Top Tigers #17: Bill Freehan
By Blake VandeBunte • Feb 28th, 2009 • Category: Bill Freehan, Top 100 Tigers- Rank: 17
- Name: William Ashley Freehan
- Position: Catcher
- Tigers Tenure: 1961-1976
- Awards: 11 time All Star, Received MVP Votes 6 times (2nd in 1968), 5 time Gold Glove Winner
- Best Season: 1968. If you know your baseball history, you know that 1968 was an awful season to be a batter. Batting numbers were down league wide but nor for Freehan. He posted career highs in home runs (25) and in RBI (84). Those totals ranked him fifth and sixth in the American League respectively. Freehan also posted his career high in OPS+ with a mark of 145, sixth best in the league. In addition to those fine offensive numbers he was the catcher for one of the best Detroit pitching staffs ever and won another Gold Glove.
- Good Stuff: Freehan was an excellent hitter for a catcher. Over the span of his career (1961-1976) only Johnny Bench hit more home runs amongst catchers. Bench and Freehan were the only one’s to top the 200 home run mark. Over that same period of time, not catcher had more hits than Freehan did. In fact, Freehan out hit Bench by over 200 hits. When Freehan retired, no catcher in baseball history had more putouts or total chances. Those records have since been broken. However, it shows you how good Freehan really was. Not only was he one of the best hitters of his era, he was also one of the better defensive catchers of all time.
- Bad Stuff: Like most catchers, Freehan was painfully slow. Over his 15 year career he managed to steal a total of 24 bases. Granted the Tigers ran into Bob Gibson in the 1968 World Series, but Freehan really struggled to collect hits in that series. While he was wonderful in the regular season, Freehan got only two hits in the entire series in 24 at bats, good for a batting average of only .083. Those are both pretty weak items for this category, but I really couldn’t find much to complain about. Freehan as a great player.
- Place In Tigers History: I know I went on this same rant in the Lou Whitaker post, but I just don’t understand why Bill Freehan is not in the Hall of Fame. Every other player in baseball history with 11 All Star games is in the Hall of Fame. Every single one of them! Why exclude Freehan? The only thing I can think of is that his career just happened to overlap with the likes of Yogi Berra and Johnny Bench. It’s not Freehan’s fault that he played at the same time as two of the best catchers in the history of the game. I’ll stop complaining now. Freehan is remembered by Tigers fans and I guess that will have to do. For now.
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Freehan was the best catcher of the era and vocal leader of the Tigers in his day. I agree that many Tiger’s players for whatever the reason, not in the large media market as new york, los angeles, boston, just don’t get the exposure from press , national media, so excellent players with HOF numbers and resumes like Freehan, Whitaker, Trammell, Morris, Tommy Bridges, and Bobby Veach fall short in the minimum 75% for election.
We can only hope that eventually they will gain election through the Veterans Committee.
That’s my hope. It’s sad that many Tigers greats have their HoF fame in the hand of the Veterans Committee. Just not fair.
This was great, Freehan has always been my favorite from that era. It was great to see the comparisons, most if not all that I was not aware of… I just liked watching him play. As for slow, I loved to watch him plod, not run in place mind you, but plod.
Bill Freehan was my boyhood hero, and is still my favorite player that ever put on the ole English D.
Freehan SHOULD be in the Hall of Fame, the stats back that up, especially defensively.
The play on Lou Brock in Game 5 of the World Series was one of the great plays ever in the Fall Classic, and yet Freehan, and Willie Horton’s throw, are overlooked because it’s the Tigers. If that play was made by a Yankee or a Red Sox, it would be revered by the baseball community.
Thanks for the terrific right up on my favorite Tiger ballplayer.
i forgot to inculde this group…
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=273663514450
It’s the Facebook page for PUT BILL FREEHAN IN THE HALL OF FAME.