George Frazier

To the casual observer, George Frazier is no more than a heartbreaking footnote to baseball history: the only pitcher to lose three games in a best-of-seven World Series. After all, as a relief pitcher who never started a game in the major leagues, pitched to a career record below .500 and earned only 29 career saves, Frazier’s achievements were not those of a star. But like his namesake George Bailey, George Frazier had a wonderful life, if not career.

Frazier was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on October 13, 1954, to Lyndall Frazier, a former master sergeant in the US Army during World War II, and Geraldine Sailors Frazier. The family also included Frazier’s two sisters, Lynda and Judith, and brother, Keith. They eventually settled in Springfield, Missouri.1 Frazier’s parents ran a moderately successful small family business, Frazier Brothers Construction, where George worked when not in school or playing sports.2

Geraldine Frazier was tall and athletic, having played high school basketball growing up in Leonardville, Kansas, and she passed her genes on to her son.3 By the time Frazier reached high school, he stood 6 feet 5 inches tall and was saddled with the ironic nickname, “Peewee.”4 Still, Frazier did not come naturally to baseball. He was cut three times from the Hillcrest High School baseball team,5 a local powerhouse that featured, during Frazier’s years there in the early 1970s, future major leaguers Bobby Detherage and Keith Drumright. While focusing on basketball and running track, Frazier continued pitching in American Legion ball, contributing to a team that won the Missouri state championship in 1971.6

Frazier eventually made the high school baseball team and by 1972 – his senior year – he blossomed into an ace, winning seven games with a minuscule 0.14 ERA.7 Nonetheless, Frazier had no expectation that his baseball career would continue after high school. When the Texas Rangers called about drafting him, Frazier was so surprised he initially thought he was being recruited to serve as a Texas police officer.8

Frazier ultimately turned down the Rangers. After graduating high school in June 1972, Frazier was all set to attend and play basketball at Drury University, his hometown college. But then Frazier outdueled future Cy Young Award winner Rick Sutcliffe, 1-0, in a July 4 tournament game. The performance so impressed Oklahoma University baseball coach Enos Semore that Frazier was offered a scholarship to pitch for OU. A longtime Sooner football fan, Frazier was all too happy to accept.9 

Unfortunately, Frazier, a business management major,10 spent a bit too much time partying during his first two years at OU. As a result, he was allowed to pitch only seven innings total during the 1973 and ’74 seasons. He eventually settled down, however. During his junior and senior years, Frazier ended up pitching to a combined 12-4 record with eight saves in a workhorse-like 43 appearances for OU. Both years, the team won the Big Eight championship and reached the College World Series. However, despite the efforts of Frazier and ace starter Bob Shirley – a future major league pitcher himself – the Sooners were not quite good enough to bring home a title. They finished fourth in 1975 and seventh in 1976 after succumbing to eventual champions Texas and Arizona State, respectively (along with losses to Arizona in 1975 and Washington State in 1976).

Frazier also got married while he was in college, wedding Mary Pat Henry on June 14, 1975.11 A little less than a year later, he was selected in the ninth round of the June 1976 draft by the Milwaukee Brewers on the recommendation of Tony Roig, a member of Al Widmar’s scouting team.12After only one full year in the Brewers farm system, Frazier was traded to the Cardinals, the team he had rooted for growing up in Springfield.13

Frazier was a solid if not overpowering pitcher in the Cardinals farm system.14 The right-hander had a herky-jerky motion and threw from several release points; so, even though he did not possess overwhelming stuff, his pitches were hard for batters to pick up. Frazier featured an array of pitches, including an impressive slider and a forkball.15

Frazier was finally called up to the major leagues in May 1978. On May 25, he entered the game against the Montreal Expos in the sixth inning with the Cardinals already trailing, 10-0. Frazier started with a bang, striking out the first batter he faced, and he went on to pitch two scoreless innings.

Frazier spent the next couple of years shuttling back and forth between the major and minor leagues. Then, on June 7, 1981, the Cardinals traded him to the Yankees as the player to be named later in a deal for future major league shortstop Rafael Santana. The trade and its timing were fortuitous for Frazier.

Immediately after the trade, the major leaguers went out on strike. Frazier was in an ideal position getting to pitch for his new team in the minor leagues while his future Yankees teammates and opponents sat by idly.

Regular season games resumed on August 10, and when Frazier was added to the big club, he was more than prepared. Over the final seven weeks of the season, he pitched to a 1.63 ERA in 16 appearances and even earned three saves. Frazier enjoyed those early days as a Yankee, enamored of the professionalism in the clubhouse. He was also in awe of the franchise’s history and tradition, with icons like Mickey Mantle being present around the team when Frazier first arrived. Mantle – who like Frazier, was born a Sooner (and grew up in Missouri) – took to calling the young reliever “Oklahoma.”16

The 1981 postseason would come to define Frazier’s career. Although he did not pitch in the opening round series with the Milwaukee Brewers, it was a memorable series, nonetheless, taking the full five games for the Yankees to vanquish their opponents. With the series tied, 2-2, nervous Yankees owner George Steinbrenner bellowed at the team in his usual Napoleonic manner that any player caught out on the town and not focusing on baseball would be severely fined. Frazier had bought tickets to the Broadway show “Cats” because his wife desperately wanted to see the musical, a major financial outlay for a relief pitcher still trying to make it as a major leaguer. Years later he would lament, “I didn’t go to ‘Cats’—I went home, ate bologna and went to bed.”17

Next, the Yankees faced the Oakland A’s in the American League Championship Series. Frazier was summoned in the fourth inning of Game Two with the Yankees already trailing, 2-1. After an intentional walk and run-scoring single that left the bases loaded, Frazier improbably induced the speedy Rickey Henderson to bounce into an inning-ending double play. The Yankees’ offense then exploded. When all was said and done, New York had won, 13-3, Frazier had pitched 5 2/3 innings of scoreless relief to get the win, and he had recorded five strikeouts, then an ALCS record for a relief pitcher.18 Frazier later recalled of that highlight performance, “[W]hat really kind of touched me more than anything was that in the ninth….I found my mom and dad in the stands and it was kind of like all of the bus rides, all of the little league baseball games, all the American Legion games—it kind of came to a head right there.”19

The 1981 World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers started well enough for the Yankees as they won behind their pair of lefty aces, Ron Guidry and Tommy John. But then, suddenly, the club’s fortunes – and Frazier’s – shifted irreversibly. Some odd pitching decisions by Yankees manager Bob Lemon played a pivotal role.20

In the third inning of Game Three, Lemon brought Frazier in to replace young southpaw Dave Righetti with the Yankees clinging to a 4-3 lead. Frazier managed to wiggle out of the trouble he inherited without yielding a run; he also pitched a scoreless fourth. But then, just like that, things came undone. Frazier had not lost effectiveness but was victimized by two choppers. He first yielded a single to Steve Garvey on a ball that bounded over third baseman Aurelio Rodriguez. Rodriguez was playing for an injured Graig Nettles, whose nonpareil defense had saved the Yankees against the Dodgers in Game Three of the 1978 World Series. After a walk to Ron Cey, Pedro Guerrero hit another chopper toward the left side. This one went for a double, scoring Garvey and advancing Cey to third. Rick Monday was then walked intentionally. Frazier left the game at that point, and although his successor, Rudy May, induced a double play ball from Mike Scioscia, Cey came home with the lead run, and Frazier was tagged with the loss.

Game Four was a near replay of Game Three. The Yankees found themselves protecting a 6-3 lead at the start of the bottom of the sixth inning, but primary setup man Ron Davis faltered, and Frazier came into the game with the score tied, 6-6, a runner on, and one out. He retired the first two batters he faced to get out of the inning, but his bad luck returned at the beginning of the seventh. Just as in the prior game, the first batter, Dusty Baker, reached on a chopper that went for an infield hit. Frazier then appeared to retire Monday on a routine fly to center, but Bobby Brown misplayed the ball into a gift double. Ironically, Brown had just entered the game as a defensive replacement in a move necessitated because Lemon had benched regular starting center fielder Jerry Mumphrey. After this miscue, Lemon lifted Frazier for Tommy John, who had not relieved in years and looked visibly uncomfortable upon reaching the mound. John went on to give up a go-ahead sacrifice fly and a single that scored an insurance run – which would prove decisive when Reggie Jackson later hit a solo home run that could do no more than cut the deficit to one. Both runs surrendered by John and the loss were charged to Frazier.

Following another loss in Game Five, the Yankees returned home for Game Six, knowing that John, who had recorded a stellar 2.63 ERA in 1981, would be starting. Lemon, however, lifted John for a pinch-hitter in the fourth inning of a 1-1 game. John was visibly displeased in the Yankees dugout after his early removal. He would later assert, “Managerially [his removal and replacement with Frazier] might have been the worst move in the history of the World Series.”21

Frazier once again entered the game early in relief. He allowed a seeing eye single to Davey Lopes to open the fifth inning. After retiring the next two batters, he induced Cey to hit what should have been an inning-ending groundout, but a bad hop went past second baseman Willie Randolph into the outfield, allowing Lopes to score. Color commentator Jim Palmer told the national television audience, “It seems like most of the bad things that happen to the Yankees happen when George Frazier is on the mound.”22 After another bloop hit and two run triple, the rout was officially on. The Yankees and Frazier lost, 9-2.

There is a significant list of pitchers who have won three games in a World Series. It includes all-time greats like Christy Mathewson, Bob Gibson, and Randy Johnson, as well as World Series legends like Babe Adams, Smoky Joe Wood, Lew Burdette, Mickey Lolich, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. But only one pitcher prior to Frazier had ever lost three games in the same Series – and he was, well, a special case.

Claude “Lefty” Williams was the number two pitcher on the 1919 Chicago White Sox, the team that would go down in baseball infamy for conspiring with a group of shady gamblers to lose that year’s World Series. Williams played a pivotal role, losing three games by himself.23 The southpaw imploded midway through each of his first two Series starts getting tagged with the loss. When Williams returned to the mound for his third Series start, the White Sox had rallied to stave off elimination by winning the prior two games, but Williams was assaulted at the outset this time, failing to get more than one out before being lifted in what turned out to be a 10-5 season-ending thrashing for the White Sox. Williams’ performance was so bad that it was rumored he had been threatened before the game with bodily harm if he didn’t lose. Though there is no convincing evidence that was true, he did later publicly admit to his role in the plot to throw the Series.24

Going down in World Series history linked to Lefty Williams is not what a young pitcher would hope for.25 But Frazier stoically, if not heroically, showed his true character at this pivotal moment. In the immediate aftermath of the game, Frazier patiently stayed at his locker, answering wave upon wave of reporters’ questions, interrupted only by Steinbrenner stopping by to put a comforting arm around him.26

In the days, weeks, and years immediately following the 1981 World Series, Frazier was never tagged as a goat – even by the famously demanding Yankees owner and fans or the New York media – in the same way that Fred Merkle, Fred Snodgrass, Ralph Branca, Bill Buckner, Tony Fernandez, and Steve Bartman were and would be. Blame was placed elsewhere:

• With Bob Lemon, the former World Series hero and two-time Manager of the Year award winner, for his odd pitching decisions, including the removal of ace Tommy John in the fourth inning of the decisive Game Six;
• With new mega-star Dave Winfield, who went 1-for-22 in the Series and would earn the derisive monicker “Mr. May” from the Yankees’ owner;
• With more heralded hurlers such as Dave Righetti and Ron Davis, who also had significant pitching failures; and
• With owner George Steinbrenner, whose story of first being assaulted by, and then knocking out, two Dodgers fans in a Los Angeles hotel elevator following the Yankees’ loss in Game Five, rang more of embarrassing false bravado than a defense of pinstripe pride.

Frazier, for the rest of his life, would contend that he was never jeered or derided for the three losses.

With the 1981 Series behind him, Frazier was a solid, if unspectacular, relief pitcher for disappointing Yankees teams in 1982 and 1983.27 He became a footnote to history again in 1983 – on July 24, in the notorious “Pine Tar Game.” To recap, George Brett of the Kansas City Royals hit a go-ahead two-out, two-run ninth-inning home run off Yankees closer Rich Gossage. Yankees manager Billy Martin protested that Brett had too much pine tar on his bat; the umpires concurred, and a furious Brett was called out and the Yankees declared winners of the game. The American League later overturned the ruling, however, and restored Brett’s home run, necessitating that the game be continued from the point of the home run—two outs in the top of the ninth.

When the game resumed in August, Martin asked Frazier to get the final out of the ninth. But first, the rascally Martin had Frazier throw sequentially to first, second and third, accusing Brett of having missed each base during his home run trot with none of the umpires from the July 24 game then present in New York to verify that Brett had touched the base. The scheme failed, however, as members of the July 24 umpiring crew signed an affidavit acknowledging they witnessed Brett touch the bases. With that settled, and as Yankee Stadium organist Eddie Layton serenaded the sparse crowd with The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, Frazier promptly, if not anti-climactically, struck out Hal McRae to end the ninth.28 Even though the “Pine Tar Game” was more baseball oddity than a moment of true historical significance, Frazier would receive interview requests about it for the rest of his life.29

Frazier was traded by the Yankees to Cleveland at the outset of the 1984 season and had a short and nondescript tenure with the Indians. In mid-June, Frazier was dealt again – this time to the Cubs along with his old college opponent, Rick Sutcliffe, who won 16 games after the trade, helping to power the Northsiders to their first postseason appearance in nearly 40 years. Frazier, for his part, was acquired to serve as a primary setup man for Cubs closer Lee Smith. Frazier initially struggled, yielding 12 earned runs in his first 11 appearances for the Cubs, but settled down thereafter and became a useful component of the Chicago bullpen, collecting six wins and three saves in a workmanlike 63 2/3 innings. He had one ineffective outing in the NL Championship Series, which the Cubs lost to the San Diego Padres in five games.

Frazier took advantage of the positive mood created by the Cubs’ successful run to the playoffs run. He negotiated a three-year contract at $600,000 per year for the first two years with a bump to slightly more than $700,000 in 1987, a princely sum for a middle reliever in the 1980s. After the honeymoon year of 1984, however, Frazer struggled with the Cubs and his elevated salary did not win him many fans in Chicago, including Cubs announcers Harry Caray and Steve Stone, who consistently criticized him on air.30

Frazier’s troubled stint with the Cubs also featured his potential involvement in a cheating scandal involving the use of spitballs.31 Frazier previously had been coy about his use of the pitch.32 He finally admitted to throwing a spitter in 1985 and went so far as to state publicly he would continue doing so “going to my grave.”33National League President Chub Feeney was incensed and sent a warning to Frazier, threatening suspensions and fines.34 No matter how much hot water Frazier was in, he continued to treat the whole matter with some bemusement. Reportedly, when Peter Ueberroth not too subtly accused Frazier of applying foreign substances to the baseball, Frazier contradicted the Commissioner: “All of the substances I use are made in the US.”35 

Frazier’s unhappy tenure in Chicago ended in August 1986 when he was traded to the Minnesota Twins. Despite being a favorite of Twins manager Tom Kelly for his professionalism, Frazier became something of an afterthought in 1987 and struggled to a 4.98 ERA. The team flourished, though, and reached the World Series for the first time since 1965. Frazier entered Game Four of the World Series in the seventh inning with the Twins already trailing, 7-2. He pitched two scoreless innings as the Twins went down to defeat in what became his final major league appearance. Four days later, when the Twins closed out the Series, Frazier became a world champion for the first time. “I’m amazed that everywhere I go people want my autograph and they say, ‘Please, put World Series champs 1987 on it.’ That’s a whole lot better than World Series Loser ’81,” Frazier would recall later.36

Frazier was not re-signed by the Twins after the 1987 season, his $733,000 salary being exorbitant for a struggling middle relief pitcher. Frazier was still only 33 but had two young sons whom he wanted to see more of. Thus, he elected to hang up his spikes. He finished his major league career with a 35-43 record, 29 saves, a 4.20 ERA and 415 appearances, all in relief.

Shortly after retiring, Frazier “married the love of his life, Kay Lynn Wood, on April 20, 1988.”37 Her family had owned a sporting goods store in Tulsa for 22 years, but the business was renamed “George Frazier Sporting Goods” to capitalize on his name recognition.38

As for a second professional career, the talkative Frazier eventually elected to give sports broadcasting a try.39 He began by calling Oklahoma State University baseball games for $100 per game. In 1998, after several other announcing gigs, Frazier was hired to be the color commentator on Colorado Rockies games. Frazier ended up broadcasting 1,800 Rockies games, becoming synonymous with Rockies baseball and most of the great moments in franchise history, including the team’s unexpected run to the World Series in 2007.40

Frazier returned to Oklahoma in 2015 as a color analyst on Sooners TV broadcasts and served in that role through the 2023 season.41 He was able to spend more time with his four children. Son Parker pitched 12 years in the minor leagues and indie ball (2007-18), getting as high as Class AAA, before eventually becoming a high school baseball coach. In 2026, he became Director of Player Development at Oral Roberts University. Daughter Georgia was named Miss Oklahoma 2015 on her way to competing in the Miss America pageant in 2016. His two other sons, Matt and Brian, were from his first marriage.

On June 19, 2023, at the age of 69, Frazier died at his home in Tulsa, Oklahoma after a short illness. When Fred Snodgrass died in 1974 more than 60 years after his infamous World Series miscue, his obituary in The New York Times famously was headlined “Fred Snodgrass, 86, Dead; Ball Player Muffed 1912 Fly.”42 When Frazier passed away, by contrast, amongst the many headlines announcing his death a reader would be hard pressed to find a mention of the record three World Series loses. His lifelong love of the game was far more frequently the lead story.

Frazier, in fact, was never shy about loving baseball with the same passion as a fan and likewise collected memorabilia: lineup cards, signed balls and equipment he accumulated from the legends he met and played with. Right there on his mantel, next to the signed baseballs from Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio, he kept one of the baseballs he threw during the 1981 World Series along with the cap he wore. Why would he preserve such memories from one of the great failings in baseball history? “Whether it’s a negative or positive,” Frazier would philosophize, “you’re a part of history. People remember you.”43

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Gregory Wolf and Rory Costello and fact-checked by Dan Schoenholz.

Sources

In addition to items in the Notes, the author consulted:

Books

Logan, Bob. Cubs Win! A Celebration of the 1984 Chicago Cubs. (Chicago: Contemporary Books, Inc. 1984).

Madden, Bill. Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball. (New York: Harper Collins. 2010).

Articles

Anderson, Dave. “Why did Lemon take out Tommy John,” New York Times, October 29, 1981.

Bailey, Eric. “Tulsan, Former MLB Pitcher George Frazier Honored During Oklahoma’s Diamond Dinner,” Tulsa World, February 7, 2016.

Brackin, Dennis. “Fed up with Cubs and Caray, Frazier spells relief t-r-a-d-e,” Star Tribune, August 15, 1986.

Brackin, Dennis. “Twins’ Frazier Asks to be Traded,” Star Tribune, November 6, 1986.

McCarron, Anthony. “Frazier was no loser in Boss’ book,” New York Daily News, August 22, 2010.

Morton, Tony. “Frazier tells it his way – reliever seldom at loss for words,” Star Tribune, October 16, 1987.

Ringolsby, Tracy. “Frazier on Postseason Experience,” MLB.com, October 29, 2016.

Roe, Jon. “It’s June, but Twins announcer Frazier is still training,” Star Tribune, June 4, 1993.

Roe, Jon. “The Twins’ oldest rookie: Frazier is back – in the booth,” Star Tribune, April 4, 1993.

Sinker, Howard. “Kelly Likes Frazier’s Pitching—and Attitude,” Star Tribune, May 16, 1987.

Online Sources

Barnes, Jon. “Bob Lemon,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, accessed July 1, 2024.

Ferguson, John. “Former Pitcher Not Struggling in Business,” Tulsa World, November 11, 1990,

Former Pitcher Frazier Not Striking Out in Business (tulsaworld.com), accessed June 12, 2024.

www.Baseball-Reference.com

www.thebaseballcube.com

Archives/Documents

Baseball Hall of Fame Library, player file for George Frazier.

Notes

1 “Geraldine Frazier Obituary,” Springfield News-Leader, February 8, 2015. Geraldine Frazier Obituary (2015) – Springfield, MO – News-Leader, accessed September 10, 2014.

2 “George Allen Frazier,” August 29, 1977, Weiss Baseball Questionnaires Collection, SABR.org, accessed online at https://sabr.org/weiss-questionnaires/george-allen-frazier-22152/.

3 Geraldine Frazier Obituary.

4 Weiss Questionnaire.

5 Doug Eaton, “Post Game: George Frazier,” Tulsa World, February 21, 2012.

6  Weiss Questionnaire.

7 Eaton, “Post Game: George Frazier.”

8 Chuck Greenwood, “More to Frazier than three 1981 World Series defeats,” Sports Collector’s Digest, May 5, 2000.

9 Lyndal Scranton, “Lyndal Scranton: George Frazier, former Hillcrest star and Major Leaguer, remembered as great athlete and person,” Springfield Daily Citizen, June 23, 2023.

10 Weiss Questionnaire.

11 George Frazier’s Sporting News contract card, LA84 Foundation, accessed online at https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll3/id/43673/rec/30.

12 Weiss Questionnaire.

13 The Cardinals sent catcher Buck Martinez to the Brewers in exchange for Frazier.

14 Frazier earned 28 saves for Springfield, the Cardinals’ AAA farm team, spread out over four partial seasons.

15 Sam Gazdziak, “Obituary: George Frazier (1954-2023),” RIP Baseball, July 11, 2023.

16 Eaton, “Post Game: George Frazier.”

17 Greg Prato, Just Out of Reach: The 1980s New York Yankees. (New York: Greg Prato. 2014), 31.

18 Prato, Just Out of Reach, 33.

19 Prato, Just Out of Reach, 33.

20 Lemon, himself, was no stranger to how fickle the baseball gods could be come World Series time. As a young pitcher, Lemon won two games for the Cleveland Indians in the 1948 World Series, including the clincher for what would turn out to be Cleveland’s last title of the 20th Century. But Lemon also lost both his starts in the 1954 World Series for an Indians team that was swept by the Giants despite having won a then American League record 111 games. Lemon was robbed of a sure win in the first game when Willie Mays made his incomparable catch on Vic Wertz’s smash to deep center field.

21 Prato, Just Out of Reach, 43.

22 David J. Herman, Almost Yankees: The Summer of ’81 and the Greatest Baseball Team You’ve Never Heard Of. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 2019), 237.

23 The 1919 World Series was a best-of-nine affair, so that, although Williams also lost three games, Frazier became (and is still) the only hurler in history to lose three games in a traditional best-of-seven series.

24 Jacob Pomrenke, “Lefty Williams,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, accessed September 10, 2024.

25 See, for example, Jacob Pomrenke, “Lefty Williams,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, accessed September 10, 2024; George Vecsey, “Frazier’s three loses set a Series record,” New York Times, October 29, 1981, Section B, 17; and Gazdziak, “Obituary: George Frazier (1954-2023).”

26 Tyler Kepner, “Returning to the Bronx, 3 Losses Forgiven,” The New York Times, June 25, 2011, Section SP, 1.

27 Frazier threw more than 100 innings each year with an ERA below 3.50.

28 Russell Bertgold, “George Brett,” SABR Baseball Biography Project, accessed September 10, 2024.

29 Frazier isn’t alone in seeing his legacy–for better or worse–tied to the Pine Tar Game. George Brett, despite a career filled with accomplishments that ultimately ended in a first ballot Hall of Fame selection, would be forever linked to the game. As he would tell Sports Illustrated, “Prior to the Pine Tar Game…every city I went to I was the ‘hemorrhoid guy’. I heard every hemorrhoid joke in the world…But…from July 24, 1983 to..[today] I’m the ‘pine-tar guy’, so it’s really the greatest thing that ever happened to me.” Sports Illustrated Staff, “Pine Tar Game: An oral history of the most controversial home run ever hit,” Sports Illustrated, July 22, 2016.

30 As Sports Illustrated later reported, “When pitcher George Frazier got to Minnesota, he was critical of Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray. ‘I don’t know if I was his personal whipping boy or what,’ Frazier said. ‘I’m not blaming Harry for my problems. But you have to understand that Harry Caray and Steve Stone are more popular in Chicago than any players.’ Caray’s reply? ‘Frazier was the most inept pitcher I’ve ever seen.’” Peter Gammons, “Baseball,” Sports Illustrated, September 1, 1986.

31 Frazier, in fact, become so well known for applying foreign substances to baseballs that before his final appearance in a major league uniform for the Twins in the 1987 World Series, Paul Molitor, serving as color commentor for ABC, told a nationwide audience that Frazier frequently threw a spitter—Molitor actually referred to it as a “Staten Island sinker”—and suggested opposing Cardinal batters call him out for doing so.

32 Bill Madden, “Suspicion of Spitter,” New York Daily News, March 10, 1983, C30.

33 As reported in Fred Mitchell, “Spitball Plot Thickens,” Chicago Tribune, March 1, 1985.

34 Mitchell, “Spitball Plot Thickens.”

35 Matt Braun, “George Frazier, Reliever from the 1987 World Series Team,” Dies at Age 68, Twins Daily, June 24, 2023.

36 Bob Hersom, “Win or lose, Frazier Series is tops,” The Oklahoman, November 3, 1987.

37 “Obituary for George Allen Frazier,” Moore Funeral Homes & Crematory website (https://www.moorefuneral.com/obituaries/George-Frazier-12/#!/Obituary).

38 Murray Evans, “Frazier Ended Baseball Career on Top,” The Oklahoman, July 11, 1989.

39 Dusty Saunders, “Frazier never at loss for words with Rockies,” Denver Post, August 7, 2011.

40 Dusty Saunders, “George Frazier: blowing out of booth at season’s end,” Denver Post, August 6, 2015.

41 “Oklahoma Mourns Passing of George Frazier,: Soonersports.com, June 20, 2023 (https://soonersports.com/news/2023/6/20/baseball-oklahoma-mourns-passing-of-george-frazier).

42 New York Times, April 6, 1974.

43 Murray Chass, “Former Reliever Aches as Kim Suffers the Pain,” The New York Times, November 4, 2001, Section 8, 4.