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William Ashley Freehan
Detroit Tigers
Catcher
Born: November 29, 1941, Detroit, MI
Signed: Signed by the Detroit Tigers as an amateur free agent before 1961 season
Major League Teams: Detroit Tigers 1961, 1963-1976
Died: August 19, 2021, Petoskey, MI (age 79)
Playing his entire career for his hometown Tigers, Bill Freehan was a perennial All-Star, a five-time Gold Glove winner and one of the best catchers of his era. Freehan played baseball and football at the University of Michigan before signing his first contract with the Tigers in 1961. Assuming regular catching duties for the team in 1964, he made his first of ten straight All-Star teams while batting .300 for the season with 18 home runs and 80 RBIs. A year later, his offensive output would slip but he'd win the first of five consecutive Gold Gloves. Freehan's career year helped win the Tigers win the pennant in 1968, as he batted .263 with 25 home runs 84 RBIs. He didn't do much in the World Series at the plate, but he caught every inning of all seven games as his Tigers defeated the Cardinals.
Building the Set
March 6, 2022 from The Philly Show (Sports Cards Plus - Cooper City, FL) - Card #564
This is the 80th of 102 cards acquired for our set from the Baseball Card Sports Memorabilia Show, affectionately known as The Philly Show, held in the basement of the Valley Forge Casino Resort in King of Prussia in early March. We went nuts and left the show needing only 12 more cards to complete our 1965 Topps set, and I wrote about the show in detail over at The Phillies Room. After our 51 card haul from Uncle Dick's, and with more card spending budget still in place, I set out to find another dealer with a binder of 1965 Topps cards with reasonable prices. I had purchased cards from Sports Cards Plus before, finding the last few cards needed for our 1971 Topps set from this dealer back in December 2019.
Settling in, we found 37 cards needed for our set with an average price per card working out to around $6. The lot, including this Freehan card, consisted mostly of semi-stars and team cards. After paying for this mini haul, we were officially 13 cards away from a complete set, with one more purchase coming to end the day.
The Card / Tigers Team Set
The back of the card references his league-leading eight hit by pitches in 1964, and he'd go on to lead the league in the same category in 1967 (20) and 1968 (24). The blurb on the back mentions Freehan was sixth in batting, behind league leader Tony Oliva (#340). His .993 fielding percentage was second behind Elston Howard's (#450) .998 mark. Freehan made seven errors in 991 chances, with Howard making just two errors in 1,008 chances.
1965 Season
Freehan was nagged by constant injuries during the season, leading to his temporary offensive decline. He appeared in 130 games, making 120 starts at catcher, while batting .234 with 10 home runs and 43 RBIs. Freehan was named to his second All-Star team and won his first Gold Glove.
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First Mainstream Card: 1963 Topps #466
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (15): 1963-1977
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 2013 Panini Golden Age #96
197 - Freehan non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 8/16/22.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database
Wikipedia
Previous Card: #389 Don Larsen - Houston Astros
Previous Card: #389 Don Larsen - Houston Astros
Next Card: #391 Mel McGaha MG - Kansas City Athletics
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