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Frank Okrie Obituary
Baseball Almanac presents the actual word-for-word transcript from the obituary of Frank Okrie, taken from The Detroit News.
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"(Hughie) Jennings, in his prime, was the greatest shortstop in baseball." - Joe Vila in the New York Sun (National Baseball Hall of Fame)
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| Frank Okrie Obituary |
Ex-Tiger Pitcher
Okrie Dies at 63
Funeral services for Frank Okrie, 63, one-time Tiger pitcher, will be held at 9:30 a.m. Monday at the Killeen Funeral Home, 9555 Chalmers, and 10 o'clock at St. Juliana's Church. Burial will be in Mt. Olivet Cemetery.
Mr. Okrie died yesterday after a lingering illness. Survivors are his wife, Marie; a daughter, Mrs. Edward Horn; and two sons, Frank Jr. and Leonard, former Washington Senators catcher who now is managing the Corning, N.Y. club in the boston Red Sox farm chain.
Mr. Okrie had a 1-2 record for the Tigers in 1920 under Manager Hughey Jennings. Frank Jr. played minor league ball and Leonard served three seasons with the Senators.
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Frank Okrie Obituary
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Frank Okrie never hit a Major League home run, but did give up two while on the mound and both were to future hall of famers: #1 to Babe Ruth on June 10, 1920 (at Tiger Stadium, third inning, one runner on base) and #2 to Sam Rice (at Tiger Stadium, fifth inning, one runner on base, and it was an inside-the park homer).
As the obit mentions, Frank's son, Len Okrie, was also a Major League ballplayer and the two of them are included on our Baseball Fathers & Sons (Mack through Young) page.
We included a Hughie Jennings quote at the top of the page as Okrie played under him with the 1920 Detroit Tigers, but did you know it was the last season Jennings served as Manager of the Detroit Tigers?
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