Her Campus: What is your job currently?
George Frazier: Frazier Pitching Academy. We run a 14 to 16-week program in the off-season. Our main goal is to help a lot of these young men [sic.] get drafted professionally or find them a place to play in college as they get to that age level. My daughter Georgia, who was Miss Oklahoma, is a part of that with us because she won interviews, so she works with every one of the high school kids and we had 48 of them this fall for 16 weeks, where she meets with them twice a month on the interview process on how to talk to coaches, how to answer the questions, how to act when you get there, firm handshakes, all those different things. Then we have a weight and strength guy that works with us and then we have a catching instructor that works with the catchers so that’s kept me pretty busy.
HC: What do you do with the Rockies right now?
GF: Well obviously I’m doing the Fantasy Camp for them every year but I don’t do anything else broadcast-wise for now. They do bring me in to promote some different items for them which is great to come back around the ballpark to see the fans, meet some of the people who are working the ballpark that I became friends with over 20 years. It’s good for me to go back and do that, but also good for me to walk away cause I’m pretty sure I don’t want to do the broadcast full-time anymore.
HC: When you were broadcasting, how did you end up at Root Sports and with the Rockies?
GF: Well it’s a long and a complicated story. I started for the young man named Kenny Miller when I first retired from the major leagues for a company called Prime Sports. Kenny had called me, I had done some work for ESPN and ABC and he called and said he thought they’d have an opening on the broadcasting would I have an interest and that was in 1997. I said sure and next thing I know, I did Rockies telecast. Mike Diamond ran the organization at the time, we had become good friends over time through Prime Sports ‘cause he was the boss and took care of everything. So between Mike and Kenny they hired me to do the ball games and it transpired very well and so obviously, very happy and very excited that I got the opportunity to do that with the Colorado Rockies. It was fun.
HC: You played baseball for a while, is there anything you miss about playing at all?
GF: I’m 62 years old though, I’m pretty baseball-ed out as far as wanting to put on a uniform and do things. I think one thing you do miss is your friendships, you do miss your friendships, you do miss people that you knew for years and years, and a lot of guys I’ve [seen] are now managers or coaches at the major league level so it’s always good to see those guys when I broadcast but that’s probably the only thing I would miss about the playing part of it at this age. If you asked me that 25 years ago, I liked the competition, I miss the competition. I don’t miss the bus rides, the airplane flights and the different hotel beds.
HC: What do you miss about broadcasting?
GF: I think it’s just the action of the game, I miss that part of it. If I could just sit down and enjoy a game and not have to stay in a hotel or get on an airplane or do any of those things, I’d probably still be doing it. Otherwise, no, the broadcast is fun when the team is winning, when they’re not winning it’s a difficult broadcast. [sic.] But, it’s also a fine line if you have to tell the truth at times too and when the Rockies had losing seasons, it was a lot harder of a broadcast to do than the fans would recognize.
HC: What was the transition into retirement like? I’m sure it’s fun, right?
GF: It is, I get to see my grandkids and things I never got to see, I missed a lot of time watching my own kids grow up because I was gone every summer. My wife did a great job of raising them in Oklahoma, made them what they are today and you know that part of it. Transitioning into retirement is probably harder on my wife because she has to put up with me every day now.
HC: You were with the Rockies and Root Sports during the ’07 World Series, so tell me what that was like?
GF: It was fun, it was good to see. Probably for me, the most exciting part for me was to be able to see a great player like Todd Helton finally enjoy post-season after a number of years, 10-12 years of playing there and never getting to play post-season. He always used to ask me, “What is it like to be in post-season?” because I was fortunate enough, I played two World Series’ and a playoff as a player and so to see him get that and to reach that as a player I think once you’re there you think you’re going to do it every single year and it’s a whole lot harder to do than what you realize. To see the joy and excitement on his face, it was all worthwhile for me.
HC: What’s it like winning a World Series?
GF: It’s funny. It feels so quick and then you win and you get home and you’re sitting in your own easy chair and you go, “Wow, we just won a World Series.” It’s all within 10 days. You’re always going to be remembered. I’m going back for my 30th anniversary of the Twins winning in ’87 this summer in July and I’ll see a lot of my former teammates who are still alive. It’s one of those deals where you go back for it and it’s great to see your old teammates, see how many of them are fat now and can’t walk, see how many can’t do anything anymore, but it’s kinda fun to go back and obviously visit with those people and see those people, talk to them, all of the above. It’s a victory day weekend, but winning a World Series is what everyone puts the uniform on for, but the time and age has changed in baseball; guys want the money now versus playing for a ring. If they don’t win a ring the money will follow, if you’re good, they’ll keep you around and you get paid a lot of money to play baseball.
HC: Any other favorite Rockies moments you can think of besides the ’07 World Series?
GF: You know, to be honest, the first night I ever sat down to do a ballgame in that ballpark. It’s a great memory I’ve always kept. It’s a beautiful place to work every day, ownership group was great, became very close to the late Jerry McMorris and Mary McMorris from the original ownership group, Charlie and Dick. I mean there’s just a lot of things, [sic.] there’s a lot of things going on there that made it a lot of fun for me to watch the game. Seeing Todd get his 2000th hit, I mean there’s just different things, see the young players, the good players come and go, my son was drafted by the Rockies, he doesn’t play for them anymore but he was drafted by them, which was an exciting time for our family. All of those things like that, there’s a lot of great memories there and there’s bad memories you know? We didn’t play well at times, like I said a minute ago, when they don’t play well, fans get mad at the announcers, they don’t get mad at the players, they get mad at the announcers because I’m being tough enough on the players. I think the hardest thing is for the person to recognize how hard the game is to play day in and day out for 160 games. I do think they’re in the right direction now.
HC: What about big moments in your personal career? Do you have any memories that you can think of besides winning those World Series’?
GF: I think there’s a lot of different things. Getting to play for the New York Yankees, playing in a World Series with them in 1981, being around the New York Yankees, the people that played there, the people I met there, Hall of Famers [sic.]. There’s a lot of great memories in baseball, I feel like there was a lot of great and important players that I played with, they were the best they could ever be in the league we were playing in, and I think that’s one of the things people take for granted at times. I counted and I think I played with 21 Hall of Famers and that’s pretty cool, to call those your teammates.
HC: Back to broadcasting really quick, is there any advice you can give to students who want to be a sportscaster or go into a similar field?
GF: Do as much as you can, meaning do a variety. When I first got into it I did tennis, golf, baseball, softball, basketball, sideline football, I did a polo match and I didn’t know the first thing about polo. But, I did everything I could do, but I also produced my own items and I did talk shows on radio, I did talk shows on TV, I think you’ve got to learn to talk on your feet quickly, you’ve got to be able to respond, I think you’ve got to make fun of yourself. You can’t have such an ego that you’re the best ever. I think the best thing I can offer is to go out and do whatever you can do, don’t turn down any jobs and take any job that’s offered to you and go out and do it and learn from your mistakes. Watch videos, take criticism the best you can, which is hard for people to do is take criticism, but they need to. Obviously, I think today’s game is so much different in broadcasting because you have social media, everyone can be ugly to you on social media but they’re not man enough or woman enough to face up to you and say, “you’re this.” Don’t let people hurt your feelings, they’re just jealous, 90% of them.
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