#Freehan79 ... FIVE Gold Gloves

Welcome to Day #5 of my 11 Day Countdown to the 79th Happy Baseball Birthday! of my baseball hero, Bill Freehan, on November 29th. 

The thing that always stood out to me about Bill, and truly made me a fan, was his defensive greatness.

🐯 Here's Bill's fielding percentage from 1963-1971.

.995

.993

.996  *GG

.996  *GG

.992  *GG

.994  *GG 

.992  *GG

.997

.996

From his first full season in the big leagues, the young backstop out of the University of Michigan was a defensive force for Detroit, and, Bill was the FIRST Big League catcher to win 5 CONSECUTIVE GOLD GLOVE AWARDS, 1965-69! 

 

1️⃣1️⃣ -- 11 times in his career, Bill's fielding percentage was at least .992! 

When Bill retired after the 1976 season, his lifetime career fielding percentage was .993...a big league record that stood for nearly 25 years!

It's been 44 years since Bill retired from the big leagues, yet, he's still 36th on the All-Time Catchers Lifetime fielding percentage! 

🤲 As I was reading Fugis post today I read about the challenge of giving thanks at the end of each post, through Thanksgiving, from Trevor at Bump and Run Football Card Blog.

🦃 As I blog about my baseball hero these 11 days, I have one person to thank for my love of not just Bill Freehan, but of the game of baseball, and that's my late Uncle Bob, who taught me the rules of the game, how to switch hit, and, most importantly, the sportsmanship of playing, and being a fan, of baseball.

📝 Here's my Happy Baseball Birthday! post for my Uncle Bob in 2010. 

👉My Uncle Bob grew up a fan of the great Mickey Mantle, and would tell me about the many battles between the Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series.

He, and his friends would cheer on New York, while my Uncle Paul and Grandma rooted for "dem Bums."

👍 These days I'm thankful for all of you who take a moment from your day to read my blog... I'm truly blessed by you all.

Have a terrific Turkey 🦃 week.

PLAY BALL! ⚾