Jim Fregosi led the 1993 Phillies to the NL pennant before falling to Toronto in six games in the World Series. He also managed the White Sox, Angels and Blue Jays after an 18-year playing career.
Photo Jonathan Daniel/Allsport/Getty Images via ESPN
We were very sad to hear of the passing of Jim Fregosi, native son of South San Francisco, died from complications of multiple strokes on Valentine’s. He was 71 years old. The Fregosi family owned the local market on Baden from the 40-90’s which was home to many youth in the day. Fregosi spent 53 seasons in professional baseball and had an amazing career. He had been reported to have been ill the week prior his death while on a MLB alumni cruise.
More on Fregoi’s professional MLB career can be found on these links ESPN:Baseball lifer Jim Fregosi dies at 71 and SFGATE;Jim Fregosi, baseball All-Star from Serra High, dies
Jaime González sharing this sad news with us in her post ‘One of our great son’s of So. City past away last night, Jim Fregosi at age 71. May he rest in Peace. Grew up down the street from his Dad’s (Archie) small family store on Baden…Memories.’ Many others stepped in to share their memories as well. Below is a wonderful article from San Mateo Daily Journal’s John Horgan covering Fregosi’s earlier days at Serra where he left his mark as an outstanding legend
Steve Carey Sad to hear. He was one of the first baseball players that I admired. We would always go to Fregosi Market and ask his dad if he would be there today. We would wait outside on the curb to see if he would show up. Should the city of South San Franciso honor Jim Fregosi in some way? I think it would be appropriate. (Many agreed with Steve and ESC has emailed City Hall and asked if it is possible to do something in his honor including closing the next City Council meeting in his memory)
Mareth Vedder In memory of a remarkable man, rest in peace.
George Bernal I remember as a kid if you got one of his baseball cards his dad at fregosi’s market on the 400 block of Baden would buy it from you his dad and mom were great people
Renee Mohr I never met Jim but his parents were our landlords for years and two of the best people I’ve ever met.
RIP Jim now you are reunited with your parents.
Brandi Magner Rest in peace Jim.
Angela Silva May he rest in peace. His pop was our landlord for many years and was so good to our family.They were great people that I will never forget for many good reasons.
Jan Cano How sad. I am having a lifeline evaluation tomorrow to see if im at risk for stroke or heart attack. Women have caught up to men for heart disease!
Carey Wykoff He was my first kiss. I lived in SoCal when I was a child and we would go to Angels games all of the time. When I was around 2 years old, and he was a player at the time, he came up to my family and he gave me a kiss on my cheek. I always brag that he was my first kiss.
Robert Landucci The memories of going to his parents store and trading in his baseball card for a candy bar. What a great family. One of the very few So. City baseball players to make it to the majors.
Rick Soria LIVED DOWN THE STREET FROM THE STORE, THEY HAD THE BEST LICORICE WHIPS,AND ARCHIE MADE GREAT SALAMI SANDWICHES! R I P JIM FREGOSI !
Gary Kehle I too remember the great salami sandwiches back in the 60s…you left us too young Jim…R.I.P…….
Joan Mays Very sad to hear about Jim. Sure brought a lot of memories. Back.GOD BLESS
Rich Avila Traded to mets for Nolan Ryan
Jesse Mohr Renee Mohr, his parents were great people! To think we actually lived in Jim’s childhood home. RIP Jim Fregosi
Whitney Connors-Pasion aww!!! I think one of my classmates had the same last name……What a handsome man……Rest in Eternal Peace…
From John Horgan with the San Mateo Daily Journal
Jim Fregosi set the standard for athletics at Serra High School
February 18, 2014, 05:00 AM By John Horgan Daily Journal
In a very real sense, Jim Fregosi set the standard for athletic excellence at Serra High School.
He represented a bridge between the all-boys Catholic school’s formative years and a brave, new world that lay just down the road.
Fregosi, who died last Friday in Miami at age 71 after a series of strokes, was Serra’s first, true big-time sports prospect, a gifted kid who was wooed by both college football recruiters and Major League Baseball scouts and would eventually wind up front and center on America’s professional sports stage.
Fregosi wasn’t just a two-sport gem; he was a four-sport phenomenon as a prep athlete. In addition to football and baseball, he was a state-caliber track and field star as well as a tough, physical basketball point guard.
In his senior year at Serra (he graduated in 1959), he was an all-Catholic Athletic League performer in football, baseball and basketball and long-jumped 23-8 which, at that time, was the best mark in Northern California.
Fregosi was the genuine article, the real deal, a natural who went effortlessly from sport to sport. He made high school athletics look like a walk in the park. For him, maybe it was.
Nick Carboni, a teammate of Fregosi’s in both football and track and field, has recalled that his cohort didn’t practice much. “He just played sports all year,” Carboni said in an interview several years ago. “Whatever the season, that’s what he played.”
When Fregosi entered Serra as a freshman in the fall of 1955, the school was beginning a fresh chapter; it had moved to a new campus on West 20th Avenue, about a mile south of its original location at the corner of Crystal Springs Road and Alameda de las Pulgas.
The old Serra site was small and cramped; it’s “football field” was about 80 yards long and basically dirt; the gymnasium was tiny and inadequate for actual ballgames.
The new school, which could hold twice as many students as the previous site, was a sea change. Serra teams could play at home. Fregosi’s class was the first to go through it all four years.
The athletic program grew apace. Fregosi was in the vanguard. A full year younger than his class (he graduated at 17), he was a sporting prodigy, earning a staggering 11 varsity letters during his time at Serra.
During Fregosi’s tenure on the campus, the CAL was expanding. It included schools in the East Bay, Marin County and Santa Clara County. Travel could be daunting.
In less than a decade after Fregosi departed from Serra for bigger things, the CAL would be carved up into a new West Catholic Athletic League and a CAL for the East Bay only.
Marin Catholic High School became part of a public school league in Marin County and the East Bay version of the CAL has been disbanded and its members scattered throughout a variety of leagues.
Once Fregosi graduated, Serra began to churn out a steady procession of eye-catching sports stars, including eight more Major League Baseball players.
Among the notable names, in no particular order, are: Tim Cullen, Danny Frisella, Jesse Freitas Jr., Lynn Swann, Tom Scott, John Caselli, Jim Freitas, Tom McBreen, Norm Angelini, Tom Brady, David Bakhtiari, Barry Bonds, Gregg Jefferies, Scott Chiamparino, Dan Serafini, Jim Walsh and Randy Gomez.
Early in the 1990s, the Peninsula Times-Tribune, a long-gone local newspaper, took a poll to determine the best high school athlete ever produced in these parts.
Swann was No.1; Fregosi was No.2. There are those who would dispute that result.
John Horgan can be contacted by email at johnhorganmedia@gmail.com.