You don't bunt with John Kruk: Great parenting advice from Jim Fregosi

Our first child was 15 months old at the time and our second was on the way, and the moment Fregosi said that, off went the bulb: That's how you raise kids.

Jim Fregosi managed the Phillies for six seasons from 1991 to 1996 / Getty Images

Our first child was 15 months old at the time and our second was on the way, and the moment Fregosi said that, off went the bulb: That's how you raise kids. You try to put them in situations where they can be successful. School, sports, vacations, jobs around the house, whatever: Put them in places where they can at least make contact. Adult life will give you enough failure. Childhood will give you enough failure. If you have any drive at all, you're going to experience failure all on your own. But a parent-manager asking the child who likes to bunt to bunt? That could only be a good thing. Now they're in college, but for years there I thought about Fregosi almost every day, sitting there in Clearwater in his shorts, holding a Styrofoam cup of coffee, dispensing his genius. He was a player's manager, all right.