This may be strange to say,but as I replay and research these baseball seasons,I get a feel for certain players,and in this case,managers of the era. Herman Franks became the manager of the San Francisco Giants in 1965,and he recently passed away at the age of 95. Plenty has been said about his involvement in the spying that took place during the 1951 National League pennant chase. However,one of the things I thought of after hearing of his passing was from the 1965 season. That summer,Franks received death threats for playing Japanese pitcher Masanori Murakami. From The Sporting News,July 3,1965:
An anonymous anti-Japanese man from Missouri threatened the life of Giant Manager Herman Franks by letter,it was learned recently in Los Angeles,and the FBI is on the case. The two-page,handwritten letter,unsigned,was received by Franks in New York. The writer objected to the Giants having a Japanese (Masanori Murakami) on their team and threatened Franks. “You won’t know where or when I’ll shoot you,”the letter read,“But I will.”Franks tried to shrug it off,but coach Charlie Fox,who has a cousin in the Los Angeles FBI bureau,advised Herman to turn the letter over. The writer based his threat on the presumption that Murakami had relatives who fought against and killed Americans during World War II. The letter writer ranted that Murakami should not be in America playing America’s national game. “The guy is just a crank who possibly did lose relatives or friends in the war,”the Giants manager speculated. “Or possibly the guy was in the war himself and is an avowed reactionary,”guessed Franks.
When Franks resigned as Giants manager following the 1968 season,his famous quote was “Is finishing second so evil?”In my replays,the Giants finished third in 1965,second in 1966,and are the pre-season favorites in 1967.
