James Louis Fregosi (April 4, 1942 – February 14, 2014) was an American professional baseball shortstop and manager, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1961 to 1978, primarily for the Los Angeles / California Angels. He also played for the New York Mets, Texas Rangers, and Pittsburgh Pirates.
Having been the Angels’ most productive and popular player for that franchise's first eleven years of play, Fregosi quickly became its first star. He led the American League (AL) in defensive double plays twice, winning the 1967 Gold Glove Award, and, upon leaving the team, ranked ninth in AL history, with 818 double plays. Fregosi holds the franchise record with 70 career triples; several of his other team records, including career games (1,429), hits (1,408), doubles (219), runs (691), and runs batted in (546), were broken by Brian Downing over the course of the 1986 through 1989 seasons.
Fregosi returned to the team as manager, guiding it to its first-ever postseason appearance in 1979, and later managed the Philadelphia Phillies to the 1993 National League pennant.
Fregosi was born on April 4, 1942, in San Francisco, California, and spent part of his youth growing up in nearby in San Mateo. He was the son of Archie and Margaret Fregosi and also spent time growing up in South San Francisco. His paternal grandparents were Italian, while his maternal grandparents were English and Irish.
A right-handed batter, Fregosi is one of many notable alumni of Junípero Serra High School in San Mateo, California, where he excelled in football, basketball, and baseball, and also ran track. Other graduates include Tom Brady, Barry Bonds, and Lynn Swann. He graduated in 1959, and was inducted to the school's inaugural Athletic Hall of Fame class in 1990.
Fregosi was signed as an amateur free agent by the Boston Red Sox in 1960. The Red Sox assigned him to the Alpine (Texas) Cowboys of the Sophomore League, where he played shortstop and second base, with a .267 batting average in 1960. In December of the same year, after the Red Sox chose not to protect him, he was selected by the Angels in the 1960 MLB Expansion Draft.
The Angels assigned him to the Dallas-Fort Worth Rangers of the Triple-A American Association in 1961, where he hit .254, playing solely at shortstop. He was called up by the Angels in September 1961 and played in 11 games. In 1962, he played in 64 games for Dallas-Fort Worth, his final games in the minor leagues, and joined the Angels after hitting .283 in 219 at bats.
Los Angeles / California Angels (1961–1971)
On September 14, 1961, Fregosi made his MLB debut. After hitting .291 in 175 at-bats as a reserve in 1962 and starting 49 games at shortstop, he batted .287 – ninth in the AL – in his first full season in 1963. He was second in the league in triples and fifth in hits. He made his first All-Star squad in 1964, batting .277. Fregosi was the leadoff hitter for the American League All-Star Team, and had one hit in four at bats.
From 1964 to mid-May 1969, he teamed with second baseman Bobby Knoop (Knoop was traded to the Chicago White Sox in 1969 after 27 games) to form one of the game's top double-play combinations. With Knoop winning Gold Gloves from 1966 to 1968, the two became only the third middle infield combination (after Nellie Fox and Louis Aparicio in 1959 and 1960) to win the honor in the same season (1967). On July 28, 1964, Fregosi became the first Angel to hit for the cycle when he did so against the Yankees, and he did so again on May 20, 1968, but this one was an unnatural cycle, hitting a home run in the first inning, a triple in the third inning, a double in the eighth inning, and a game-winning walk-off single in the bottom of the 11th inning.
Fregosi continued to turn out solid years, particularly in 1967, when he batted .290 (seventh in the AL) and won his only Gold Glove, finishing seventh in the MVP voting. He became regarded as the league's top-hitting shortstop, and best all-around shortstop, leading the AL in triples (13) in 1968. He was named an All-Star every season from 1966 to 1970. But he was sidelined in 1971 when a tumor was discovered in his foot, playing in only 107 games after playing between 147 and 161 games from 1963 to 1970. Fregosi's future with the Angels became uncertain when the Angels acquired Jose Cardenas on November 30, 1971, and named him their starting shortstop.
In 1969, the fans voted him the number one player in franchise history and, in 1998, the team retired his number 11. He was inducted into the Angels Hall of Fame in 1989. On August 12, 2014, in a game between the Angels and Phillies, both teams wore patches honoring Fregosi.
On December 10, 1971, Fregosi was traded to the New York Mets for four players, including future Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan, a trade that embittered many New York fans because of Ryan's future success. Fregosi took jibes over the trade with good humor, saying the blame belonged with Angels' general manager Harry Dalton, not him. (Fregosi would later manage Ryan in 1978 and 1979, Ryan's last two years as an Angel.)
Sidelined by several injuries, including a broken thumb, in 1972, Fregosi struggled with the Mets, where he played mainly at third base (85 games to only six at shortstop). He played in only 101 games, with a .232 batting average and five home runs.
Fregosi was sold to the Texas Rangers in the middle of the 1973 season. He spent five years as a backup for the Rangers (1973–77), during which he played primarily as a first baseman.
Pittsburgh Pirates (1977–1978)
Fregosi was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates in June 1977 for Ed Kirkpatrick, who had been Fregosi's Angels teammate from 1962 to 1968. When the Angels expressed interest in naming him as their manager in 1978, the Pirates released him to pursue the opportunity. He took the Angels' managerial job the day after he was released.
In becoming the Angels' manager at age 36, Fregosi was presented with a solid team nucleus of Ryan, Baylor, Downing, Bobby Grich, Carney Lansford, Frank Tanana, and longtime owner Gene Autry, compiling a record of 62–54 in 117 games, and tying for second with Texas behind the Kansas City Royals. In 1979, with the addition of Rod Carew, he led the Angels to an 88–74 record, surprising the Royals and winning the first title in the club's 19-year existence. But they did not have enough to get by the Baltimore Orioles in the 1979 American League Championship Series. The Angels lost Game 1 in 10 innings and dropped 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.