Another Edition of “Baseball’s Eccentrics and Zany Characters!”: “Frenchy” Bordagaray

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Another Edition of “Baseball’s Eccentrics and Zany Characters!”

 Stanley “Frenchy” Bordagaray

“The trouble with Bordagaray is that he thinks he’s a Babe Ruth and wants to be paid accordingly…trouble is, he’s not Babe Ruth, not by a mile.” –Minor League manager Lew Moreing

My post the other day on Pepper Martin and his “Mudcat Band” reminded me of another colorful character from that era who was a member of that rag-tag combo. He actually doubled as fiddler and “first washboard”: “Frenchy” Bordagaray.

I remember when I first saw the featured photo of Frenchy and his lovely wife a few years ago and thinking to myself – how can I say this nicely? – that Frenchy had married quite a bit over his head. OK…so now I’ll be blunt: What could she possibly have seen in Frenchy? I later found a few other pics of Frenchy and realized I may had been a bit too hard on the old guy. He wasn’t a bad looking hombre himself (see photo gallery).

But his wife Victoria…now that’s a different story! She’s one good looking gal. Plus, as I later found out, this was no Hollywood style Joe DiMaggio-Marilyn Monroe type marriage. The couple tied the knot in 1940 and stayed together 52 years with four children and seven grandchildren. I’d call that a pretty successful marriage!

You can almost hear the jealous chatter from his gawking teammates as Frenchy sauntered into the Brooklyn club house for the first time with this gorgeous little sugar plum (as they said back then) on his arm. Who could blame him for the “eat-your-heart-out” grin painted all over his face. The 1930’s clubhouse lingo probably went something like this:

“Hey you bums… take a gander at Frenchy’s new dish…a real knockout, a real hot tamale. This tomato’s definitely a looker! That little kitten could have any creep she wants, so what’s a good-lookin’ doll-face like her doin’ with an eye-sore like Frenchy anyhow? How’s he rate?”

I guess we can conclude Frenchy had a way with the ladies! Meanwhile back to Frenchy’s baseball career…

Yes, he was quite a colorful character. He played 11 years in the majors (1934-1945) for five different teams. A decent but not great ballplayer, over his career he hit .283 with 14 home runs and 270 RBIs. Frenchy was just zany enough to fit in with both the Cardinals’ “Gas House gang,” and the “Daffy Boys” of the Brooklyn Dodgers. That’s hard to do!

 Here’s a few things I learned about him (from his SABR biography written by Norm King):

• Frenchy actually ran a 100-yard race against a horse at the California State Fair. Unfortunately, Frenchy lost the race.
• Frenchy once forgot to go out to his position in right field. None of his teammates noticed until a player hit a double to Frenchy’s vacated spot…and no one was there!
• Frenchy loved being the center of attention, as he no doubt was one day when his Dodgers beat the Cardinals, 4-3. ”I accounted for all seven runs,” he recalled. ”I knocked in four myself and played a Terry Moore hit into a three-run homer!”
• Once Frenchy’s hat blew off while chasing a fly ball. He stopped to retrieve it as the ball flew away from him…and then continued chasing the ball! His Brooklyn manager Casey Stengel wasn’t pleased: “The cap wasn’t going anywhere, Bordagaray, but the ball was!”
• Frenchy once was tagged out when he tried to score standing up. He said he didn’t slide because “I had some cigars in my back pocket that I didn’t want to ruin.” Again, manager Stengel was not pleased.
• Frenchy caused a scandal when he showed up in 1937 sporting a mustache he had grown for a small part in a film in an era when players were all clean-shaven. The facial hair created a huge media sensation (see the photo gallery).
• Stengel finally had enough of Frenchy, and supposedly said shortly before Frenchy’s release: “One clown on this club is enough. If anyone’s going to be a clown, it’s going to be me!”
• After baseball, Frenchy invested in a company that built cemeteries and made more money with the company than he did playing baseball.
• Frenchy’s minor league managerial career came to an abrupt end when he once spat on an umpire. He was suspended for 60 days and fined $50. Told of the league action, he said: “I deserved something, but this is more than I expectorated!”

Let’s take a moment to remember Frenchy Bordagaray and his pretty wife, Victoria. Sadly, Frenchy passed away on April 13, 2000, aged 90. Victoria Bordagaray passed away on April 7, 2016 aged 97.

Gary Livacari 

Photo Credits: Featured photo from The Brooklyn Dodgers Photographs of Barney Stein, 1937-1967; All from Google search

Information: Excerpts edited from SABR Bioproject piece on Frenchy Bordagaray by Norm King; also from the Frenchy Bordagaray Wikipedia page. 

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