Of Detroit’s top 24 players ranked by career WAR, Bill Freehan is the only catcher. His career WAR of 44.8 places him 18th on the list. Freehan caught 1,581 games for the Tigers, more than any catcher.
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Features
Bill Freehan’s Hall of Fame Case (Part One)
An interesting conversation that came out of a recent SABR Detroit meeting was the importance of Bill Freehan to the 1968 Tigers, as well as his Hall of Fame credentials. Freehan’s name comes up a lot more in Hall of Fame discussions now that the old Veterans Committee has been replaced by committees specified to eras
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Joe Falls: What I’ll Miss About Tiger Stadium (From 1999)
The thing I will miss most about Tiger Stadium are all the empty seats. Not on game day. But when the game is over. How many days, how many nights, did I sit in the press box when the game was over and our work was done and look out at the empty stadium. The ushers and guards had gone home and the groundscrew was finished with their work and all that remained were those empty seats. Those lovely empty seats.
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In The Dugout With Legends: A Briggs Stadium Batboy Reminisces
Imagine being a teenager in 1940s Detroit and taking the street car to Michigan and Trumbull to watch the Tigers[…]
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Were the Page Fence Giants Major League Caliber?
While in 2006 the National Baseball Hall of Fame inducted nearly two dozen long ignored and deserving black players into the shrine, others today remain on the outside looking in. Members of the 1896 black world champions Page Fence Giants club are stuck in the era where very few game statistics exist, and black players were relegated to a few teams. However, a look at anecdotal evidence indicates that major league caliber ball players existed on this long ignored black club.
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Kuenn’s Crown: A Look Back at Harvey Kuenn’s 1959 Batting Title
On April 17, 1960, on the eve of the new baseball season, the Detroit Tigers and the Cleveland Indians executed a blockbuster trade. The Tigers’ Harvey Kuenn [pronounced “KEEN”] went to Cleveland in exchange for Rocky Colavito. On the surface, it was a normal exchange of outfielders, but the reality is that the league’s batting champ was traded for the league’s home run leader. On April 17, 1960, on the eve of the new baseball season, the Detroit Tigers and the Cleveland Indians executed a blockbuster trade. The Tigers’ Harvey Kuenn went to Cleveland in exchange for Rocky Colavito. On the surface, it was a normal exchange of outfielders, but the reality is that the league’s batting champ was traded for the league’s home run leader. Kuenn had hit a hefty .353 and Colavito had scored forty-one home runs.
Read moreBook Excerpt: The Page Fence Giants
For those seeking a way to place the Page Fence Giants on the black baseball continuum, the task is a difficult one. Figuring out why no one has ever written on book on this championship baseball team may be a bit easier to discern. Here are my thoughts as to why this team has been ignored throughout baseball history.
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