Dictionary- Scoreboard
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Welcome to the Baseball History Podcast: Featuring This Week in Baseball History, baseball dictionary and a tour of baseball cities. I’m your game announcer Bob Wright.
This is game 51 of the 2008 baseball season
In the first inning let’s take a look at This Week in Baseball History for the 2 week of December.
December 10
1971 In one of the worst deals ever made, the Mets trade Nolan Ryan and three prospects to the Angels for six time all-star third baseman Jim Fregosi. The fireballer from Texas will set the all-time strike out record and will become a member of the Hall of Fame while Fregosi will provide little help for New York.
James Louis Fregosi was born April 4, 1942 in San Francisco, California. Forever known as the man traded to the New York Mets for Nolan Ryan, Fregosi was the premier power-hitting shortstop in the American League during the 1960s. In the Los Angeles & California Angels first eleven years of play, he became its first star as the team’s most productive and popular player.
But after a disastrous trade brought him to Shea Stadium in December 1971 in exchange for four players — including Ryan, a future Hall of Famer — Fregosi faltered, hindered by injuries and an ill-timed shift to third base. Within two seasons the six-time All-Star was sold to Texas.
He led the American League in double plays twice, winning the 1967 Gold Glove Award, and upon leaving the Angels, ranked ninth in American League history with 818 double plays.
A right-handed batter, Fregosi is one of many notable alumni of Junípero Serra High School of San Mateo, California, and was signed by the Boston Red Sox in 1960. The same year he was selected by the Angels in the expansion draft, and made his debut in September 1961. After hitting .291 as a reserve in 1962, he batted .287 – ninth in the American League – in his first full season in 1963, and was second in the league in triples and fifth in hits.
He made his first All-Star squad in 1964, batting .277.
From 1964 to mid-1969, he teamed with second baseman Bobby Knoop to form one of the game’s top double play combinations; with Knoop winning Gold Gloves from 1966-68 In 1967 the two became only the third middle infield combination to win the honor in the same season.
On July 28, 1964, he became the first Angel to hit for the cycle, and he did so again on May 20, 1968.
Fregosi continued to turn out solid years, particularly in 1967 when he batted .290. He became regarded as the league’s top-hitting shortstop, leading the American League in triples, with 13, in 1968, and was named an All-Star every season from 1966 to 1970.
He was sidelined in 1971 when a tumor was discovered in his foot. The Angels became uncertain of Fregosi’s future, and on December 10 traded him to the New York Mets in the same deal that brought pitcher Nolan Ryan to California.
Sidelined by several injuries including a broken thumb in 1972, Fregosi struggled with the Mets, where he played mainly at third base, and was sold to the Texas Rangers in the 1973 mid-season.
After five years as a backup for the Rangers, during which he played primarily as a first baseman, he was sent to the Pittsburgh Pirates in June 1977. When the Angels expressed interest in naming him as their manager in 1978, the Pirates released him to pursue the opportunity.
In his 18-year career, Fregosi batted .265 with 151 home runs, and 706 Runs Batted In.
During his playing days, Fregosi was known as a cheerleader and many observers had him pegged as a future manager.
In becoming the Angels’ manager at age 36, Fregosi was presented with a solid team nucleus with Ryan as his ace. He compiled a record of 62-55 in 117 games tying for second in the Division.
In 1979, with the addition of Rod Carew, he led the Angels to an 88-74 record, winning the first title in the club’s 19-year existence.
But they didn’t have enough to get by the Baltimore Orioles in the 1979 American League Championship Series, losing Game 1 in 10 innings and dropping a 9-8 slugfest in Game 2. The Angels captured a 4-3 win in Game 3, scoring twice in the bottom of the ninth on an error and a Larry Harlow double, but were knocked out in an 8-0, game 4 loss.
The Angels’ regular season success was short-lived. Without Ryan, who was sent to Houston after the season, California’s pitching staff was unable to keep up the pace and the one-time American League West champs slid to sixth place in 1980. Fregosi was replaced the following May and didn’t get another chance to manage in the majors until May 1986.
From there he managed the Louisville Redbirds of the American Association, winning league championships in 1984 and 1985 and finishing second in 1983.
Fregosi got a new chance in the major leagues with the Chicago White Sox in 1986, but had a losing record and was released at the end of the 1988 season.
He got his next chance with Philadelphia in 1991, thanks to longtime friend and former teammate Lee Thomas, who had become Phillies General Manager. Thomas fired the incumbent manager 13 games into the 1991 season and handed the job to Fregosi, who quickly led the franchise to the National League pennant just two years later.
Built around blue-collar stars the Phillies charged to 97 wins and then further shocked the baseball world by pulling off a major upset against the two-time defending National League Champion Atlanta Braves in six games in the League Championship Series.
Despite putting up a good fight against the defending World Champion Toronto Blue Jays in the World Series, Fregosi’s Phillies wound up losing to Toronto in six games, with Joe Carter’s Series-winning home run in Game 6 being the final blow.
Despite the World Series run, Fregosi was often the target of criticism by the Philadelphia sports media. One general criticism of Fregosi was that he was a manager who relied on veteran players and was unable to develop younger players.
Unfortunately for Fregosi, the Phillies quickly fell back to the National League cellar and after a 67-95 finish in 1996 the team replaced Fregosi as manager. His five-plus years at the helm marked the longest stint by a Philadelphia manager since Danny Ozark’s tenure in the 1970′s
Fregosi was hired as the new manager for the Blue Jays in 1999, and was replaced after the 2000 season despite the fact that the team finished in third place and above .500 in each of his two years in Toronto.
He is currently the top advance scout for the Atlanta Braves.
Fregosi once described the typical aspirations for a manager as “when you’re fired you’ll leave the team in better shape than when you were hired.”
Jim Fregosi’s number “11″ was retired by the Angels in 1998.
In this inning we’ll open up the Baseball Dictionary
Under the letter: S
Scoreboard
A signboard erected for the benefit of the spectators that, at a minimum, shows each teams’s inning by inning scoring as well as the total number of hits, runs, and errors credited to each team. Many scoreboards give other relevant details of the game, such as the ball/strike count, as well as scores of other games being played concurrently.
Scoreboards appear at every level of the game and range from manually operated wooden structures to elaborate electronic screens replete with special effects and moving images.
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Well, that’s it for today’s game of Baseball History Podcast. I’ll see you later at the ballpark.
