Q & A WITH JIM FREGOSI : Angel Hall of Fame Member Recalls Good Times, and the Not-So-Good

The Angel Hall of Fame doubled its roll call last week when former shortstop and manager Jim Fregosi became only the second player to join its ranks. It was an appropriate, if not overdue choice, considering that Fregosi was a player during the team’s infancy and a manager during one of its finest moments, a division title in 1979.

Fregosi was drafted by the Angels in 1960 and soon established himself as the club’s leader and one of its most consistent performers. In his 11 seasons with the Angels, Fregosi was selected to six All-Star teams and earned one Gold Glove. Even now, he holds Angel records in at-bats, hits and triples. You can find him in second place in games played, runs, doubles, extra-base hits and total bases. In short, a record to be admired.

In 1978, Angel owner Gene Autry offered Fregosi the chance of a lifetime: Come back to California and manage the team he once played for. Fregosi couldn’t refuse.

The results were mixed. Fregosi led the Angels to their first division title in 1979, but two seasons later, he was presented with a pink slip. Injuries and a slow start contributed to his dismissal, as did his inability to communicate with players and media alike.

Since then, Fregosi has spent four seasons managing the highly successful Louisville minor league team, where he finished first twice, and then was chosen to manage a not-so-successful Chicago White Sox, who finished fifth each of the three seasons Fregosi was there. He was fired after the 1988 season.

Fregosi persists. He has applied for the Toronto Blue Jay managing vacancy and says the years have taught him much. After his recent induction ceremony at Anaheim Stadium, Fregosi, accompanied by his wife, Joni, and 4-month-old daughter, Nicole, talked about the Angel and post-Angel experience.

The interview:

Question: Can you describe what it’s like to return to Anaheim Stadium and have a night to call your very own?

Answer: It’s just so much fun for me to come back here and, you know, sit and talk to Gene (Autry) about baseball. I have so many friends here because I lived here so long. My wife never knew me as a ballplayer and she didn’t know I excelled in athletics or anything like that, so it’s kind of a kick for her. Actually, I told her before we sat down for the induction ceremony Wednesday night, “They only want you to talk for five minutes at the ceremony.” She’s from Kentucky, so she says, “Y’all know I’m not gonna talk.”

But this is a good feeling.

Q: Nice to feel appreciated, is it?

A: Appreciation is in your own mind. I’ve had such great relationships in this organization, with the fans here in Anaheim, with the media here. They knew I was a good player. And I say I was a good player, because I was not a great player. But I took a great deal of pride playing hard and playing tough. Those things mean a lot to me.

Q: What were the circumstances of you becoming an Angel?

A: I had signed originally with the Boston Red Sox. I played a year of D-ball. They don’t even have D-ball anymore. You see, they have different classifications: they had D, C, B, A, AA, AAA. D-ball at that time was really the lowest classification you could play. I was drafted in the expansion draft by the Angels from the Red Sox. So, as a young kid, I had a chance to go to a big-league camp, which was the first camp they ever had in Palm Springs.

Q: Remember much about that camp?

A: I remember everything about it. I was around a lot of veteran players. To me, they were all-stars: Eddie Yost, Rocky Bridges, Del Rice, Bob Cerv, Ted Kluszewski and all those type of guys.

Q: Did you feel as if you had caught the break of the century?

A: I really did. I was with the Boston organization. I probably would not have had an opportunity to get to the major leagues as quickly as I did with the Angels.

Q: At the risk of asking too many “Do you remember?” questions, do you recall the first time you met Gene Autry?

A: Yeah, we were riding a bicycle down the main street of Palm Springs. Gene was leading the whole way. We used to ride bikes from the hotel to the ballpark.

Q: And Autry led the team on this?

A: Oh, yeah. It was such a fun thing. Here’s an expansion ballclub that Gene got into very late. In fact, though I might be mistaken, I think he went to the owners’ meeting that one year just to get the radio rights for KMPC and ended up owning the ballclub.

Q: Autry has often said that he regards you as a son. Did you realize you had such a special place in his heart?

A: Oh, yeah. We’ve been friends. It wasn’t an owner-player relationship. We were good friends.

Q: You’ve said that when you played for Autry he was one of the few owners who took a real interest in the person in the uniform. What was he like to manage for?

A: He never interfered. He never bothered. When you won a ballgame, he would call you on the phone and say, “Tell the boys: Nice going.”

Q: Looking back on that first managing job with the Angels, what do you think about most?

A: It really started something in Anaheim. I mean, ’78 and ’79 was the first time we went over two million people in attendance; the excitement in the whole area when we won in ‘79; it started all this. That’s how I feel about it. And it put baseball in Orange County on the map. I really believe that someday that the California Angels will draw three million fans.

Q: The area certainly has the population base for it.

A: Consistency. If you talk about the California Angels winning division titles back-to-back or getting in a World Series, then there’s no reason why they can’t draw three million people here.

Q: What were your strengths and weaknesses when you managed the Angels?

A: First of all, I had a very difficult time with the media. Most of the writers that were here knew me when I was a player as opposed to a manager. As a player, you speak for yourself. As a manager, you speak for the entire organization. I thought the one thing I did well is that I brought pride into the organization. I was proud I played as many years as I did. And I was proud of the fact that I had Angels written across the front of my uniform. Coming back to manage--I was on a flight from Pittsburgh--I had a ton of notes written up. But when I got here, I threw them all away. I said, “Hey, this is not me.” And all I did was preach to them to have pride in the uniform and that this was the greatest place to play, so why not be proud of the fact that you’re a member of the California Angels.

Q: There’s a story about you during your days with the Texas Rangers. Apparently, you booted a ground ball late in a game and it cost the Rangers a victory. So the next morning, the newspaper story said something to the effect, “Because Jim Fregosi couldn’t field a routine ground ball, the Rangers lost another one.”

That day you called the reporter into the dugout. You told him to sit down. You told him you had just one thing to tell him. He said, “What’s that?” And you said, “I just want you to know that NO ground ball hit to me is ever routine.” And then you laughed.

True story?

A: Yeah (laughing).

Q: Also, were you aware that sportswriters around the country referred to your post-game scowl as “The Stare?”

A: You know what, I was never really aware of that until . . . (turning to his wife) Joni, do I stare?

Joni: Yep, but not negatively. But you’re not doing it to be mean.

A: Well, I guess everybody has their own quirks. But when I first managed, it was a very difficult thing. I mean, the transition from a player to a manager. If you talked to writers about me as a player and then you talked to them about when I first managed for the Angels, as opposed to when I managed for the Chicago White Sox, I think you’ll find a whole other story.

Q: The word was that you were a great guy as a player and not so great as a manager.

A: But that was here, though. I matured. If a writer asked me a question as a player, I had no qualms about answering. But the toughest thing as a manager when they started asking me questions, was that I had to think about how to protect my player, how to protect my organization. But that was part of maturing and growing up and learning how to handle it.

Q: Did you make it look easier than it was winning that division title here in 1979?

A: Oh, it wasn’t easy. Like I say, the toughest thing to do is win the first time. You’re beating all the odds. You’re talking about an organization that had existed for 17, 18 years and had never won.

Q: There’s a group of baseball people who contend that some of those minor league teams you managed in Louisville were better than the White Sox teams you managed. Any truth to that?

A: I had a lot of great players in Louisville. I had a lot of great players. But I loved (Chicago). It was a great city.

Q: Did you handle situations better in Chicago than you did with the Angels?

A: I think I learned a lot through my first experience. And every time you manage, you hope you learn a lot more. I was a much, much better manager winning 71 games last year than I was when we won a division here in ’79.

Q: In what ways?

A: In every way.

Q: Would it have been better if the first managing job had been someplace other than here?

A: Probably. But then they may not have won in ‘79, so they’d never have that first one. But I think the four years of experience I had at the minor league level really taught me a lot about managing. I think that anybody who wants to make a career in managing should manage in the minor leagues first. It’s a very difficult thing to start managing in the big leagues.

Q: What is it about managing that keeps people coming back?

A: The thrill of victory. Players who have played and been successful know what it feels like to succeed. There’s nothing greater than to be a player, that you did the job, won the game, got a hit, whatever. But when you can’t play anymore, the only thing that you’ve got is that you reap all the benefits from the players on your team. You steal a little bit from that one, and a little bit from that one. But you always take the losses 15 times harder as a manager than as a player.

Q: That’s why Gene Mauch quit; he said it was too hard to take the losses.

A: It’s tough to handle a loss. You are responsible. You accept all those responsibilities when you take the job. How about working on a rundown play for 72 hours in spring training, then on opening day of the season, (somebody) screws it up?

How about working on covering first base and then on the third game of the season, you lose the game because the pitcher doesn’t cover first base? But you know in your heart that you’ve worked on all those things.

Q: How interested were you in the Angel managing job after Cookie Rojas was fired late last season?

A: I called (Angel vice president) Mike Port and told him I was interested in the job. And that was it.

Q: Never got to a formal interview?

A: Uh, uh. They had something in mind in the way they wanted to go, the direction they wanted to go with. It’s not a personal thing, which is all part of growing up and maturing in this game.

Q: Another recollections question: Tell us about the trade that essentially sent you to the New York Mets for a young pitcher named Nolan Ryan.

A: Here’s a guy who has probably had the most fantastic career. There’s really no pitcher who has had the career that Nolan Ryan has. A lot of people say he’s only a .500 pitcher. But he’s going to win 300 games, strike out more people than anybody in history--he’s already done that--and he’s going to go into the Hall of Fame. And I can tell my grandkids that I was traded for him. That’s pretty nice right there.

Q: You’re enjoying the good life in Sarasota, Fla. You fish, you golf, you play, in your own words, “Mr. Mom.” But do you ever get the urge to manage?

A: Oh, yeah, I want to get back in it.

Q: Did you think when you won that first division title that you might be on to something? That it might be the beginning of something?

A: I thought I was going to be here forever.