Inducted in 2007
Professional Baseball Player, Major League Baseball
"The Fordham Flash"

Induction Video

Frankie Frisch was born on September 9, 1898 (or possibly 1897) to lace manufacturers Franz Frisch and Katherine Stahl Frisch, and was a member of the Prep class of 1916. He had also attended Fordham Grammar, Fordham's now-defunct Third Division for middle-school-aged students. The Third Division would close forever in 1920, leaving Second and First Divisions, the Prep and the University, to carry on the Fordham tradition at Rose Hill. Frisch was a member of one of the last few classes of  students to graduate Fordham Grammar, and was in attendance during the days when fellow Hall of Honor member Bro. Jeremiah Flaherty, SJ was Third Division prefect, or dean.

During his Prep (and probably pre-Prep) days, Frisch played football, baseball, basketball and ran track. In fact, it was at Rose Hill that he acquired his nickname, "The Fordham Flash," on account of his speed on the gridiron. During his two years at Fordham University, Frankie captained the baseball, basketball and football teams, and also competed in track. Walter Camp named him a second-team All-American halfback in 1918.

A switch-hitter, Frisch made his major league debut with the New York Giants baseball team in 1919. An infielder, mostly at second base, Frisch played with the Giants from 1919 to 1926 and for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1927 to 1937, consistently maintaining his reputation for speed.  As the legendary manager Casey Stengel once explained: “There was Mr. Frisch, which went to a university and could run fast besides. He was the first second basemen that didn’t pedal backwards when they hit the ball down the line. He’d put his head down and commence running like in a race, and he’d beat the ball there.”

Frisch had 2171 career singles, 2880 career hits and 1244 career RBIs — stats that have remained respectable through the years. Frankie led the National League in stolen bases in 1921 (49), 1927 (48) and 1931 (28). In 1923, he led the National League in hits (223), total bases (311), singles (169) and runs created (122). He was the leading base stealer in the NL in 1921, 1927 and 1931. He was the NL MVP in 1931. Sportswriter Damon Runyon once said, “His range was such that he played second base, some of center field and a slice of right field, too.” 

He compiled a lifetime batting average of .316 with the New York Giants and the Saint Louis Cardinals, and was part of baseball's storied “Gashouse Gang,” the Cardinals team that won three NL pennants and two World Series titles during the 1930s and included Dizzy Dean, Pepper Martin, Ducky Medwick and Leo Durocher.

Frisch was a member of the 1921 and 1922 New York Giants World Series Championship and 1923 and 1924 National League Pennant teams, as well as the 1928 and 1930 St. Louis Cardinals National League Pennant and 1931 and 1934 World Series Championship teams. In all, Frankie Frisch played in eight World Series and 50 World Series games. He had 197 at-bats, 58 hits and took home four World Series rings.

Once asked about the key to his success, he said, "There's nothing tough about playing third. All a guy needs is a strong arm and a strong chest." Apparently, the Fordham Flash had both.

After his playing career, Frankie did some baseball broadcasting and managed the Saint Louis Cardinals, the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Chicago Cubs. He was a colorful addition to the dugout. In 1946, The Sporting News said of Frankie, "Even his own players shudder at his tirades." Cubs outfielder, Carmen Mauro, described his most embarrassing moment as a pro ball player: "It was early in the 1951 season…It rained all morning and right field was sloppy. I chased a fly ball that was caught in the wind. I fell over a rut. I was splattered with mud. When I returned to the dugout, the manager, Frankie Frisch, suggested I get dancing slippers.”

Frankie had an especially fractious relationship with umpires. Consider this story from The New York Times Book of Sports Legends: Frankie argued with Bill Klem, the authoritarian dean of umpires, who often drew a line in the dirt with his spikes and said, "Don't you cross that line."' Few would, but one time, Frisch kept circling Klem while the umpire kept drawing lines until Frisch chortled, "Hey, Bill, you're all fenced in!"

Another time, Frankie muttered something after an unsuccessful entreaty to another umpire. The umpire demanded to know what he had said, and Frankie said, "You've been guessing all day, so guess what I said!" As the Pirates’s manager in 1941, he was ejected from a game when he appeared on Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field with an umbrella to protest the playing conditions. The incident was immortalized by Norman Rockwell in “Three Umpires” on the cover of the April 23, 1949, Saturday Evening Post.

But the best Frankie Frisch story comes from a speech by President Ronald Reagan: “One day the great baseball manager Frankie Frisch sent a rookie out to play center field, and the rookie promptly dropped the first fly ball that was hit to him. On the next play, he let a grounder go between his feet and then threw the ball to the wrong base. Frankie stormed out of the dugout, took his glove away from him and said, `I'll show you how to play this position!' And the next batter slammed a line drive right over second base. Frankie came in on it, missed it completely, fell down when he tried to chase it, threw down his glove and yelled at the rookie, `You got center field so screwed up nobody can play it!’”
 
Frankie was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1947 with 136 of 162 votes. He left baseball for good in 1951, but served on the committee charged with selecting new Hall of Fame inductees between 1970 and 1973. Frisch was inducted into Fordham University’s first Athletic Hall of Fame class in 1971. The other inductees were Jack Coffey, University athletic director and University and Prep coach; Tom Courtney, Olympic and collegiate track runner; and Vince Lombardi and Alex Wojciechowicz, two of Fordham’s famed "Blocks of Granite."
 
Frankie Frisch died of injuries suffered in an automobile accident in Wilmington, Delaware in 1973, leaving behind his second wife, Augusta Kass Frisch. His first wife, Ada Lucy Frisch, whom he had married in 1923, had passed away a few years before. 

As quoted in the Fordham Ram, well-known sports broadcaster and close personal friend Stan Lomax said of Frisch, "Frank was anything but a one-sided man — he had a great love for flowers." The Ram goes on to describe the Fordham Flash as having had a house full of books, having been a lover of music, and having been deeply religious.  

In the words of Rev. James Finlay, SJ, president of the University at the time of Frisch's passing, "Fordham people everywhere were saddened to learn of the death of Frankie Frisch, a great athlete and a fine gentleman — even if a bit combative on the ballfield. He maintained his friendships with his school for more than six decades. I am sure I will be joined by many in praying that the Lord grant him eternal rest. Fordham was very proud of  Frankie Frisch."

Bounded by Mosholu Parkway, Webster Avenue and East 201st Street, Frisch Field, named in Frankie’s memory, is appropriately located near the Rose Hill Campus where the Fordham Flash had spent so many years. Many a Prep baseball game and practice has been played there.

What to say about Frankie Frisch? His old Yankee boss Joe McCarthy probably summed it up best:

“What was there that Frankie Frisch couldn’t do?”