Frenchy: Jim Lefevbre Remembered.

Jim Lefevbre, Dodgers second baseman and Rookie of the Year in 1965. I remember him well. James Kenneth Lefevbre was born on January 7th, 1942, in Inglewood, California. He was the second child of Ben and Virginia Lefevbre. He had an older sister and two younger brothers. Ben was a hitting coach of some renown as a coach for the American Legion and college (Pepperdine) baseball. Some of the major leaguers he coached were Don Buford, Sparky Anderson, and Billy Consolo.

All three of his sons, Jim, Gil, and Cliff, would play professional baseball. Jim started working with his dad at the age of 10. They worked on his skills for hours, and his dad encouraged him to switch hit. They worked on the double-play pivot for hours, and Jim could be seen working out long after his father went inside.

Jim went to Morningside High in Inglewood, a league rival of my school, Mira Costa. He earned all-league honors there three times and was named Player of the Year his senior year. He also played for the Dodger Juniors against semi-pro teams, and in his senior year, he was the visiting team’s batboy at games at the Coliseum. He would later say that being a batboy was a great experience. The players, especially Don Zimmer and Dick Schofield, would talk baseball with him and work on the field with him. One thing he learned was that when a good player was down, he always bounced back. The idea is to keep with it, don’t get discouraged, and keep hustling. Things will turn around.

After graduation in 1961, Jim signed with the Dodgers for $11,000 dollars despite having a $25,000 dollar offer from the Angels. He was signed by scouts Kenny Myers and Lefty Phillips. Myers was the scout who signed Willie Davis, and he would sign Wes Parker the next year. Jim reported immediately to the Reno Silver Sox of the Class-C California League. He slashed .327/39/130 and won the Win Clark Award. Given to California’s Most Outstanding First-Year in Pro Ball player. He also made “The Sporting News” Class-C minor league All-Star team at second base.

In 1963, he was at Salem, Oregon, and was selected to the Class-A All-Star team. He hit .283 with 17 homers and 92 RBIs. The next year he was with Spokane at AAA. He hit .265 with six homers and 31 RBIs there in 55 games. He also spent time that year in the Arizona Instructional League. Batting .321 with seven long balls and 22 knocked in in 42 games. Part of his time was lost due to a service commitment.

Having missed the 1964 spring training because of his military training, Jim fully expected to be back in Spokane in 1965. He was brought to Florida as a non-roster invitee. He had a great spring, and the Dodgers, looking to make some changes after a sixth-place finish in 1964, made him the starting second baseman.

Teamed with Maury Wills, SS, Jim Gilliam, 3B, and Wes Parker, 1B, they formed the first all-switch-hitting infield in major league history. A hot start enabled some to call Jim the best Dodger second baseman, besides Gilliam, since Jackie Robinson. The best was yet to come. The Dodgers led the league on August 14th by a slim margin. Lefevbre made an error that cost them a game against the Mets. At the lowest point of the season for him, a call from Jackie Robinson turned things around and carried the youngster through the end of the year. Jackie told him he had been where he was, but just do not give up and believe in yourself.

On September 16th, the Dodgers were 4 1/2 games behind the Giants, who had ridden a 14-game winning streak to overtake the Dodgers. When their streak ended, the Dodgers went on a 13-game streak of their own, led by Lefevbre, who hit .333 and drove in 10 runs in that span, including four game-winners. His fielding also became steadier. The Dodgers won the pennant by two games and went to the World Series against the Twins. Lefevbre was 4-10 before an injury in game 3 knocked him out of the series. He hit .250/12/69 and was named Rookie of the Year. Joe Morgan of the Astro’s finished second in the voting.

Prior to the 1966 season, he opened a baseball camp on Catalina Island. His salary doubled to 15 thousand a year. But despite being the ROY at second, he admitted a position change might be at hand. He felt that third would be a better spot for him. He preferred hard-hit balls to slow rollers. He was good enough at the position to become the 9th different opening day starter in the Dodger’s 9 years in LA. His stay there was short-lived, and he returned to second for the bulk of his games.

He was always a hard worker, and one time, he was so ashamed of a recent string of errors that he missed a personal appearance because he felt he had embarrassed the team. Alston assured him the team had not lost confidence in him and that he should keep working hard to improve. For example, on one road trip, he swung a bat against a phantom opposing pitcher while his roommate slept. He then went out the next day and hit homers from both sides of the plate against the Reds.

His big thrill that year was being chosen to replace the injured Joe Morgan on the NL All-Star team. He went 0-2 against Denny McLain in the NL’s 2-1 win. He hit .274/24/74 and set the season mark for homers by a Dodger second baseman. That mark would stand until 1979, when Davey Lopes hit 28. The Dodgers won the pennant and lost the series in four games to the Orioles. No one knew it at the time, but Lefevbre would never come close to those numbers for the rest of his career.

Koufax retired after the 1966 season, so changes were coming to the Dodgers. Injuries dogged him in 1967. But the team itself was going nowhere fast. Dr. Kerlan blamed Frenchy’s injuries on his weight. He had a pulled muscle and a shoulder injury.

Jim was also busy working in the movie industry. He appeared on Gilligan’s Island, Batman, Alice, St Elsewhere, Mash, and Knight Rider. I remember his Gilligan’s Island bit. He and Al Ferrara were headhunters.

1968 was supposed to be a comeback season for the Dodgers. They traded injury-prone Ron Hunt and brought in Zoilo Versailles to play SS, and moved Lefevbre back to second. But he could not stay on the field. First, he injured the same heel he had injured in the World Series. Then a sprained wrist kept him out for 53 days. Then in September, he had a pulled hamstring. His season was basically a wash, and he appeared in only 84 games.

The team finished in 6th place. But that winter, Jim married Jean Bakke. Their son Ryan was born in 1971. More of the same for Jim in 1969. Eight games into the season, he injured his ankle. When he came back, he lost playing time to 1969 Rookie of the Year, Ted Sizemore at second and Bill Sudakis at third. Reduced to a part-timer, he played in 95 games.

There was a real dogfight for playing time at the infield positions in 1970. Sudakis, Wills, Lefevbre, Sizemore, Mota, Russell, Garvey, and Grabarkewitz were all trying to nail down spots on the roster. Jim would get into 109 games; his BA was .252. But he only managed four homers and 44 RBIs. The team finished 14 1/2 games behind the Reds.

The Dodgers had tried to trade Lefevbre during the 1970 season, but neither deal happened. Before the 1971 season, Jim, Wes Parker, and a local DJ started lecturing at high schools about drug abuse; they took classes to learn which drugs were abused the most. Invited to the White House by President Nixon, Jim and teammates Wes Parker and Pete Richert attended a conference there on drug abuse. He had a resurgence of sorts, hitting .245 with 12 homers and 68 RBIs.

In 1972, Frenchy had the best spring of his career. He beat out Bobby Valentine for the starting second base job. The season started late because of the players’ strike, and Jim took advantage of the time to work on his physical conditioning. But the season was a total disappointment for all as the Dodgers finished a distant third behind the Reds, and Lefevbre had his worst season ever, hitting just .201.

That winter, he and Parker received the first Brian Piccolo award from the National Council of YMCAs in Chicago for their continuing efforts to prevent drug abuse. As for baseball, Jim had to decide whether to retire, remain a part-time player, or find a new setting where he could start. He opted for the latter. The Dodgers released him, and he signed a three-year no-cut $300,000-dollar contract with the Lotte Orion’s to play in Japan from 1973-1975. He also got a house in Tokyo and expense money. In his first two seasons, he did pretty well. .265/29/63. His second year, .283/14/52. He only got into 47 games in 7195. He returned for what would be his final season as an active player in 1976.

But it seemed he had worn out his welcome. He and his manager, Masaichi Kaneda, had a feud of sorts. Kaneda threatened to punch him after he threw his glove at a wall after being removed from a game. But eventually, they buried the hatchet, and Jim returned to Japan to coach for Kaneda the next season.

He returned to the states and was briefly a scout for the Dodgers before He was named manager of their Lethbridge team in the Rookie League. Sax, Webster, Marshall, and Maldonado were some of his players who made it to the majors.

In 1979 he was named the hitting instructor and first base coach under Tommy Lasorda. Lefevbre and Lasorda had become close. Jim was replacing the recently deceased Jim Gilliam. Tommy knows what it takes to win, he said, mentally, physically, and emotionally.

A week after the season ended, Lasorda fired him. This even though he had endorsed his book, The Making of a hitter. Lefevbre cited personality issues and a difference of opinion in batting theories. In February of 1980, the two men got into a fight at KNBC Studios in Burbank, where they both were scheduled to air an interview. According to witnesses, Lasorda finished first and waited for Lefevbre to arrive.

They went into an empty studio and began shouting at each other. When two NBC employees entered, they found the two wrestling on the floor. Frenchy said Lasorda took off his coat and charged at him. Jim threw a punch and bloodied Lasorda’s nose. TSN columnist, Dick Young, said Lasorda started the altercation by accusing Jim of trying to undermine him, and Jim responded by accusing Lasorda of selling him out as a Dodger coach.

Lefevbre then went to the Giants and became their hitting coach in 1980. Darrell Evans, Jack Clark, and Larry Herndon were some of the players who benefitted from his instruction. During the strike, in 81, he helped Giant SS Johnnie LeMaster become a switch-hitter by having him take 200 swings a day from the left side.

He met his second wife, Ruth, during this time, and they had three children, Briana, Brittany, and Bryce. He was promoted to the Giants’ Field Director of Player Development. The following year, he started the Giants winter camp, the first team to do so.

In 1985, he returned to the dugout as Manager of the Giants Phoenix AAA affiliate. They made the playoffs, and then in 86, they won the PCL’s southern division title. In 1987, he went to the A’s as LaRussa’s hitting coach and first base coach working with Walt Weiss and Mark McGwire the next two seasons.

In 1989 he was named manager of the Seattle Mariners. He got a two-year deal. He was extremely optimistic even though the Mariners had never had a winning season. He noted that several of the players were winners but did not know it yet. Those first two years did not reach the lofty goals he had hoped, but Seattle believed enough to bring him back for one more year in 91. He led Seattle to their first winning season ever but was still dismissed along with pitching coach Mike Paul at the end of the year.

He was not unemployed long. The Cubs hired him as manager over coaches Tom Trebelhorn and Chuck Cottier to manage the team in 1992. They finished fourth in 1992. Injuries to three of their starters had a lot to do with it. Sosa, Dunston, and Mike Harkey went down to injuries. They played better in 1993 and finished over .500 for just the third time since 1972. Maddux and Dawson leaving as free agents had made his job all that much harder. But it was not enough to save his job. The Cubs GM fired him after a 2-day meeting in Phoenix.

He went back to coach with the A’s in 1994-1995. He was then out of the majors until 1998, when Brewer’s manager, Phil Garner, hired him to replace Lamar Johnson in August. He did clinics at his home in Phoenix that winter and helped guys like Cirillo, Jenkins, Banks, and Hughes. He remained with the Brewers in 1999, and when Garner was fired in August, he took over as interim manager and led the Brewers to 22 wins in their last 40 games.

He held clinics in Europe in 2000 and 2001. He then was the hitting instructor for the Reds in 2002. Beginning in 2003, he was hired to rebuild the Chinese National Baseball Team. In 2005, he coached the Chinese team in the Baseball World Cup, Asian Championship, World Baseball Classic, Asian Games, and the Summer Olympics.

In 2008, His team beat Taipei for their first-ever Olympic win. He went to coach for the Padres in 2009 but was fired in July, ending a pro baseball career that had lasted four decades. He now lives in San Diego with his wife and does broadcasts for the Kansas City Royals. So much talent and just a mediocre career. He did have some shining moments, though.