Frankie Frisch - Post-baseball Career

Post-baseball Career

After retirement, he continued to manage the Cardinals, but was never able to capture another pennant. Frisch also had managerial stints with the Pittsburgh Pirates (1940–46) and the Chicago Cubs (1949–51), but without the success he had in St. Louis. Frisch's career ledger as a manager shows a 1138-1078 mark including the pennant in 1934. In 1939, he did radio play-by-play for the Boston Braves and the Boston Red Sox on the Colonial Network, a regional radio network serving five New England states.

For several years in the 1950s, he worked as a radio play-by-play announcer and coach for the Giants. His broadcasting trademark was worrying about pitchers walking batters: "Oh, those bases on balls!" A heart attack in 1956 forced him to curtail his activities. After his heart attack in September 1956, Phil Rizzuto (recently released by Yankees as a player) filled in for him on N.Y. Giant post-game TV shows.

A number of years after Frisch left the playing field as a manager, he became a member of the Hall of Fame's Committee on Baseball Veterans, which is responsible for electing players to the Hall of Fame who had not been elected during their initial period of eligibility by the Baseball Writers; he later became chairman of the committee. In the years just prior to his death, a number of Frisch's Giants and Cardinals teammates were elected to the Hall; some notable writers, chiefly among them Bill James, have criticized these selections - including Jesse Haines, Dave Bancroft, Chick Hafey, Rube Marquard, Ross Youngs and George Kelly - which include some of the most widely questioned honorees in the Hall's history. Critics have complained that many of these selectees had accomplishments which were less outstanding than those of other players who were bypassed, and were only selected because of Frisch's influence.

Frisch died in Wilmington, Delaware from injuries suffered from a car accident near Elkton, Maryland one month earlier. He was 74 years old. Frisch had been returning to Rhode Island from the meeting of the Veterans' Committee in Florida when he lost control of his car. Frisch died in the same manner as other N.Y. Giant Hall of Famers Mel Ott (1958) and Carl Hubbell (1988). He is interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.

During his lifetime, Frisch used 1898 as his year of birth. Recent information available, however, suggests that he was born in 1897. New York City birth records (NYC did not include the Bronx until 1898) indicate an 1897 birth; Social Security death records give an 1897 birth, as do most census records.

In 1999, he ranked number 88 on the The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was a nominee for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

Frisch is mentioned in the poem "Line-Up for Yesterday" by Ogden Nash:

F is for Fordham
And Frankie and Frisch;
I wish he were back
With the Giants, I wish.

Years later, Nash added a footnote to this stanza: "p.s. Thanks to Durocher, now everything's kosher."

For many years, he lived at 184 Fenimore Road in the Bonnie Crest neighborhood of New Rochelle, New York. He had two hounds named Flash and Patches who kept him company. Frisch eventually moved to Westerly, Rhode Island, devoting himself mainly to his interests in gardening and classical music.