Perrotto: I Owe a Debt of Gratitude to Adam Frazier
People often ask if I like covering baseball.
The answer is, of course, yes. I wouldn’t still be doing this for nearly 40 years if I didn’t love it.
Then again, I don’t know how to do much else. Just ask my occasionally perplexed wife.
The 2025 season marks my 38th covering baseball, and I have enjoyed 37 of them. The only year when I was miserable was in 2019.
I was working for a new employer, and it didn’t go as well as I had hoped. I could go on and on, but I’ll leave it at that.
The Pittsburgh Pirates were a mess. That is the season when it became clear that they no longer had a chance of recapturing the magic from 2013-15 when the Pirates made three consecutive appearances in the National League Wild Card.
Divisions ruled the clubhouse. Players were fighting players. Players were fighting coaches. Players were yelling at reporters and threatening them with bodily harm.
General manager Neal Huntington and manager Clint Hurdle had checked out by August and were fired in October.
Both are good baseball men, but the circumstances wore them down.
By the time September rolled around, I had walked away from my place of employment – the only time I’ve ever quit anything in my life – and was working as a freelance writer. Beaten down mentally and physically, I was 90 percent sure that I didn’t want to cover baseball beyond that season.
Before one late-season game, I was standing on the field in front of the Pirates’ dugout at PNC Park just aimlessly wandering around. None of the players had come out of the clubhouse yet for stretching and batting practice.
Eventually, Adam Frazier was the first Pirates player to walk onto the field. He stopped, and we chatted for a few minutes, commiserating over what a rotten season it was and how we were thankful that it was almost over.
Frazier isn’t the type of person who engages in long conversations. He’s more on the quiet side.
However, what I learned about Frazier over the years is that his words matter. He gives thoughtful answers to questions rather than a stream of cliches.
At the end of the conversation, Frazier casually asked if I was OK. We did not have an especially close relationship, but he knew me well enough to realize that something was wrong.
I didn’t bog him down with the details. I just said, “It’s been a tough year,” and he gave me a friendly pat on the shoulder.
It might not seem like a big deal. At that moment, it meant the world to me.
From that moment on, I’ve had as much respect for Frazier as any player I have ever covered. I was sad when the Pirates traded him in 2021 to the San Diego Padres and again Wednesday when they traded him again, this time to the Kansas City Royals.
I’m sure Frazier doesn’t remember those few minutes we chit-chatted six years ago, nor would I expect him to. He didn’t have to ask how I was doing. As a reporter, I would never expect someone I cover to take a personal interest in me.
However, Adam Frazier showed that he cared that day. I might not be covering baseball if it wasn’t for that kindness. I might not be doing what those know me well say I was born to do.
The one thing you learn quickly in the baseball writing business is that you are no longer a fan but an impartial observer. However, it’s hard for me not to break that rule when it comes to Adam Frazier.