Frederick Post - October 17, 1980
Frey One of Game's Most Superstitious Managers
By The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY (AP) - Jim Frey has worn the same shoes and sweat shirt for more than two weeks.
He had steadfastly refused to take out the lineup cards at game time until his Kansas City Royals loot Tuesday night's First game of the World Series in Philadelphia. First base coach Jose Martinez was on a winning streak.
He always sits in the same spot, except at Philadelphia, where he didn’t have a spot. It was the first time his club had ever played there.
Among the many things that make up Jim Frey, the Royals’ rookie manager, is superstition.
“Jose Martinez and I alternate with the lineup card,” Frey says. “If he loses, I go out. If I lose, he goes out. I always keep the card in the same spot. I sign my name the same way, and I try to use the same pen, but the boys steal it and foul me up sometimes.”
Sometimes pugnacious or vindictive toward men with silly questions, Frey has been a model of propriety in his club’s first World Series. He reached the pinnacle of a lifelong dream to manage in the major leagues when he guided the Royals to the American League pennant over the New York Yankees, and he believes fundamentals and a good attitude helped get him there.
“I don’t have any complicated theories or ideas,” he says. “I’ve learned a lot along the way and I believe strongly in fundamentals, attitude and effort.”
Frey, 49, was hired to manage the Royals after the end of the 1979 season. He was with the Baltimore Orioles, who were involved in a World Series of their own, when he first was contacted.
Frey had labored as a minor league outfielder for 14 years, then went to work for the Orioles in 1965 as a minor league manager. In 1970, he joined the Baltimore staff, first as hitting instructor, then as bullpen coach and finally as first base coach for the four years prior to joining Kansas City.
“I never honestly believed I would manage,” Frey said. “I thought I would coach and coach and coach and be fired one day. I was never encouraged by anyone. I was offered a job managing in Triple A, but I thought to coach in the majors was better than managing in the minors.
Impostor strikes at Series
Poses as Umpire
By The Associated Press
Philadelphia (AP) – The Imposter has struck again, this time using an umpire’s uniform to crash the World Series.
There were seven men dressed in the umps’ dark blue on the field Tuesday night before Game One of the Series. Six were legit. The seventh was Barry (The Imposter) Bremen.
“It’s like a fantasy,” Bremen said after pulling off perhaps his greatest hoax yet. “It’s one thing to pass for an umpire at a ball game. But to do it at a World Series? And then be able to walk away without anything being said? That’s fun.”
Nothing was said. There were over 65,000 people in Veterans Stadium, and only a few were aware than the man whose face has turned up magically in the darnedest places had done it again.
He stood out on the field in an American League ump’s uniform for the national anthem. He sang. He chatted with other umpires and was even around when the lineup cards were exchanged. Then he disappeared back into the stands.
Chances are you’ve seen Barry Bremen before, but may not have known it.
He was the guy in 1979 who went onto the floor during the halftime of the National Basketball Association All-Star game in Detroit and took part in the second half warmups. It was only after the horn sounded that people began to wonder who was that guy in the Kansas City Kings uniform?
It was Barry Bremen who posed for the team picture last year at the All-Star game in Seattle. And who played twice in the U.S. Open. Two weeks ago he stood proudly in a Yankee uniform in Detroit, posing for a picture in the dugout.
Is Baseball Back Where It Belongs?
By The Associated Press
Game Two was better than Game One, but so far, the World Series telecasts have fallen a little short of the high quality baseball coverage we’ve come to expect from NBC Sports.
Maybe things will get better for NBC and the Royals Friday night when the Series shifts to Kansas City and NBC can live up to its promotional breast-beating that proclaimed: “The World Series… back where it belongs.”
NBC seems to have gotten caught up in the technology war. Because it has 12 cameras on the job, it thinks all have to be used. Because it has three replays of Larry Bowa sliding into second on a stolen base, it feels all have to be shown.
NBC still follows the game action much better than ABC, which did the American and National League playoffs. We haven’t missed anything important and that’s a credit to director Harry Coyle and the NBC cameramen who understand baseball well enough to be one step ahead of the action. But NBC’s non-game camerawork in Philadelphia was excessive: too many insignificant replays and too many crowd shots of mugging fans.
Granted Bowa’s surprise steal in Game One was a real spark for the Phillies, but it didn’t warrant three replays. This TV toy is a bonus when it reveals something not visible from the live angle, a bore when it just fills time. And how many different views of outfield catches are needed anyway?
For some reason, NBC is jumping on the ABC bandwagon for crowd shots. Our feeling is why show fans jumping up and down when you can hear them? Don’t they all look the same anyway? Why waste time showing the crowd when there are some 30 players and coaches on each team whose reactions are more pertinent?
NBC’s panning the crowd has elicited the ham in every fan. Making faces and waving at the red light aren’t reactions shots; they’re auditions. ABC’s reaction shots of Yankee owner George Steinbrenner were good television, but NBC’s nameless crowd shots are not.
On Bake McBride’s big homer Tuesday night, Coyle’s camera cuts played out this way: outfield wall, pitcher Dennis Leonard, crowd, McBride rounding third, crowd and McBride at the dugout. These camera switches were excessive, destroying continuity, and McBride was the hero, not the fans.
But on that play, NBC did use a marvelous technique of inserting Rose, the runner on third, into the bottom left portion of the screen while the rest of the picture was taken up by the home run ball. The insert gave us Rose’s wonderful “We’re No. 1” reaction. This innovation also has been used well for runners tagging up from third and would have captured Houston’s Gary Woods leaving too soon in the NL playoffs and blowing a run. ABC still hasn’t shown us that one.
Two other interesting innovations have been the “Fall Classic Flashbacks” and Bryant Gumbel’s midgame recaps for late viewers.
Royals' Gale out to stop Phils
By The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY (AP) — Now it is Rich Gale's turn to try and halt what it beginning to look like a Philadelphia juggernaut.
Gale gets the assignment of starting the third game of the 1980 World Series Friday night against Philadelphia's Dick Ruthven as the Kansas City Royals desperately seek a way to solve the late-inning lightning of the Phillies.
And the Royals may have to do it without superstar George Brett.
Brett, suffering from hemorrhoids which forced him out of Wednesday night's game after five innings, went directly to St Luke's Hospital to see a proctologist when the team returned home.
The Royals have been swamped with homemade recipes for remedies to Brett's problem. They might be better off. though, with a remedy for the Phillies.
"When you're two down, it's not very good." said Kansas City Manager Jim Frey. "We plan to do better at home."
They had better if they hope to keep this best-of-seven Series going. They've been burned twice by Philadelphia thunder, surrendering an early 4-0 lead to lose the opener 7-6, then watching the Phillies soar from behind again with a four-run eighth inning to take Game 2. 6- 4.
The Phillies beat Dennis Leonard, Kansas City's 20-game winner, in the opener, and exploded against bullpen ace Dan Quisenberry to take the second game.
It is not an encouraging prospect for Gale. 13-9 during the regular season. The Phillies are looking forward to the confrontation.
"He's got a very good fastball, an excellent fastball," said Larry Bowa. "But the scouting report says be might be up with it a little."
Bowa has been in the middle of the Phillie surges. He touched off the five-run third inning with a base hit in the opener and singled home an important run in Game 2. He also tied a World Series record in Wednesday night's game by starting three double plays.
He described the change in his team this way: "We're thinking about the game more and doing the little mental things that you have to do to win. You just can't put on the uniform and go out there and expect to win."
Then Bowa added an important observation that is the essence of baseball
"When you're going well." be said, "the double plays are right at you. When you're in a slump, they take a couple of funny bounces."
The bounces have been going Philadelphia's way. There's no question about that. But this team, appearing in its first World Series in 30 years, is starting to feel, like it's been tapped on the shoulder by destiny.
"I haven't seen this type of confidence before in my major league career," said Del Unser. who contributed a vital pinch double Wednesday night.
"The confidence comes from the fact that we are doing it, have done it and now expect to do it The important thing is that now we all expect us to come through when we have to."
And the Phillies keep doing exactly that. The team has won five postseason games now and came from behind to take every one of them. Sometimes it's early, the way they strafed Leonard in Game 1. Sometimes it's late, the way they took Quisenberry in Game 2. But eventually, they seem to come back one way or another.
Bowa, observing the situation from the Phillies' side of the field, had some advice for the Royals.
"They're down two to nothing." Be said. "They'd better get on the stick."
"We have the best road record in the National League." said Bowa.