Frank Lucchesi spent more than 40 years in organized baseball — as a player, coach and manager. On three occasions, he managed Major League Baseball (MLB) teams: the Philadelphia Phillies (1970-1972), the Texas Rangers (1975-1977) and the Chicago Cubs (1987). Both at the major and minor league levels, Lucchesi was one of the game’s most respected minds. When he retired from coaching, Lucchesi chose to make his home in Tarrant County. He spent the last quarter century of his life in Colleyville in a home he purchased for his family near Little Bear Creek.
When I put the word out on social media that I was writing about Frank Lucchesi, I heard from many people who ran into him over the years in Colleyville and its environs. Time and again, I heard that he was fun, friendly and kind. Despite his big league pedigree, Lucchesi was not the kind of person to “big league” anyone. He seemed to build an instant rapport with people who encountered him out and about on his errands, in baseball settings and at his many public speaking events.
“He was a first-class guy — a good family man, a good manager, respected by his players. He was a longtime baseball man who had the respect of everyone in baseball. And he was a good friend,” former Rangers general manager, four-time MLB All-Star and Fort Worth resident Eddie Robinson recalls.
For decades after Lucchesi left coaching, Robinson saw him at charity golf events and the many Major League Baseball alumni gatherings in the Metroplex.
“He had such a huge heart,” Karen Lucchesi, Frank’s daughter, says. “Whether they won or lost, he’d drive outside the gate at Arlington Stadium, pull over, roll down his window and he would sign every autograph, whether it was five kids or 75 kids,” remembering back to her childhood when her dad managed the Rangers.
“Frank was a very friendly, very outgoing, very positive, upbeat guy,” longtime Rangers beat writer T.R. Sullivan says of his friend.
The pair became acquainted in the late 1980s when Sullivan was covering the team for the “Fort Worth StarTelegram.” He would run into the recently retired Lucchesi around the Rangers’ ballpark. The two developed an immediate rapport over their shared knowledge and love of the Bay Area. Sullivan had attended the University of San Francisco and was well-acquainted with the region’s baseball history. For Frank, San Francisco was his hometown.
Lucchesi was born into a family of Italian immigrants in San Francisco in 1927 and raised in the city’s heavily Italian North Beach neighborhood. “Luke,” as he was known by his teammates, attended Galileo High, the same school as the DiMaggio brothers. Standing only 5’7”, Lucchesi made up for his size with tenaciousness, hustle and smarts. Frank was a standout outfielder at Galileo. After receiving an honorable discharge from the Army, Lucchesi signed on with the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League. The sense of determination “Luke” brought to the baseball diamond enabled him to earn a paycheck as a professional baseball player for 13 years. Though he never made it to the majors, Lucchesi hit a solid .277 for his minor league career and was a notoriously dangerous base stealer. Along the way, “Luke” met a pretty young brunette named Cathy Menotti in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, who became his wife in 1954 and companion for the next 65 years.
The baseball smarts that “Luke” displayed did not go unnoticed. At age 23, “Lou,” as he came to be known in professional baseball, became the youngest manager in the history of the New York Yankees minor league system. He served as a player-manager for several seasons, initially with the Medford (Oregon) Rogues of the Far West League. Often in his early years as a manager, Lucchesi coached players who were older than him. Nevertheless, Lucchesi earned the reputation of a consummate teacher of the game who treated every one of his players as their own man. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Lucchesi turned team after team into winners, winning several league championships while employed by the Philadelphia Phillies organization.
“If you look at Frank’s minor league record, it’s very impressive. He’d coached a lot of those young Phillies who ended up being very successful — guys like Larry Bowa, Denny Doyle and Greg Luzinski,” Sullivan recalls.
“I remember that Frank was well liked by his players,” Bob Baillargeon says.
Baillargeon played for Lucchesi briefly in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, in 1959. Decades later, Baillargeon, who ran a Ford dealership in Richardson, renewed his acquaintance with his former manager and the pair became friends.
“He expected performance and was fair. He was a young manager with a young family and the fans loved him,” Baillargeon says.
In 1970, Lucchesi finally got his shot in the big leagues, taking over as Phillies manager. Over the course of the next decade, “Lou” steered the ship for a pair of rebuilding franchises — the then-perennially sad sack Phillies and the Texas Rangers, who were still getting their bearings in Arlington.
“Frank was very popular in Philly,” Sullivan says. “When he got fired in Philly, the Philadelphia Italians were very upset. They took that hard. He’d been the manager there for two and a half years, and they didn’t think he got a fair shake.”
Lucchesi had a similarly short leash in Texas, losing his job midway through the Rangers’ tough 1977 season.
Despite the losing career record he posted as a major league manager (316-399), Lucchesi was highly regarded in baseball circles for his focus on player development, a willingness to give chances to young ballplayers and always having his players’ back. Both in the majors and the minors, Lucchesi got thrown out of more than a few games defending his players and his team. “Lou” proved himself quite willing to get in an offending umpire’s face. On one occasion in the minor leagues, he climbed a flagpole in Syracuse, New York, to protest an umpire’s call and refused to come down for 10 minutes until the ump agreed to reconsider.
Even when he wasn’t managing at the big league level, Lucchesi worked for several different major league franchises during the 1980s as an advance or special assignment scout. In 1990, Lucchesi finished his managerial career with the Nashville Sounds, the Cincinnati Reds’ AAA affiliate. Players in Nashville credited Lucchesi for the open line of communication he kept with them, meeting regularly with players one-on-one as he had throughout his managerial career.
Lucchesi first came to Tarrant County in 1974 after Billy Martin hired him to serve as the Rangers’ third base coach. In July 1975, Lucchesi took over for Martin, who was fired after Texas got off to a 44-51 start. The Rangers rallied for “Luke,” posting a 35-32 mark down the stretch that season. Lucchesi remained the Rangers’ manager until the middle of the 1977 season and maintained a strong relationship with the club even after he was fired. “Luke” returned in 1979 to serve as the team’s third base coach.
In 1976, Lucchesi moved his wife Cathy and three children to Arlington. During the mid-1990s, they settled in Colleyville — after Frank’s retirement from baseball.
“My father just loved Texas, and he loved the people,” Karen Lucchesi says. “Being the close Italian family we are, they built a house two doors down from me [in Colleyville].”
To this day, the Lucchesi family all lives within a few blocks of one another. The warm climate, favorable tax laws and large fraternity of ex-ballplayers have drawn many baseball lifers to the region. In Frank’s case, his long and warm relationship with the Rangers organization no doubt encouraged him to stay in the area. Moreover, Lucchesi’s tight-knit family was largely in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
Despite his brief tenure as manager, Lucchesi was one of the best ambassadors the Rangers ever had. He was a masterful raconteur and a much in-demand speaker at charity luncheons in the region. “Lou” had time for every fan — he signed every autograph, took every picture and genuinely enjoyed bantering with fans. He was a fixture at Rangers Fan Fest and on the region’s hot stove baseball banquet circuit.
Lucchesi was heavily involved with charity in the area, not only for the Rangers organization but working independently. When Frank saw a story of a child in need in the newspaper, he often took it upon himself to bring them some presents and some laughs. In 1992, the “Fort Worth Star-Telegram” named Lucchesi its man of the year for his efforts in the community.
“He would read the newspaper and just see a story that got to his heart and soul,” Karen Lucchesi says, remembering the often seemingly instinctive way that her father was looking out for his neighbors in the community, particularly children.
“Lou” often attended meetings of the Dallas Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), regaling the membership with entertaining stories from his more than 40 years in professional baseball. Initially, Lucchesi showed up at the meetings because he was interested in hearing about baseball.
“He was quiet and unassuming,” Paul Rogers, the president of the Dallas Chapter of SABR, says. “He would just come by himself and leave by himself. He was pleasant. He spoke to everybody and enjoyed chatting. He enjoyed just coming and listening to the baseball talks that were going on.”
Eventually, Rogers asked him to speak at the meetings, and he was a huge hit.
“Everybody loved having him there because he’d been a big league manager, but he didn’t have any airs. He seemed to appreciate being remembered,” Rogers says.
Following a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease, Lucchesi died at his home in Colleyville on June 8, 2019 at the age of 92. Friends, family and former players, as well as many casual acquaintances, eulogized him as a unique and warm character, both on and off the field.
Clayton Trutor holds a Ph.D. in U.S. History and teaches at Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont. He is the author of “Loserville: How Professional Sports Remade Atlanta — and How Atlanta Remade Professional Sports” (University of Nebraska Press, 2021).