RIP Bill Freehan (1941-2021)

The Tigers lost one of their all-time greats yesterday as catcher Bill Freehan passed away at the age of 79 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. Freehan was John's favorite baseball player so he put up a quick post yesterday, and I'm sure we'll be hearing more from him when he's ready.

As for me, I thought I'd do a quick rundown of Bill's life and what I have of him in my collection.

Freehan was born in late November of 1941 in Detroit, and though his family moved from Royal Oak to Florida when he was in high school, he quickly returned to the state when it was time to go to college, opting for the University of Michigan and a place on both the baseball and football teams.

He played a season on the gridiron and hit a ridiculous .585 during the '61 baseball season, then signed with his hometown team (since the draft was almost a decade away).

Freehan got a four-game up of coffee in 1961, and then from 1963-1975 he'd appear in at least 100 games each season, ending that streak in his sunset campaign of '76.

1968 would prove to be his career-best season with 25 HR, 84 RBI, 6.9 bWAR, and a second-place AL MVP finish. He lost out to 31-game winner Denny McLain, naturally.

One of his biggest career moments occurred in that season's World Series game 5. With the Tigers on the ropes down 3-1 in the series and 3-2 in the  top of the fifth, Cardinals speedster Lou Brock doubled with one out, and it looked like St. Louis' lead would double when Julian Javier followed him with a single to left. But another Tigers legend, Willie Horton, was having none of it, and he made the deadshot throw you see in the video above to Freehan, who was perfectly positioned to block the plate and apply the tag to a furious Brock, who probably thought he was safe to his dying day.

From MGoBlue.com

Bill's bat was much cooler in the Fall Classic but it didn't matter as players like Cash, Horton, Kaline, and Northrup led the way, with McLain (1 win) and Lolich (3) doing the rest on the mound, leading to this famous shot of the Series-winning battery.

He retired after the 1976 season with his name in the record books for catchers, earning five straight Gold Gloves to go with 11 All-Star nods and two top-3 MVP finishes. Spending his entire playing career wearing the Olde English "D", Bill compiled exactly 200 HR and 44.8 bWAR. He's considered a top 20 catcher by several methods, at a very tough position at which to stay healthy and productive, and a good chunk of his career coincided with an era that stacked the deck in favor of pitchers. Sportflics rightly included him in their '86 Decade Greats boxed set as one of their three choices for the best of the '60s at his position.

The Hall of Fame didn't come calling, but #11's legacy with the franchise is a big one that deserves to be recognized with a retired number (since done for Sparky Anderson) and a statue (with Lolich, of course!) among the monuments beyond the outfield.

His contributions to his team and the game didn't end there, though, as he offered coaching to a fairly similar player in Lance Parrish along with other backstops. He also returned to Ann Arbor to helm the baseball team from 1989-95.

Bill became one of the guys I put more effort into collecting the more I started focusing on chasing PCs, especially both Tigers and Wolverines. Here's a quick look at some of my best items:

Relics: 10

Autographs: 13

Printing plates and 1/1s: 2

I also have a few other interesting pieces, including:

An IP/TTM autograph of his 1988 Domino's '68 Tigers card

A signed 8x10

Another signed photo, personalized "to Dennis" (given to me by another Dennis!)

And a bobblehead from a 2018 stadium giveaway (where I could have met John as we ended up going separately)

For me, Bill's passing leaves as big of a whole as a player like Kaline, and I'll miss him, though I'm glad he no longer has to suffer from the effects of Alzheimer's. I hope that the Tigers and MLB do a lot to honor the memory of a guy so crucial in the team's history but often ignored outside of Detroit. If you saw him play, tell your kids and grandkids about how great he was so future generations can pass down the name Bill Freehan. RIP.

2019 Sportlots purchases: Timeless Tigers

Late in the evening on Saturday the rain let up in Ann Arbor, but the Wolverines didn't when it came to pummeling Notre Dame.  I had considered celebrating on Sunday by posting the Michigan Football RCs I got from Sportlots this time, but then I didn't feel like doing all that work for now.  Instead I thought back to my Sparky Anderson post from Saturday and the mention of UD's terrific 2004 Legends Timeless Teams product, so that's exactly what I'll be showing off today.

16 teams have cards in the 300-card set, and happily for me the Tigers are one of them.  As a matter of fact, Detroit comprises 31 of that total, spread out over four teams:  1968, 1972, 1984, and 1987.  Only two of those teams won titles so in Detroit's case it might have been more fun to get the guys from '35 and '45, but as far as how this set is handled it still works out nicely.

I already had something like nine of these cards since a good number of my PC players are represented, and then I took the opportunity to fill in the rest via Sportlots, a decision I'm glad I made.

Here's all 31 cards, fronts and backs, broken up by each "timeless team":

Man, what a roster Detroit had in '68!  HOFer Al Kaline played in only 102 games, but the outfield of Horton/Stanley/Northrup was excellent--good enough, in fact, that manager Mayo Smith made the bold move to put Stanley, the CF, at SS, to get all of their bats in the lineup.  Needless to say, it worked!  PC guy Bill Freehan posted a career-high bWAR of 7.0 leading all hitters, while 31 game winner McLain and Mickey Lolich were a fearsome one-two punch.

The backs include brief write-ups along with career stats and a high-up view of old Tiger Stadium, except for Memorable Moments cards, which cover a notable stat, game, or series.

While the '72 team wasn't nearly as successful, they did push the eventual champion A's to five games in the ALCS.  The lineup was largely the same, though their performance didn't approach what it had four years earlier.  Freehan led the hitters while Lolich starred in place of the departed McLain, sent to the Senators back in 1970.  Still, the mix of players and their near playoff success explain their appearance in this set.

Honestly, how often would you see a RP that wasn't a closer for most of his career show up twice in any other set?  Canadian John Hiller had an impact on both of the teams shown so far, but his only big year as a ninth inning guy was 1973, when he put up 38 saves.  It's cool to see him get credit among the other stars you see above.

And now we get to my favorite team, with plenty of fun choices in terms of player selection.  Tram, Gibby, and Sweet Lou are all PC guys, of course, and I'm always happy to add new stuff when it comes to Lemon, Morris, and Sparky.  Speaking of Jack, I was surprised his memorable moment wasn't his no-hitter!  If I was in charge of the player selection I would have found room for Lance Parrish and Guillermo Hernandez, but this is still a great group.

HoJo is an interesting choice here as he would become more famous with the Mets later in the decade, plus he went 0-6 in limited World Series action.  He was a solid contributor during the regular season, though, and it's too bad he didn't get to stick around Motown a bit longer.

Analogous to the '72 squad, the '87 team was quite similar to the one that won it all fewer than five years earlier, but they couldn't quite get over the hump, getting flattened in the ALCS by a fun Twins team that rode some potent bats and excellent pitching to their first World Series (at least with that name).  The Tigers put up some nice offensive stats of their own, in large part due to the guys you see here, plus Darrell Evans (who also has an argument for inclusion in the set) and ROY C Matt Nokes, who filled in nicely for the departing Lance Parrish.  Morris had another nice year and the rest of the pitching was solid (or even better, in the case of Doyle Alexander, at the cost of a young John Smoltz).  That was the last time the team would sniff the playoffs until their surprise pennant in 2006.

I love that some of my favorite Tigers pop up in this set more than once--Kaline and Freehan above, the Tram/Gibby/Lou trio, Sparky, Morris, et al.  And I simply can't say enough about how cool this product was.  Throw in the autographed versions and you've got a real winner.

I'll work on getting more stuff from this purchase scanned and posted, but in the meantime, what do you think of this set?  Did your favorite team make the cut?  Were any fun players included that were key contributors to winning clubs but didn't tend to get any cardboard love?  Please let me know in the comments!