BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAYOFFS

Philadelphia Manager Jim Fregosi started his managerial career with the Angels in 1978, so it was fitting that owner Gene Autry called him Wednesday night to congratulate him on his Game 1 victory over the Atlanta Braves.

Fregosi said he played his last game against the Phillies at Veterans Stadium when he was with Pittsburgh and was in Cincinnati at an off-day party the next day when he got a call from then-general manager Buzzie Bavasi. He was on a plane to join the Angels the next day, replacing Dave Garcia.

“I found out quickly how hard it was to manage,” he said. “We were in Oakland for three games and some guy in the stands was on my butt the whole game. I finally had it and went up to scream at him, and it was my father. Then I knew how hard it was going to be.”

Fregosi led the Angels to a tie for second place his first season and a division title the second. He said he has learned a lot since those days, mainly patience, a character trait of his former manager, Bill Rigney.

“Bill had an ulcer at the time, and one time in a game a player made four errors in the same inning,” Fregosi said. “Bill disappeared from the bench and, I went in and saw him laying on the trainer’s table, eating pound cake and drinking milk. The player was Lee Thomas.”

Thomas is the Phillies’ general manager.

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Dale Murphy, who played for both Atlanta and Philadelphia, was on the field before the game as a guest of the Phillies. “Every time I leave a team they get successful,” said Murphy, who left the Braves after the 1990 season and the Phillies after the 1992 season. “The (Colorado) Rockies are probably going to win the West next year.”

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The Dodgers, who finished fourth in the NL West, did so everywhere but in Philadelphia. When the Phillies decorated their stadium with logos of all the teams in order of finish, they placed the Dodgers fifth. . . . The NL West champion has won the playoffs five seasons in a row. No division has won the NL pennant in six consecutive seasons.