The Chicago Cubs have tragically lost two club legends within a span of just three days this week. Yesterday, Jim Frey, former General Manager and the field manager who ended the club’s 39-year-postseason drought during the middle of the past century, passed away.
On Easter Sunday, Glenn Beckert, one of the best defensive second basemen in baseball history, and arguably the franchise’s best player at the position not named Ryne Sandberg passed on. Beckert was 79, Frey was 88.
The club issued the following statement today in Beckert’s memory:
“Glenn Beckert was a wonderful person who also happened to be an excellent ballplayer. He was a mainstay at second base for the Cubs for nine seasons from 1965-73, earning a spot on four All-Star teams and a reputation for one of the toughest at-bats in the league as evidenced by his low strikeout rate.
“Glenn more than held his own playing alongside future Hall of Famers and won a Gold Glove for defensive excellence at second base in 1968.”
Beckert was a career .283 hitter in 11 seasons with the Cubs (1965-73) and San Diego Padres (1974-75). He finished third in the league in batting average when he hit a career-best .342 in 1971.
The club issued the following statement on Tuesday:
“The Chicago Cubs are saddened to learn of the passing of Jim Frey, a central figure in our club’s most memorable moments of the 1980s. Upon being named manager for the 1984 season, Jim took over a club that had not had a winning record since 1972 and immediately helped return the Cubs to post-season play, leading the team to the N.L. East title and first playoff appearance in 39 years, earning N.L. Manager of the Year honors along the way.”
“As our general manager, he constructed a playoff club in 1989 to again land the Cubs in the postseason five years later.
A protege of the legendary Earl Weaver, Frey went 196-182 record in two-plus seasons as manager of the Cubs from 1984-86. He spent the 1987 season as a commentator for WGN Radio before being named general manager in November, a role he held through the 1991 season.
He led the Kansas City Royals to their first American League championship in 1980, in his first year with the team. In the World Series, they lost to the Philadelphia Phillies.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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