George Frazier, a former MLB pitcher who won a World Series with the Minnesota Twins in 1987, has died, the Colorado Rockies announced Monday night. He was 68.
Frazier was a broadcaster for the Rockies. He played in the majors from 1978 to 1987.
“We are deeply saddened at the passing of former Rockies color analyst, George Frazier,” the Rockies said on Twitter.
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Former Major League pitcher and 19-year color analyst George Frazier is presented with an honorary jersey by Colorado Rockies owner Dick Monfort and members of Colorado Rockies senior management during a retirement ceremony before a game between the Colorado Rockies and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Coors Field on Sept. 25, 2015 in Denver. (Dustin Bradford/Getty Images)
“A retired MLB pitcher, George was a mainstay and the voice behind many classic calls on Rockies broadcasts from 1998-2015. For a generation of Rockies fans, George Frazier was synonymous with Rockies baseball.
“Our thoughts are with George’s wife, Kay, and his four kids, Matt, Brian, Parker and Georgia, during this time.”
Frazier was battling an undisclosed illness, Rockies commentator Drew Goodman told The Denver Post.
“In a game full of charismatic characters, George had a seat at the head table,” Goodman, who worked with Frazier from 2012-2015, told the paper. “He had more stories than anybody and you’d listen and walk away thinking, ‘No way that ever happened, but it’s funny as hell.’
“Some of the stories were born in truth but there was a whole lot of embellishment involved. But that’s OK. Everybody loved George and he knew everybody. And he could talk. And he was a truly giving guy. He’d do anything for you.”
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Frazier was a relief pitcher and played for the Twins, St. Louis Cardinals, New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs over the course of his career.
After three seasons with the Cardinals, he joined the Yankees and was among the highest-paid relievers at the time. However, in his first World Series appearance, he had a series he would have liked to forget.
George Frazier, #43, talks with catcher Rick Cerone, #10 of the New York Yankees, during a game in the 1981 World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)
Frazier lost three games for the Yankees in the 1981 World Series becoming the only pitcher to do that in a seven-game series, according to the Star Tribune. He spent two more seasons with the Yankees before he joined the Indians and was later traded to the Cubs.
Frazier got his redemption in the 1987 World Series with the Twins. He pitched two scoreless innings in the team’s Game 4 loss, but Minnesota would win in seven games.
Frazier joined the Twins’ broadcast team in 1993 and later the Rockies in 1998. He was with Colorado until 2015.
Rockies manager Bud Black remembered Frazier as a “baseball guy.”
George Frazier speaks during a retirement ceremony before a game between the Colorado Rockies and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Coors Field on Sept. 25, 2015 in Denver. (Dustin Bradford/Getty Images)
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“George was always a friendly face that came into the visiting clubhouse and came into the visitors’ manager’s office,” Black told MLB.com. “I always enjoyed my conversations with George. He’d come in, sit down on the chair, and we’d talk baseball. We were contemporaries, to a certain extent. Our timelines overlapped, and it was an easy conversation. It really was.”
