Fred Besana

A wild southpaw, Fred Besana spent the first month of the 1956 season with the Baltimore Orioles, appearing in seven games and winning one of his two starts. Besana also played parts of eight seasons in the minors and starred in semipro leagues around four years of Air Force service.

Frederick Cyril Besana was born on April 5, 1930, in Lincoln, California, about 30 miles north of Sacramento in Placer County. He was the only child of Cyril “Cedo” and Clara (Lappens) Besana. The family had Italian and Dutch ancestry.^[1] Cedo worked for Gladding, McBean and Co., a terra-cotta and clay manufacturing company. Gladding, McBean also sponsored a baseball team in the semipro Placer-Nevada League. In 1926 Cedo’s pitching led the Lincoln Cubs to the PNL championship.^[2] Less than a month after Fred’s ninth birthday, his mother died in her early 30s. After Cedo remarried, Frank’s half-brother Keven was born in 1948. Keven became the Placer County sheriff.

Fred learned to pitch by throwing stones against the family barn. He played baseball and basketball at Lincoln Union High School. In one memorable duel, he beat Richie Myers of rival Elk Grove, 1-0, in a contest in which both pitchers hurled no-hitters. “When we played Elk Grove at home, it was such a big deal that the whole town shut down and all the grammar school kids were let out of class for the day to go to the game,” Besana recalled. As a 1947 senior, Fred notched 107 strikeouts in 65 innings to lead the Zebras to the Sacramento County League Championship.^[3] He was also the president of his graduation class.^[4]

Besana continued his education at Placer Junior College.^[5] In addition to earning his two-year associate of arts degree, he continued to star in two sports. As he matured closer to his full 6-foot-3, 200-pound size, Besana helped the Spartans basketball squad win the state basketball championship. After they won their league baseball title, Besana pitched Placer College to a 1-0 victory in the opener of the best-of-three Northern California playoffs. In the decisive third game, he hurled 13 innings and hit a two-run homer, but the Spartans fell to San Mateo, 3-2, in 16.^[6] On summer Sundays, Besana pitched and played the outfield in the Placer Nevada League, suiting up for Roseville and his hometown Lincoln Potters.^[7]

Before the 1950 season, Oakland Oaks owner Brick Laws signed Besana for his Pacific Coast League club.^[8] The pitcher received $5,000 plus the promise of an additional $5,000 should his contract be purchased by a major-league franchise.^[9] After spring training with the Oaks, Besana was assigned to the Class-D Longhorn League, where he was 3-1 with a 4.64 ERA in five starts for the Sweetwater (Texas) Swatters. On May 19 he advanced to the Class-C West Texas-New Mexico League and went 15-11 in 33 games (25 starts) for the Albuquerque Dukes. Clubs averaged more than seven runs per game in the circuit, and the collective batting average was .306, so Besana’s 9.2 hits allowed per nine innings was second-best in the league. Among pitchers with at least 100 innings, his 5.23 ERA ranked 10th. Overall, Besana worked 205 innings and won 18 games in his first year of professional baseball.

His advance to the majors would have to wait. “I joined the Air Force instead of getting drafted into the Army,” Besana explained. He spent most of 1951 and 1952 at Fort Campbell’s Clarksville Base in Tennessee along the Kentucky border. When the owner of the Hartsville Sun semipro team learned that a professional pitcher was stationed there, he convinced the base commander that granting the lefty weekend passes to pitch would benefit both the base and the town. Besana earned $10 per game, until the Clarksville Moose club found out and offered him $25. He recalled a memorable experience playing in Harlan, Kentucky. “I remember rounding third, heading for home and plowing over the catcher,” Besana recalled. “When I sat down in the dugout, this hillbilly in farmer’s overalls walks up to me and says, ‘That’s my son you knocked down boy, and I don’t want to see that happen again.’ As he walked away, he pulled back his coat to show me he was packing a pistol.”^[10]

In 1953 Besana was transferred to Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California, about 45 miles southwest of Sacramento. On June 21, 1953, he married Sylvia Rastler, a physical-education instructor at Placer High School. Being near home also allowed Besana to pitch for the independent Marysville Giants, often to former White Sox catcher Vince Castino, with future American League umpire Merle Anthony manning second base. Besana set semipro records for the Yuba-Sutter area that still stood, as of 2021, with his 23-2 regular-season record, .920 winning percentage, six shutouts, and average of 13 strikeouts per game. He no-hit the Sacramento Solons rookies club, tossed three one-hitters, and whiffed 18 batters twice. On May 11, 1953, Besana struck out 17 Hatzell Radio hitters and homered in the bottom of the ninth to win, 1-0. He didn’t taste his first regular-season defeat until a perennially strong House of David club beat him on August 14. In the National Baseball Congress playoffs for the northern part of the state, he struck out 17 Atwater Plumbers to set a tournament record. Overall, Marysville went 33-5 and Besana’s record – including tournament games – was 24-3. Besana was named a Northern Division All-Star, but he had to return to base before the final contest and a Ford Ord Warriors team featuring J.W. Porter and Bobby Winkles prevailed.^[11]

Also in 1953, with first place in the Placer-Nevada League at stake, Besana’s hometown Lincoln club asked him to join them for their game against the Roseville Happy Hour and former minor-league southpaw LeRoy Stevens. “I don’t really want to, but I will,” Besana replied. He saved a Lincoln victory.^[12] While stationed in California, Besana also visited Folsom Prison to play exhibitions with the Sacramento Stars.^[13] Looking back on his four years in the Air Force, Besana said, “All I ever did was play baseball and basketball.”^[14]

Besana’s son Fred Jr. was born on March 9, 1954. Fred Sr. was discharged from the service that summer and joined the Oakland Oaks for the end of their Pacific Coast League season. In his debut on August 18 in Portland, Besana permitted only one unearned run in the first eight innings before surrendering a pair of scores in the ninth. In his home debut, four nights later, the San Francisco Seals clobbered him for six runs in the second inning.^[15] In seven appearances (five starts), Besana was 0-4 with a 6.83 ERA.

When Besana returned to the PCL in 1955, the Oaks’ new manager was former major leaguer Lefty O’Doul. Though 29 of Besana’s 41 games were in relief, he walked 100 batters in 146⅓ innings to rank second in the circuit, and his 11 wild pitches tied for third. He finished 6-10 with a 3.75 ERA. Besana split his last six decisions, beginning with a two-hit shutout of San Diego on August 10 in which he carried a no-hit bid into the seventh inning. Dick Sisler’s one-out single broke it up.^[16] Besana blasted a grand slam against the Seals to aid his own cause in a 10-3 win on August 30.^[17] For pitchers with at least 100 innings, Besana’s rate of 6.3 strikeouts per nine innings was fourth-best in the circuit, and his 0.3 homers allowed ranked third.

At the conclusion of the season, the Oakland Oaks announced that they’d begin a working agreement with the Baltimore Orioles and move to Vancouver in 1956.^[18] In the first transaction with their new affiliate, the Orioles swapped outfielder Carl Powis for Besana. West Coast scouts Mike Catron and Don McShane had recommended the southpaw to Baltimore skipper Paul Richards.^[19]

At Orioles spring training in Scottsdale, Arizona, in 1956, Richards noted that Besana “can go in there and get out those lefty batters.”^[20] On March 16 he handled a righty – two-time All-Star Clyde McCullough – for the final out of an exhibition victory over the Cubs.^[21] Besana was named Baltimore’s “Best Young Pitcher” in a poll of The Sporting News’s correspondents.^[22] He and fellow rookie southpaw Don Ferrarese made the team as relievers.

Baltimore’s Opening Day loss in Boston was the first major-league game that Besana witnessed in person. He debuted in the second one, entering to pitch the bottom of the seventh at Fenway Park with the Orioles trailing 8-4. Besana retired Sammy White and Bob Porterfield on fly outs to right. After Billy Goodman reached on an error, Billy Klaus walked to bring up the third spot in the Red Sox’ batting order. Normally, that would’ve meant Ted Williams, but a badly bruised instep had forced Williams to depart for a pinch-runner two innings earlier. Instead, Dick Gernert grounded back to the mound for the third out. “All I ever wanted was to be able to tell my son and grandson Ted Williams hit one off me that’s still going,” Besana lamented more than a half-century later.^[23] In the eighth, Besana walked Jackie Jensen leading off, but he caught Don Buddin looking for his first big-league strikeout to complete two scoreless innings of hitless work.

Baltimore lost four of five to begin the season with Opening Day pitcher Bill Wight failing to survive the first inning in either of his two starts. The 34-year-old southpaw’s struggles were so severe that Richards decided to give Besana an opportunity. On April 22 the rookie pitched the first game of a doubleheader against the visiting Washington Senators. Besana walked three of the first four hitters and surrendered three runs in the top of the first. By the time he departed after his sixth walk put two aboard to start the seventh, however, the Orioles had come back to lead 4-3. Relievers Fritz Dorish and George Zuverink recorded the last nine outs and Baltimore pulled away, 7-3, to hand Besana his first (and only) major-league victory. “I thought Besana looked real good today,” Richards insisted.^[24] The manager said he intended to give more opportunities to Besana and Ferrarese.^[25]

Five nights later at Griffith Stadium, Besana faced the Senators again. Baltimore trailed 5-0 when he departed for a sixth-inning pinch-hitter. Four of the five runners who scored against him had reached via hit batsman or walks. The Orioles rallied to tie, so Besana received a no-decision in a game that his team ultimately lost, 8-5.

In May Wight found his form and Ferrarese’s first two starts were a 13-strikeout complete game and a no-hit bid spoiled in the bottom of the ninth at Yankee Stadium. Besana, on the other hand, relieved four times and was pounded for 11 hits in 4⅔ innings. His fate was sealed when Baltimore purchased veteran lefty reliever Johnny Schmitz from the Red Sox. On May 16 Besana was optioned to Vancouver with a 1-0 record, 5.60 ERA, 14 walks, and 7 strikeouts in 17⅔ innings pitched in seven appearances. The Orioles offered no explanation. “They didn’t have to,” Besana remarked in 2013. “I knew. I was so damn wild I couldn’t get the ball over the plate.”^[26]

Back in the PCL, Besana endured a nightmarish season. After losing his first seven decisions for the Mounties, he won once, then lost six more.^[27] In addition to his unsightly 1-13 record and 6.62 ERA in 25 games (16 starts), Besana’s peripheral statistics were poor: 116 hits and 65 walks allowed in 100⅔ innings with only 43 strikeouts. The Orioles sold his contract to Vancouver that offseason.^[28]

In 1957 Besana made only seven appearances for Vancouver before he was optioned to the Knoxville Smokies in the Class-A South Atlantic League on May 10. He was returned after going 1-4 in five outings. Vancouver then transferred Besana’s option to the Amarillo (Texas) Gold Sox of the Class-A Western League.^[29] In Amarillo on July 24, in front of 2,601 fans, he beat the Sioux City Soos, 7-4, after Sylvia Besana pitched the Silver Anklets – the Gold Sox wives’ team – to victory over their husbands in a pregame exhibition.^[30] In 23 games (14 starts) for Amarillo, Besana was 10-3 with a 4.26 ERA. The Louisville Colonels of the Triple-A American Association purchased his contract after the season.^[31]

Besana appeared in 37 games (28 starts) for Louisville in 1958 and recorded a 3.59 ERA in 203 innings. His 11-12 record included some memorable efforts. In a 3-2 win over Omaha on May 9, he drove in one run and scored the other two to support his own seven-hitter.^[32] On May 29 he hurled one of his two shutouts to best Indianapolis’s Barry Latman.^[33] A June 15 duel against Omaha’s Bob Blaylock went 11 innings before Besana fell, 3-0.^[34] In the final inning of his four-hit victory over Minneapolis on August 20, Besana retired Art Schult at first base after taking a line drive to the belt buckle. “I never even saw it coming,” the pitcher insisted. “If the ball had hit me on the leg or in the ribs, it would have broken something for sure.”^[35]

In 1959 Besana returned to Vancouver and got off to his best start as a pro. When he allowed a home run to Sacramento’s Nippy Jones on May 1, it was the first earned run he’d allowed in 21⅔ innings.^[36] By May 26, his record was 5-1 with a 1.11 ERA.^[37] Four days after Besana improved to 9-5, 2.37 by beating Seattle’s Claude Osteen, 1-0, he started the PCL All-Star Game in San Diego for the North team. Besana was charged with the loss after allowing four runs in three innings.^[38] With the bases loaded, however, he struck out Willie McCovey 10 days before the future Hall of Famer debuted in the majors. Besana finished the season with a 9-8 record and 2.77 ERA in 32 games (24 starts). He decided to retire. “I had had enough,” he explained. “Baseball just wasn’t fun anymore.”^[39]

In 1960 Besana completed the required courses at Sacramento State College to earn his teaching certification.^[40] Not ready to completely change careers, he returned to Vancouver in 1961 and appeared in 13 games for the Mounties, then a Milwaukee Braves affiliate. In June he moved to the Dodgers’ Spokane Indians farm team in the same circuit and pitched in his final 26 games as a professional.

From 1962 to 1964, Besana taught at his wife’s alma mater, Roseville High School. He also coached junior-varsity basketball and baseball. By the time Sylvia returned to become Roseville’s vice principal in 1966, Fred had moved on to start a baseball program at Oakmont High School for one year, followed by a quarter-century at American River College. Besana taught there until his 1990 retirement and coached the baseball team until 1985.^[41] John Vukovich played for Besana at ARC.

According to The Sporting News Player Contract Cards database, Besana spent one year as a Houston Astros scout before joining the Atlanta Braves in the same role from 1968 to 1970. Though his son Fred Besana Jr. never appeared in an NFL game, he was briefly on the rosters of the Buffalo Bills and New York Giants. A quarterback, Fred Jr. spent three years (1983-1985) with the USFL’s Oakland Invaders. In the league’s inaugural season, he was the second-rated passer.

Predeceased by his wife in 2008, Fred Besana Sr. was 85 when he died on November 7, 2015, in Roseville. He is buried in Roseville Cemetery.

Sources

In addition to sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted www.ancestry.com and www.baseball-reference.com.

Notes

^[1] Fred Besana, publicity questionnaire for William J. Weiss, September 4, 1954.

^[2] “History of the Potters,” https://lincolnpotters.com/about/history/, last accessed February 15, 2021.

^[3] Mark McDermott, “Fred Besana, Former Major-Leaguer and Area Coach, Dies at 85,” Sacramento Bee, November 7, 2015, https://www.sacbee.com/sports/mlb/article43656207.html, last accessed February 13, 2021.

^[4] El Eco 1947: 13.

^[5] In 1954 the institution was renamed Sierra College.

^[6] McDermott, “Fred Besana, Former Major-Leaguer and Area Coach, Dies at 85.”

^[7] “Placer-Nevada League,” https://www.northerncaliforniabaseball.com/placer-nevada-league.html, last accessed February 15, 2021.

^[8] Fred Besana, publicity questionnaire for William J. Weiss, February 6, 1958.

^[9] McDermott, “Fred Besana, Former Major-Leaguer and Area Coach, Dies at 85.”

^[10] McDermott, “Fred Besana, Former Major-Leaguer and Area Coach, Dies at 85.”

^[11] “Fantastic Freddie and the 1953 Marysville Giants,” https://www.northerncaliforniabaseball.com/yuba-sutter-baseball.html, last accessed February 15, 2021.

^[12] Mark McDermott, “Fond Memories of the Placer-Nevada League,” Lake Tahoe News, July 6, 2015, https://www.laketahoenews.net/2015/07/fond-memories-of-the-placer-nevada-league/, last accessed March 1, 2021.

^[13] “Folsom Prison,” https://sactownbaseball.org/folsom-prison/, last accessed February 15, 2021.

^[14] McDermott, “Fred Besana, Former Major-Leaguer and Area Coach, Dies at 85.”

^[15] “Oakland,” The Sporting News, September 1, 1954: 24.

^[16] “Briggs Gives Major Scouts Eyeful,” The Sporting News, August 24, 1955: 27.

^[17] “Oakland,” The Sporting News, September 14, 1955: 40.

^[18] Jesse A. Linthicum, “Orioles Sign ’56 Working Agreement with Vancouver,” The Sporting News, October 19, 1955: 16.

^[19] Jesse A. Linthicum, “Besana Acquired from Vancouver,” The Sporting News, October 26, 1955: 18.

^[20] Carl Lundquist (United Press), “No One Knows Who’ll Be in Oriole Lineup” Herald Journal (Logan, Utah), April 5, 1956: 4.

^[21] Jim Ellis, “Bird Seed,” The Sporting News, March 28, 1956: 7.

^[22] “Infielders Lead as ‘Hot Prospects,’” The Sporting News, April 18, 1956: 21.

^[23] McDermott, “Fred Besana, Former Major-Leaguer and Area Coach, Dies at 85.”

^[24] Bob Maisel, “Bird Hurling List Revised,” Baltimore Sun, April 23, 1956: S15.

^[25] Gordon Beard (Associated Press), “Rookie Fred Besana Shines in Major Loop Mound Debut,” La Crosse (Wisconsin) Tribune, April 23, 1956: 11.

^[26] McDermott, “Fred Besana, Former Major-Leaguer and Area Coach, Dies at 85.”

^[27] “Vancouver,” The Sporting News, June 27, 1956: 28.

^[28] “Deals of the Week,” The Sporting News, February 27, 1957: 32.

^[29] “Deals of the Week,” The Sporting News, July 3, 1957: 30.

^[30] “Winning Pitchers: Husband and Wife – in Double-Bill,” The Sporting News, August 7, 1957: 43.

^[31] “Transactions,” The Sporting News, December 25, 1957: 27.

^[32] “Louisville,” The Sporting News, May 21, 1958: 30.

^[33] “Indianapolis,” The Sporting News, June 11, 1958: 54.

^[34] “Omaha,” The Sporting News, June 25, 1958: 36.

^[35] John Carrico, “Belt Buckle Saves Hurler Hit by Liner from Injury,” The Sporting News, September 3, 1958: 34.

^[36] “Vancouver,” The Sporting News, May 13, 1959: 30.

^[37] “Coast Averages,” The Sporting News, June 3, 1959: 28.

^[38] Ben Foote, “Solon Trio Leads South to Triumph,” The Sporting News, July 29, 1959: 29.

^[39] McDermott, “Fred Besana, Former Major-Leaguer and Area Coach, Dies at 85.”

^[40] In 1972 the school’s name changed to California State University, Sacramento.

^[41] McDermott, “Fred Besana, Former Major-Leaguer and Area Coach, Dies at 85.”