A Hero’s Reward for Fregosi

Bobby Knoop played next to Jim Fregosi for five years. They were more than just the keystone components of a slick double-play combination, though. They were roommates during the season and hunting and fishing partners in the off-season.

Ask Knoop, now the Angel first base coach, how he remembers Fregosi and he’ll tell you about sail fishing in Mexico or deer hunting in Colorado. But then he says, “Of course, I’ll always think of Jimmy as a player.”

Fregosi, who played shortstop for the Angels from 1961 to 1971 and managed the team from June of 1978 through May of 1981, was inducted into the Angel hall of fame Wednesday night. And on an evening dripping with glowing praise, Knoop’s assessment of his longtime friend might not sound like much . . . unless you get an explanation.

“Most people use the term player as a noun,” Knoop said, “but if I say a guy’s a player , I’m using it more like an adjective. It describes the things the outstanding people in this business do, day in and day out, on and off the field. It’s physical ability but, more important, it’s presence.”

There was a great deal of talk Wednesday about Fregosi’s accomplishments in 18 years of major league service--his six trips to the All-Star game, his three Angel most valuable player awards, his No. 1 spot on the Angels’ all-time hits list with 1,408--but Fregosi would just as soon be remembered as a “player” . . . Knoop’s definition, of course.

“I took great pride in playing every day, injured, hurt, I won’t mention hung over,” said Fregosi, who averaged more than 155 games a year during one eight-year stretch. “No matter what else happened, I hustled. I broke up double plays. I ran out ground balls.”

So it’s not surprising that Fregosi’s fondest memories of his decade as an Angel player revolve around team achievements. Pressed to come up with a single individual feat that was special, Fregosi recalled his home run in an exhibition game against the Giants on Anaheim Stadium’s opening night.

“Willie Mays hit the first home run in the park,” he said, “but I hit the first Angel homer. It was in the ninth and we came back to win.

“The statistics, the All-Star performances and the individual accomplishments are nice when you’re playing, but they all run together when you get older. When I look back for highlights, I remember 1962, when we were an expansion club that wasn’t supposed to do well and we won 86 games. Or 1979, when we were division champs.”

Many of the fans at Wednesday night’s pregame ceremony have their own recollections of Fregosi, including Bobby Grich, who was the first--and only other--in the Angel hall of fame.

“I remember coming here as an 18-year-old and watching my hero,” said Grich, then a shortstop at Long Beach Wilson High School. “Of course, he was everybody’s favorite shortstop then.”

Well, not everybody’s. Fregosi’s second wife, Joni, wasn’t exactly a fan.

“She didn’t even know I played,” Fregosi said. “When we found out about this, she figured I must have done something right.”

Fregosi, 47, once was consumed by baseball but now spends his time golfing, fishing and changing diapers (he and Joni have a 4-month-old daughter, Nicole).

Still, he would gladly put the golf clubs and fishing poles in the garage and hand the talcum powder to Joni if he got another chance to manage. He has applied for the vacancy created in Toronto when Jimy Williams was fired.

“I came to the Angels when I was 18 or 19 years old, played here for 11 years and when I got traded (to the Mets in 1972), my feelings were hurt,” Fregosi said. “Then I came back in ’78 as manager and my biggest thrill in baseball was when we won the division in ’79. But I was very upset when I was fired as manager.

“Hopefully, when you get adversity in this game, you learn from it. I think I was a better manager the second time I managed (with the Chicago White Sox). And the third time, I’ll be better than the second.”

Fregosi could go on to win a roomful of manager of the year awards, but he always will be just “a player” to Knoop.

Knoop: “Those of us who had the pleasure of playing with Jimmy know that no Angel, past or present, deserves this honor more than he does.”