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Wednesday, February 7, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Local man continues baseball odyssey
By Craig Rullman
Correspondent
Gene Frechette knows
something about baseball.
Frechette, a former resident
of Sisters now living in Eagle
Crest, has spent 55 years asso-
ciated with professional base-
ball, and he’s on a mission to
preserve the arms of young
pitchers.
Frechette is among the
deans of professional pitching
instruction.
Orlanda Cepeda, a 1999
inductee into the baseball
Hall of Fame, had this to say:
“In my career as a player I hit
against many premier pitchers
who had exceptionally good
pitching mechanics. Gene
is one of the select handful
of teachers out there who I
consider one of the best. He
teaches youngsters the use
of full-body mechanics from
balance over the rubber, plant
and propel to follow through
and finish off.”
“It’s about learning to
pitch, instead of just throw,”
Frechette told The Nugget
in his office, which is cov-
ered with memorabilia from
his decades as an associate
MLB scout with the St. Louis
Cardinals, San Francisco
Giants, the Oakland A’s, the
Chicago Cubs, the Milwaukee
Brewers, and the Arizona
Diamondbacks.
Frechette’s insistence
on the proper biomechan-
ics changes the forces put on
a pitcher’s arm and elbow,
so that the rest of a pitcher’s
body is doing the work, and
“the arm is just coming along
for the ride.”
Gene points to gamers
like Roy Oswalt and Tim
Lincecum as evidence of his
method’s success, and Hall of
Famers like Nolan Ryan and
Steve Carlton as examples
of the longevity provided
by proper biomechanics in
pitching.
“In 1971,” Gene said,
“Carlton went 20-19. The next
year he changed his mechan-
ics. That season he went
27-10, pitched 30 complete
games, pitched 346 innings,
struck-out 310 batters and had
an ERA of 1.97. And he won
the Cy Young. Do the math.”
Baseball fans may have
noticed the alarming number
of pitchers in recent years
who have fallen to injury
and “Tommy John” elbow
surgery. Gene’s system is
designed to prevent poten-
tially career-ending injury
and surgery and, he says, will
actually increase a pitcher’s
velocity by 5-10 mph.
“When I was pitching I
couldn’t dent sand,” Frechette
said. “But my mechanics were
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right, and I had control.”
Gene, who wears a 1957
Cardinals World Series ring,
is well-known in baseball cir-
cles for having scouted Dusty
Baker out of high school in
the Sacramento area. Years
later, he would partner with
Baker and become the CEO
of the wildly successful Dusty
Baker International Baseball
Academy, a post he held for
almost 30 years.
He remains good friends
with Baker, and their camps
have been a launching pad for
numerous professional base-
ball hopefuls.
A native of Michigan’s
Upper Peninsula, Frechette is
also a veteran of the Korean
War, where he served with
the 5th Air Force. He is also a
talented swing musician, and
once played drums behind
Louis Armstrong while on
leave in Japan. “It was only
one song,” Gene says, “but
what a thrill, and I did pretty
good.”
Following the war
Frechette returned to
Michigan, where he earned a
College World Series ring as a
pitcher for Western Michigan
University, and his favorite
baseball memory.
“I was older and knew I
wasn’t going anywhere as a
player,” Gene says. “We were
playing Miami of Ohio, down
PHOTO BY CRAIG RULLMAN
Gene Frechette has taught proper pitching biomechanics for years.
5-0 in the fifth, and had used
up all of our pitchers. I didn’t
think I’d get in the game,
you know, I just wanted to
be around baseball knowing
I had no chance of getting
drafted. But they brought me
in and I pitched a no-hitter
the rest of the way and we
won 9-8. I could have run for
mayor that night.”
Frechette is currently orga-
nizing a free two-hour clinic
in Central Oregon, date to be
determined, to help pitchers
of all ages learn proper bio-
mechanics and increase their
velocity.
Attendees would be asked
to make a one-time, tax-
deductible donation to the
Wounded Warrior Project.
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