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But Bill Freehan should be in the HOF. He was the American League equal to Johnny Bench at the time with a better on field pct and slightly lower BA. An 11 time All Star and 5 time Gold Glove winner deserves a second look by the Veterans Committee. It's a long shot, but he was a rock behind the plate.
A recent news article indicated that he's in poor health battling Alzheimer's.
p.s. Lou Brock should have slid in game 5 of the 1968 World Series. Freehan stood his ground and tagged Brock out. The entire WS changed on that play.
The 1968 World Series was my first recollection of a watching one as a little kid. I thought it was a classic.
The thing that stands out to me was that every game was played during the day. Put on the TV as soon as home from school and watched. When at school, I followed the game on the radio other kids brought to class.
The other thing that stood out was the pitching. It was amazing watching guys like Gibson, Lolich, and Mclain pitch. 3 of the 7 games were completed in less than 2:30. Only one went over 3 hours.
I do agree with you that Freehan deserves in the HOF. I thought he was a great player, playing in an era where batting averages overall were a lot lower than the era that followed.
Here is a brief video of the Lou Brock play you referenced at home. He definitely would have been safe had he slid. Note the perfect throw from Willie Horton:
With a 16 yr career and 260 Hr's.....I had his baseball card as a kid
and and in those days players like Johnson/Bilko were described as bonus babies or phenoms. We would flip for cards rather than buy them. There
was a certain stance one assumed when flipping cards and if you were any good it was expected you could flip 100 straight heads or tails. The
main concern was the wind which could strike on the 81st flip.
late '50s team would have all these guys + Yaz
In addition to shortstop Carl Yastzremski signing a MLB contract off the ND campus, the Irish lost 2 other baseball players to the majors that season- all 3 were projected to start for the Irish in the upcoming season:
**LHP Frank Carpin (see link below)
signed a MLB contract after one season on the ND varsity baseball squad. Carpin had struck out 102 in 36 innings!! That ND record stood until Aaron Heilman struck out 118 in 1999...though Heilman took 61 innings to accomplish the feat.....Carpin also struck out 19 in a 10 inning game vs Indiana
Carpin played with the Pirates and Astros in the majors
**LHP Larry Nosse
also signed a MLB contract off the ND campus...albeit Nosse never made the majors
a ND baseball player who was left behind on that varsity Irish squad after those 3 left - RHP Jim Hannan, later pitched in the Majors for the Washington Senators, Tigers and Brewers over a 10 yr MLB career.
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of note
two "Bonus Babies" signed off the Notre Dame campus would have been on the 1957 ND College World Series team IF they hadn't gone pro:
**Tommy Carroll SS
Mentioned in the previous post was 6'3 shortstop Carroll signed off the ND campus with the Yankees & appeared in a World Series
and
**'Diamond' Jim Brady LHP
Signed off the ND campus by the Tigers one year after Carroll -for $ 37,500..a lot of money for those days with the bonus amount the reason supposedly that Brady picked up the 'Diamond' nickname
Brady played in the majors with the Tigers but eventually went back to ND to get his degree + a masters & Doctorate.....taught economics at ND & Old Dominion & later was President of Jacksonville U
Amazing the amount of Baseball talent that ND came oh so close to getting.
There is a Bishop Kenny in Jacksonville FL.
As far as I'm aware--the HS that is now St. Pete Catholic used to be Bishop Barry HS back in the 50's, when Freehan would have been playing.
DL Marty Lyons of Alabama and NY Jet fame played for St. Pete Catholic back in the 70's.