ATLANTA — Jim Fregosi, a former All-Star who won more than 1,000 games as a manager for four teams, has died after an apparent stroke. He was 71.

The Atlanta Braves said they were notified by a family member that Fregosi died early today in Miami, where he was hospitalized after the apparent stroke while on a Caribbean cruise with baseball alumni.

Fregosi ended more than 50 years in baseball as a special assistant to Braves general manager Frank Wren. Fregosi managed the Philadelphia Phillies to the 1993 National League pennant and the 1979 California Angels to their first American League Western Division title. He also managed the Chicago White Sox and Toronto Blue Jays.

He was a six-time All-Star shortstop with the Angels, who retired his No. 11 in 1988.

Lee Thomas, the general manager who hired Fregosi to replace Nick Leyva as Phillies manager after just 13 games in 1991, first met his longtime friend after being traded to the Los Angeles Angels early in the 1961 season.

Thomas fired Fregosi at the end of the 1996 season, and the relationship between the two became badly strained during that season. Only in recent years had they patched things up entirely.

“We had some differences, especially in Philadelphia at the end,” said Thomas, who now works as a special adviser in Baltimore. “We made up over that four or five years ago, and we never even talked about it anymore.”

The two friends had an especially good time last August when the Phillies honored the 1993 team during an alumni weekend.

Fregosi played in the major leagues for 18 years primarily starring as a shortstop for the Angels. He was a Gold Glove winner.

The Angels traded him to the New York Mets in 1971 for Nolan Ryan.

Fregosi finished his playing career with the Pirates in 1978.

From combined wire sources