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Frankie Frisch

Baseball is an outdoor sport in which a pitcher pitches a hard, fist sized ball to the hitting area of a batter. The batter hits the hard ball with a tapered, smooth, cylindrical bat made up of wood or metal. The batsman scores by running counter-clockwise within the four markers called the bases arranged at the corners of a diamond. Baseball is sometimes called hardball to differentiate it from similar games such as softball.

Frankie Frisch was born on Friday, September 9, 1898, in Bronx, New York. He was 20 years old when he broke into the big leagues on June 14, 1919, with the New York Giants. His height is 5 feet 11 inches with weight 165 pounds. He joined the Giants without playing a game in the minors. A natural athlete with great speed and dexterity, he was tutored long and hard by manager John McGraw on batting and sliding technique. The youthful Frisch quickly became a favorite of McGraw, who named him team captain.

He also rarely struck out, an ability Frisch became legendary for. In 17 full seasons, only twice did he fan more than 18 times. From 1921 to 1926, he averaged over 100 runs scored per season, never batted below 0.324, and stole bases with abandon. He was instrumental in four consecutive Giants pennants and batted 0.363 in those four World Series from 1921 to 1924. In his first season in Saint Louis, he hit 0.337 and finished second in the MVP, Most Valuable Player voting. He also had 641 assists and 1,059 chances at second base, season records which have endured, and he led the league in fielding average.

He batted over 0.300 thirteen times in his career. From 1933 to 1938 he managed the Cardinals. Ironically, he was united with Rogers Hornsby in 1933 when Hornsby served as a pinch hitter and backup second baseman. After he left the Cardinals, he managed 10 more years with the Pirates and Cubs. He did radio play-by-play for the Boston Braves in 1939 and for the Giants in 1947 and was a Giants coach in 1948.

Unfortunately Frankie Frisch was died on 12 March 1973, in Wilmington, Delaware. He had quick hands for a ground ball or a deft tag, quickness afoot for covering a middle infielder's territory, and quick-wittedness for lightning response to defensive opportunity.

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