Student Athlete of the Month: 05/01/2015
Bio – When the Hall of Fame announced its Golden Age voting results for 2015, baseball fans were shocked that not a single player from the 1947–1972 period gained entry to Cooperstown. Long before the final tally was reported, fans of the Detroit Tigers—along with anyone who watched the game during the 1960s and early 1970s—were already scratching their heads, wondering why Bill Freehan’s name wasn’t even among the finalists. The dominant catcher in the American League for a decade, he was a perennial Gold Glover and 11time All-Star during a big-league career that began in 1961 and ended in 1976. Between Yogi Berra and Carlton Fisk, he was the man. Yet in his first year of Hall of Fame eligibility, he was one and done, with a meager two votes. Jim Sargent, an authority on Detroit sports, authored this biography of the legendary backstop. Jim had the opportunity to spend some quality time with Bill a few years after he left his final baseball job as coach of his alma mater, the University of Michigan.