I'm a Bit to Young to Appreciate Jim Fregosi the Player But Kellogg's Knew to Include Him in the 1970 and 1971 Sets

Jim Fregosi passed away two years ago on this day.  Most people I hang out with think of him as the manager of the White Sox in the late 1980s.  I remember him as a player since he played enough in the 1970s to get a Topps card every year.

When I went to baseball-reference.com I was surprised to see that Fregosi played 18 years and over 1,900 games.  I don't remember him as a star player, but from 1963-1970 he earned MVP votes each season and he was an all-star six times.  From 1971-1978 he didn't earn MVP votes or all-star considerations.

He arrived in the majors at age 19 and by 1970 he was still only 28 years old.  Injuries cost him many games from 1971-1978.  He only played 72 games per season for those years.  In contrast, he played 157 games per year from 1963 - 1970.

He recorded over 1,700 hits but he missed almost five seasons of time in the majors.

I was also surprised to see that he actually managed more games than he played.  He managed 2,122 regular-season games.

Being the first star player for the expansion Angels, playing 18 seasons and managing in over 2,000 games sounds great, but Fregosi is known for something that he had no input - at the end of the 1971 season he was traded to the Mets for four players including Nolan Ryan.