New skipper no stranger to Tribe fans

By Pete Mollica

Former Indians third baseman Travis Fryman makes his managerial debut with the Scrappers.

NILES — The Mahoning Valley Scrappers will celebrate the start of their 10th season of minor league baseball Tuesday night at Eastwood Field when they play host to the Williamsport Crosscutters in a 7:05 start.

For the Scrappers, a short-season Class A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, there will be almost a whole new look to the 2008 roster and they’ll be led by first-year manager Travis Fryman, who spent 13 seasons in the major leagues as a infielder with the Detroit Tigers and the Indians.

Fryman, a Kentucky native who now resides in Molino, Fla., spent the last two spring training seasons working with the Indians major and minor league infielders as a special guest instructor.

“I’ve worked the past two springs with Ted Kubiak and I even managed the Instructional League team the last half of the season last year,” Fryman said.

The new manager has visited the Scrappers stadium twice since he was named manager and has been impressed with the facilities.

“Minor League baseball has certainly come a long way since I played,” he added. “Eastwood Field is a fine park and it’s in a great community and they have outstanding host families. We had nothing like that when I started out.”

Fryman is excited about his first managerial assignment and he likes what he sees on the team’s roster.

“The Indians have already signed several of their draft selections and we’ll probably be getting some of them in Niles, but a lot of players on the roster I’ve seen in spring training and the Instructional League,” Fryman said.

“Obviously this is a developmental league, which is the case for most of our minor league teams and we need to continue to develop players for the major leagues,” he said.

“The Indians are a strong developmental organization, they don’t rely on the free agent market and the players that we draft continue to improve and move up in the organization.

“For most of the players on the Mahoning Valley roster this is step 1 toward their big league career and for the others it is step 2 and Mahoning Valley is the early step for all of them,” he said.

As a player, Fryman was drafted in the first round (30th overall) of the 1987 draft by the Tigers and spent 13 seasons at the major league level, eight with the Tigers and five with the Indians, with whom he finished his career in 2002.

He compiled a career batting average of .274 with 223 home runs and 1,022 RBIs during 1,698 games from 1990 through 2002. He was selected to five All-Star games and was the American League’s starting third baseman as a member of the Indians in 2000. He also won a Gold Glove award with the Indians.

His best season was 2000 when he hit .321 with 22 homers and 106 RBIs. In 2008 he appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot.

“I had so many great experiences while I was playing in the major leagues,” Fryman said.

“Probably the greatest was the privilege of playing under manager Sparky Anderson for six seasons with the Tigers,” he said. “I grew up a Cincinnati Reds fan and playing for Sparky was the ultimate dream for me, it was incredible.”

Then Fryman came to Cleveland.

“I got there when they were playing before sold out crowds every single night and that was outstanding,” he said. “I got to play with so many talented players in Cleveland; they would have seven or eight All-Stars in the lineup every night and Jacobs Field [now Progressive Field] was just an incredible place to play.

“I don’t think that in all the years I played ball that I ever enjoyed playing in a stadium more than I did at Jacobs Field,” Fryman said.

Fryman said coaching is in his blood.

“My father was a high school basketball coach and athletic director for 25 years and I spent my entire childhood in locker rooms,” he said. “I grew up a coach’s son and I love the game of baseball. I’ve been the benefactor of so many older players who taught me so many things and now I have the chance to do the same thing to my players.”

Fryman said at first he really wasn’t excited about coaching and managing because of the time it involves and time away from his family.

“But this job is just about perfect. It gives me a maximum impact on baseball with a minimum of time spent away from my family. So far this has just been one tremendous experience.”

Fryman, his wife Kathleen and three sons, Mason, Brandon and Cole, will all be living here during the season.

mollica@vindy.com