By H.A. Bamford

Over five decades ago, a knuckleball pitcher from Western New York made his professional baseball debut. Marion Joseph Fricano was born in Brant and raised in North Collins. Though his major league baseball career was brief, his lifetime dedication to good sportsmanship and fair play earned him lasting respect in his hometown community and in professional sports.

Marion Fricano, sometimes called “Frick” or “Tony” on the ball field was born the oldest and only son of John and Mary Fricano. Mary and John were descendents of hard working Italian immigrants who came to southern Erie County to work in the fruit orchards. One of Fricano’s younger sisters, Jeannette Geiger still resides in North Collins and describes her late brother as having “…a wonderful personality…He was always helpful…He never gave anyone a problem.” The Fricano family moved to North Collins when Marion was very young. In school Fricano excelled at almost any sport he played, but was especially good at baseball, basketball and soccer. His father’s ill health compelled Marion to divide his time between his sports his studies and work that would help support his mother and three sisters. In fact, Fricano had to juggle these responsibilities up until he was playing professional baseball in the late 1940s.

Fricano graduated from North Collins High School in 1942 and decided to postpone thoughts of a baseball career until he finished his education. He enrolled at Cortland State Teachers College to pursue a degree in physical education. These plans were also put on hold when Fricano decided to enlist in the US Navy, serving in the Amphibious Unit as a radio operator from 1943-1947. During the war years, Fricano’s father passed away. Fricano wrote to his mother nearly every day – even from a distance and under those circumstances, trying to reassure his family during a time of grief. Mrs. Geiger still possesses and cherishes these letters.

After service, Fricano again entertained ideas of a professional baseball career and in 1947 he signed his first professional baseball contract with the Dodgers organization. Fricano had not been a top prospect with local scouts – his slight frame of 5’11’’ and 170 pounds and quiet demeanor made him an unlikely candidate for such a competitive sport. However he had tryouts with the Boston Braves, Boston Red Sox, New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers, ultimately ending up in the Dodgers organization. He was sent to Johnstown, PA to play for their Class C Middle Atlantic League team, compiling a 5-2 record that year.

Fricano spent the next several years moving from city to city delivering his unique knuckleball style pitch playing Class D ball in Valdosta, Georgia in 1948; Class B ball in early 1949 with Nashua, New Hampshire of the New England League, and Class A ball for Pueblo, Colorado of the Western League. In 1950 and 1951 he moved up to play Class AA ball for Mobile Alabama in the Southern Association and on to Triple A ball in St. Paul at the start of the 1952 season. By a twist of fate, Fricano was sold to the Triple A Ottawa Athletics of the International League in May 1952. In 1952, despite a 2-0 start with St. Paul the previous year, Fricano was informed he was being sent back down to Class AA Mobile Alabama and that his contract would be sold outright to that team. Fricano asked if he could perhaps be sold to another Triple A organization. He was offered as a “30-day look” to the Philadelphia A’s Triple A Ottawa team.

Fricano played his best season at Ottawa in 1952, compiling a 17-8 record in 30 games with a 2.26 ERA – the tops in the league that season. It wasn’t until after his major league career, while playing in Dallas Fort Worth that Fricano expressed his dissatisfaction with the treatment he had received from the Dodger’s organization. In a newspaper interview Fricano stated it had been a mistake on his part to accept the $1,500 contract with the Dodgers back in 1947, believing that “the dollars invested by a major league club determine how much of a chance a rookie gets.” Fricano said, “I got my bonus and Loes (another pitching prospect at the time) received $22,000. Loes received the attention, I didn’t even get a tumble even after winning 21 games in 1949.”

Mrs. Geiger recalls that Fricano would subscribe to the local papers and send them to her. She still keeps the scrapbooks that document her brother’s minor league career. One clipping is a feature story, recounting a time when “Bobo” Newsom had a no-hitter going in a game in Mobile. The article explains how the night was spoiled for Newsom when Fricano stepped to the plate and bunted, beating out Newsom’s toss and making it safe at first. Two years later, the two men would become teammates in the majors.

All during this time, Fricano amazingly continued to pursue his studies in the off season, obtaining his Bachelor’s Degree from Cortland in 1949. Nearly every season he also played winter ball in Puerto Rico In spite of the mounting excitement and attention being given to Fricano’s professional career, he still maintained his hometown contacts. During the 1952 season a “Marion Fricano Night” was held at the North Collins High School. Fricano was the recipient of a cash award that he promptly offered back to the town to help start a youth recreation program for children.

In early September 1952, Fricano’s family made the trip north to see him get his 17th win of the season as Ottawa beat Montreal in Montreal. The next day the family traveled to Ottawa to see Fricano accept his team’s MVP award. The day after that Marion Fricano realized his dream of a lifetime – he was told to report to the Philadelphia A’s club in Boston the next day! The A’s manager Jimmy Dykes (who coincidentally had managed a western New York club not too far from Fricano’s hometown, the Class D Lockport White Sox in 1942-1943) played Fricano in 5 innings in the final weeks of the 1952 season which ended in a 1.80 ERA for the rookie’s first action in professional baseball!

1953 was Fricano’s first full season in the majors and he posted a 9-12 record in 39 games for a 3.88 ERA. Outside baseball he kept just as busy as ever, enrolled at the University of Buffalo for his masters in education! Mrs. Geiger remembers meeting a number of the players from Philadelphia who Fricano befriended in the next couple of years. She recalls meeting players such as Lou Boudreau, Bobby Shantz, Neill Wallington and Forest Jacobs. She remembers that Fricano especially liked his manager, Jimmy Dykes. By this time Mrs. Geiger was married and had a young son. Fricano posed with her son for the picture that would be used for his bio in the A’s 1953 yearbook. She recalls that for every year Marion was in baseball she and her family would take their vacation wherever he was playing.

However, Fricano’s career with the A’s and in the majors was to be a short one. In 1954 the A’s hoped for a better finish than their 7th place finish in 1953. Eddie Joost replaced Jimmy Dykes as Manager. The team finished last and Fricano posted a 5-11 record in 42 games. In 1955 the team was moved to Kansas City and Lou Boudreau became the A’s Manager. Fricano only pitched in 10 games that season. Fricano began the 1956 season with the team but was sent down to the minors soon after the season started. He spent successive seasons pitching for Dallas Fort Worth, the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Phoenix Giants, and the Seattle Rainiers before he finally quit professional baseball for good in the early 1960s. Marion Fricano, now a husband and father, returned home to North Collins.

But his association with baseball did not end there. Fricano continued to play for town teams locally, including a stint as pitcher at the age of 41 in the Buffalo Evening News’s Suburban Baseball Association Lakeshore League in 1964. In 1959, the town of North Collins once again held a “Marion Fricano Night” as part of its annual Fourth of July Friendship Festival. During the remainder of the 1960s, Fricano taught at and eventually became Director of Recreation at the Gowanda Psychiatric center. In 1961 he successfully ran for Town Supervisor, a position he held until 1973. Residents of North Collins benefited from Fricano’s tenure getting ambulance service and curbside house numbers for emergencies.

The tragedy was that Marion Fricano had given so much and seemed as if he had more to give his community when he died suddenly at the age of 52 on May 18, 1976. The cause of his death was attributed to pneumonia, a complication from cancer he had been diagnosed with earlier. Fricano left a wife, four children, three sisters, and entire community with an enormous sense of loss.

Today you can see the sign, “Marion J. Fricano Town Park” from Route 62 as you drive through North Collins. Fricano’s name can also be found in the Cortland State College Sports Hall of Fame where he was inducted in 1972. There are also the baseball cards from his professional career. And of course there are the documented memories kept by his sister, Mrs. Geiger.