Gerry Fraley, Baseball Hall of Fame (writer’s wing)
I wanted to take a moment to remember someone who was first a mentor and eventually became one of my best friends in the sports writing business. Gerry Fraley, who died in 2019, will be inducted posthumously into the writers’ wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown this weekend.
“Frales” truly was one of a kind, the definitive baseball beat writer who knew everyone in the game. He had started his career by writing for the tiny Clearwater Sun, his hometown newspaper to later become one of the country’s foremost baseball writers of the modern era. I will never forget first meeting him in March of 1985 at the old West Palm Beach Stadium. He was the Braves’ beat writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution then and I had been assigned to spring training for the local newspaper. We were walking along the first-base line one day as he gave me the ins and outs of the Braves’ roster. Outfielder Dale Murphy walked up to greet him. “Don’t ever swear around Dale, he’s a devout Morman,” he whispered to me. Then shortstop Rafael Ramirez came over and he and Gerry conversed in Spanish. A minute or two later, Hank Aaron, then in the Braves’ front office, waved to him from the stands. “Hey Hammer!” Gerry yelled.
Years later, when he moved to Dallas to cover the Rangers, team owner George W. Bush became one of his good friends.
It seemed that Frales knew almost every scout, every umpire, every bench coach, manager and player and he talked to them all the same way he did the future president of the United States. Frales’ acerbic sense of humor kept me in stitches for years to follow, as we often covered Florida State or Florida football games together during baseball’s off-season and nights on the town with him were unforgettable. But he was taken from us and from his keyboard way too early.
I know he would be in his element this weekend in Cooperstown, catching up with old friends, but I really believe he will be looking down on the ceremony, cracking a self-deprecating joke or two. Congrats Frales! I sure wish you were here to receive this honor in person.
Written by one of Gerry’s friends and co -workers.
This story was copied from the FB page of the Class of 1972 with their permission.
