OPINION |
It was a golden age of baseball in southwest Missouri, especially on the northside of Springfield, with legendary coach Dick Birmingham drilling fundamentals and developing skills to the highest degree.
One of Birmingham’s standout players from the early 1970s, when Hillcrest won two American Legion state championships and finished as runner-up twice, died earlier this week.
“It was a shock to us all,” Kelly Snider, a teammate and friend of George Frazier said upon learning of Frazier’s death on Monday in Tulsa after a brief illness. Frazier was 68. No details of a memorial service have been announced.
“He was a great teammate and a great friend. Just a tremendous all-around athlete,” Snider said of Frazier, a tall right-handed pitcher who graduated from Hillcrest in 1973 and went on to star at the University of Oklahoma before embarking on a 10-season Major League career pitching for St. Louis, the New York Yankees, Cleveland, the Chicago Cubs and Minnesota Twins from 1978-87.
Frazier was a late bloomer who didn't give up on the dream
Frazier’s passing conjured up memories for many of us who grew up in that era and watched Frazier pitch for Hillcrest on teams that included two other future big leaguers — infielder Keith Drumright and outfielder Bobby Detherage. Snider, a slugging first baseman, and Drumright joined Frazier at Oklahoma and played in three College World Series before each was drafted. Snider was selected by the Dodgers and spent four seasons playing at Triple-A, blocked by Steve Garvey at the big-league level.
Snider recalled that Frazier was a bit of a late-bloomer in high school, failing to make the varsity team at first. But he didn’t give up the dream and, while continuing to work on his baseball skills, was a pole vaulter in track while also playing basketball for the Hornets.
Frazier eventually was a big part of the team’s success, especially in American Legion when that was the premier form of summer baseball. It was an era decades prior to travel ball and elite showcases.
“I remember we went to Bartlesville (Oklahoma) for the 4th of July Tournament and he beat (future Cy Young Award winner) Rick Sutcliffe 1-0,” Snider said. “That was one of his top games. George said several college coaches were at the game and offered him scholarships as he walked out of the ballpark.
“We had a very special group of guys and I was blessed to have been a part of that team, with Coach Birmingham leading the way.
“I was thinking back about it a few years ago and a lineup Coach Birmingham put on the field at times, of the nine starters, every starter except for one either played college or professional baseball. That says there was a ton of talent Coach Birmingham had to work with.”
Birmingham passed away in 2015 and Drumright, who made it to the big leagues with the Oakland A’s, died in 2010.
‘You could see he was going places'
Dave Davis, who succeeded Birmingham as Hillcrest’s Legion coach in 1984 and school ball in 1985, played against that early 1970s group as a first baseman for Central High School. He recalled batting against Frazier a few weeks before turning 16 after he had been promoted to the Legion varsity squad.
“He was just nasty on the mound,” Davis said of Frazier. “I had no chance against him. He threw hard and you could see he was going places.”
Frazier went 35-43 with a 4.20 ERA in 415 career relief appearances over 10 seasons in the big leagues. Ironically, he began his career with the Cardinals pitching in Busch Stadium in 1978 and made his final appearance in St. Louis while pitching for the Twins. He worked two scoreless innings in Game 4 of the 1987 World Series, which Minnesota won in seven games.
In between, he had the distinction of becoming the first pitcher to lose three games in the World Series while pitching for the Yankees in 1981, against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who changed managers like most people change socks and wasn’t always easy on players, didn’t blame Frazier and assured him he would return to the team in 1982.
‘Off the field, he had fun and he treated people excellent'
Throughout his big-league career, Frazier stayed in touch with his friends in Springfield. Former Springfield News-Leader sports reporter Kirby Arnold said Frazier even stopped by the newspaper office in the offseason to visit with the sports reporters who covered him in high school.
“I don’t remember anything real specific, other than George was a nice guy who was proud of where he came from,” Arnold said. “It said a lot that he would stop by the office in the winters when he was in Springfield and say hello, mostly to Marty Eddlemon and Larry Hazelrigg, but George also was nice to me when we first met.
“I think I wrote only one story about him, when I went down to St. Pete when he was with the Cardinals. He was extremely accommodating to me even with what I’m sure were some basic dumb questions that I asked. My wife’s family has lived many years in Colorado and it was clear to me how well respected he was as the Rockies’ TV analyst.”
After being a part of the Twins’ World Series championship team in 1987, Frazier retired. He returned to the major leagues as a broadcaster in 1998, spending 18 seasons on the Colorado Rockies’ television team. He also worked as a color analyst on Oklahoma baseball games from 2015-2023.
“As a teammate, George kept everything very loose. He was a great clubhouse guy,” Snider said. “Come game time, he had his game face on. But off the field, he had fun and he treated people excellent — which he continued to do throughout his broadcasting career. He was a genuinely good person.”
