Bill Freehan Should Be in Cooperstown

Longtime Detroit Tigers catcher Bill Freehan passed away today of Alzheimer's Disease three months shy of what would have been his 80th birthday. It is a shame he never got any serious consideration for Cooperstown because he certainly belongs. Here is what I wrote about Freehan's Hall of Fame merits more than seven years ago:

The Michigan born catcher spent his entire 15-year career with the Detroit Tigers. (2) During that 15-year career, Freehan led the AL in putouts among catchers six times in seven seasons, won five Gold Gloves and was named to 11 American League All-Star teams. From the early 1960s to the early 1970s, Freehan was the best catcher in the American League and arguably the best catcher in all of MLB until Johnny Bench came along.

Freehan finished his career with a lifetime batting average of .262 (identical to that of Hall of Famer Gary Carter) with 200 HR and 758 RBI. These numbers might look modest, but it must be remembered that Freehan played in an era where pitchers reigned supreme. Indeed, it was Freehan who caught Denny McLain when he won 31 games in 1968. McLain won both the AL Cy Young and MVP Awards. That year the Tigers would win their first World Series since 1945 and Freehan would finish runner up to McLain in AL MVP balloting. The previous year Freehan finished third in AL MVP balloting behind Harmon Killebrew and Triple Crown winner Carl Yastrzemski. However, he received only 0.5% of the vote from the BBWAA in 1982 and dropped off the ballot. There are only 16 catchers in Cooperstown. Bill Freehan deserves to be the 17^th.

Since writing those words, three more catchers have entered Cooperstown - Mike Piazza, Ivan Rodriguez and Ted Simmons, the latter earning his induction via the Modern Baseball Era Veterans' Committee last year. The Golden Days Era Veterans' Committee (which covers 1950-1969 when Freehan played the bulk of his career) will convene in December 2021. Hopefully, they will give Freehan the consideration he never got when he only received 2 votes from the BBWAA in 1982. I strongly suspect both of those writers were based out of Detroit. 

If so it is a shame that Freehan got no respect outside of the corner of Michigan and Trumbull because he donned the tools of ignorance and mastered those tools. Perhaps it was because Freehan sought no fanfare and got none. As a result, his greatness on the field was almost completely overlooked. This was exemplified by this low-key interview Freehan did with Tony Kubek prior to Game 6 of the 1968 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. He just went about his business. R.I.P.