Perrotto: An Old Friend Gets His Due From Pirates
PITTSBURGH – It was as if Lanny Frattare vanished.
The Pittsburgh Pirates announced in a press release a few days after the 2008 season ended that Frattare was retiring. There was no press conference or on-air tribute to a man who had spent 33 years broadcasting Pirates games.
A part of the Pirates broadcast team since 1976, Frattare left without fanfare.
Neither side ever said anything publicly, but there was indeed a perception that Frattare had not necessarily left on his own terms. There was talk that Frattare wanted to reduce his travel schedule, and then-club president Frank Coonolly wouldn’t agree to it.
It’s not as though Frattare completely disappeared. He just dropped off the Pirates’ radar.
Frattare has broadcast scholastic sports since leaving the Pirates and currently calls games for the TribLive High School Sports Network. He also does play-by-play on West Virginia University’s baseball team’s broadcasts on ESPN+.
Frattare’s most significant contribution might be working in the Department of Communication at Waynesburg University. Many of the students he has mentored have gone on to careers in sports media.
Yet there was always an awkward estrangement between the Pirates and Frattare that lasted well over a decade. The Pirates never held an official retirement ceremony where fans could give Frattare a proper sendoff.
However, the ice quietly began to thaw last season when the Pirates marked the 45th anniversary of their 1979 World Series championship. Frattare was part of the ceremony, though he did not speak.
Wednesday marked a complete reconciliation between the Pirates and Frattare as the team inducted him into its Media Wall of Fame.
Frattare was honored at a luncheon at PNC Park in the afternoon, and the Pirates hung his plaque in the press box during a 3-0 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the evening.
In a nice gesture, the Pirates had Frattare announce their starting lineup over the public address system. He also spent a few innings in the SportsNet Pittsburgh booth reminiscing with former colleagues Greg Brown and Bob Walk.
I had a chance to chat with Frattare for a few minutes during the game, and I don’t know if I’ve ever seen him happier in the nearly 40 years that I’ve known him. Now 77, Frattare seemed genuinely touched by the honor and excited to be back at the ballpark.
Frattare’s 33 years behind the microphone were the longest tenure in Pirates’ history when he retired.
Frattare was the soundtrack of summer for so many Pirates fans, and he narrated some of the greatest moments in franchise history. Frattare was there in 1979 when the Pirates made their last World Series appearance, beating the Baltimore Orioles, and from 1990-92 when they won the franchise’s last three division titles.
Fans of a certain age will never forget Frattare saying, “Hi, friends, and a very pleasant good afternoon,” “go ball, get out of here,” and “there was noooo doubt about it.”
Frattare earned his place in Pirates’ history. It was heartening to see it become official on Wednesday.