obviously good for Louisville, Louisville was obviously good for Fregosi. His salary, paid jointly by the Cardinals and A. Ray Smith, the Louisville owner, was a reported $90,000, highest in minor league history. He received major league meal money. He had a weekly TV show and was provided with a car, a condominium, a country club membership and a box at Churchill Downs.

The recently divorced Fregosi also fell in love in Louisville and plans to marry nightclub manager Joni Dunn later this year. Though he still has business ties in Southern California and will spend his winter there part of the time, he will also spend part of the winter in Louisville, his new Kentucky home.

The lucrative arrangement with the Redbirds was one reason why Fregosi could be selective in response to a series of coaching and managerial feelers over the last 3 1/2 years. He also told friends that he felt the Angels, in response to his remarks after being fired, discouraged clubs from contacting him, portraying him as a malcontent and something of a bad person away from the field.

Blackballed?

“I thought it at times but I don’t believe it now,” Fregosi said. “I’d say that I was the one who delayed my time coming back to the big leagues because I didn’t actively pursue any major league opportunities. I didn’t want to make a commitment unless the club made a commitment to me (in the form of a multi-year contract).

“I wanted to be in the right situation where everyone was working toward the same goal. I always felt that if I had stayed one more year in Louisville (becoming fully vested in the Busch pension), I’d have probably stayed five more until I was 50, then gone out and tried to get a big league job.”

Whitey Herzog, whose stature as the Cardinal manager made it unlikely that Fregosi could have advanced in the St. Louis system, said the White Sox have made an attractive acquisition.

“There’s no question about Jimmy’s managing ability or knowledge of the game,” Herzog said. “He beat me out by three games in 1979 (when Herzog managed the Kansas City Royals) and was one of the reasons I was fired.

“Now I think he’s grown up a lot and matured. I think he realizes that you can’t be as close to the players as he tried to be. Of course, that was a tough situation (with the Angels) because he was asked to manage so many of players he had played with.

“But I think he’s also learned to understand and evaluate players. He certainly did a good job with our young people. All the kids we’ve brought up say he was fair and handled them well.

“And he has enough experience that he’s not going to be intimidated by the veteran players.”

Herzog said that he also feels Fregosi is handling himself better.

“It’s one thing to have a good time but you can’t go to the park with bloodshot eyes every day,” Herzog said. “Jimmy has settled down a lot and that will help him get the respect of the players.”

Fregosi got Hawk Harrelson’s respect when they were both playing in the American League.

“We were never that close but you couldn’t help admiring the way he played,” Harrelson said. “He was a hard-nosed guy who gave 100%. He might go only 1 for 4, but that one hit would beat you. He was a money player and I look for him to be the same way as a manager.

“I’ve seen only five or six great managerial jobs and the one Jimmy did in 1979, winning with all those injuries, was one of them.

“He was a different guy the next year, but that’s not unusual with a young manager. The ability was there, he just needed the experience. He went out and paid his dues for 3 1/2 years.”

Harrelson, having just replaced popular Roland Hemond, a longtime LaRussa friend and supporter, said he first considered Fregosi last October when he wasn’t sure LaRussa would return amid a series of innovative changes that included:

Separate pitching coaches for starters and relievers, separate hitting coaches for sluggers and contact hitters, the appointment of Drysdale as part-time pitching instructor and the hiring of a battery of former players, including Alvin Dark, Dick Allen, Bob Bailey and Jose Cardenal, as front-office executives or roving instructors.

It was and is Harrelson’s theory that you can never have enough input, that no one man knows everything. LaRussa didn’t like it, but he stayed. The ensuing friction and distraction proved that LaRussa’s retention was a mistake, a fact that both Harrelson and LaRussa acknowledged last week, when Fregosi was hired.

“We should have done this in October,” Harrelson said, adding that Fregosi’s hiring represented “a new day in our organization” and “the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle as far as what we’re trying to do at the major league level.”

LaRussa, ironically, recommended Fregosi’s hiring to co-owner Jerry Reinsdorf approximately three weeks ago, when the likelihood of his firing resurfaced.

Now Harrelson has his man, and their fate and future seem intertwined.

Ron Kittle, one of several players to have ripped management for its public handling of the LaRussa situation, said the indecision should have been dealt with quicker but now, at least, “the apprehension (as to what was going to happen) is gone and the air has been cleared.”

“I don’t know a lot about Fregosi but I was impressed by the way he came out and said that he had been too young before, that he had made mistakes (managing the Angels) and that he had gone out and tried to learn from them,” Kittle said.

Fregosi learned the other day that he needs glasses, a sure sign of . . . well, maturity. His new look will also include uniform No. 16, his familiar 11 having been retired by the White Sox in tribute to Hall of Fame shortstop Luis Aparicio.

The only thing that counts, of course, is what’s in the uniform. Fregosi said he will need time to make his evaluation. He inherited LaRussa’s coaching staff but has the authority to change it. There will be no decision on that until the season ends, he said. The players?

“I like what I’ve seen so far,” he said. “Our only players over 30 are Julio Cruz and Carlton Fisk. The kids are conscientious. They play hard and have some talent.

“I’ve told them that I only give up on players when they give up on themselves. We’ve cleared the air and can go from there. If you get to .500, you can play in this division. That’s the uphill fight right now.”

Apparently, that’s the only fight right now. Fregosi said he knows who the boss is and how the chain of command works. He said he wouldn’t have accepted the job if he didn’t subscribe to what Ken Harrelson is trying to do. He said he will draw from all of those around him, not only his uniformed coaches but the shirt and tie coaches of the broadcasting booth, Don Drysdale and Del Crandall.

Forever?

Fregosi will take it a day at a time, knowing now that’s how it works, confident now he can handle it, convinced he is where he belongs.

“I enjoyed it, I learned from it, but I spent 3 1/2 years in the minors and don’t want to go back,” he said.