Professional baseball player. While in college at University of Michigan he set a batting record of .585 in 1961. He signed with the Detroit Tigers in 1961 as a catcher. He started his major league career in 1963 where he would stay for the next fifteen years. In 1964, he had a batting average of .300 with 18 home runs and 80 runs batted in. His batting average was sixth best in the AL that year and he finished seventh in voting for most valuable player; he also earned his first of ten consecutive All-Star selections. The others came in 1965-1973 with an eleventh All-Star berth in 1975. In 1965 he received the first of five consecutive Golden Glove Awards. He led the AL in putouts for the first of six times in 1965. He topped those numbers in 1967 with a batting average of .282, twenty home runs, while breaking the American League record with 950 putouts and 1,021 total chances. He was even better in 1968 with a 25 home runs and 84 RBI -- ranking fifth and sixth in the league respectively -- with 971 putouts and 1,050 total chances, marks which remained league records until 1997. He helped the Tigers win the 1968 World Series. While his production waned a bit after that, he bounced back in 1971 with a .277 batting average and 21 home runs. He moved over to first base for the 1974 season, but was back behind the plate in 1975 and '76, his final season. In 15 years he played in 1,774 games with 1,591 hits in 6,073 at bats. He had 200 home runs, 758 RBI's and a .262 batting average. He led all AL catchers in fielding percentage four times. Freehan caught more games than any other player in Tigers' team history. In 1978, Freehan was part of the inaugural class of inductees to the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor; he returned to his alma mater as head coach of its baseball team from 1989 to 1995. He died under hospice care at home, from complications from Alzheimer's disease.