Buck Freeman | |||
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Right fielder | |||
Born: Catasauqua, Pennsylvania |
October 30, 1871|||
Died: June 25, 1949 Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania |
(aged 77)|||
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MLB debut | |||
June 27, 1891, for the Washington Statesmen | |||
Last MLB appearance | |||
April 20, 1907, for the Boston Americans | |||
MLB statistics | |||
Batting average | .293 | ||
Home runs | 82 | ||
Runs batted in | 713 | ||
Teams | |||
Career highlights and awards | |||
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John Frank "Buck" Freeman (October 30, 1871 – June 25, 1949) was an American right fielder in Major League Baseball at the turn of the 20th century. Freeman was one of the top sluggers of his era, his most famous feat being the 25 home runs he hit during the 1899 season.
A native of Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, Freeman showed talent as a pitcher from a young age. He made his major league debut as a left-handed starter with the Washington Statesmen on June 27, 1891, registering the loss in a 4-5 defeat to the Philadelphia Athletics. Freeman played in a further four games during the season, finishing up with a 3-2 record and an earned run average of 3.89.
Following the 1891 season's conclusion he did not play in the majors again for seven years. He played in the Eastern League with Toronto from 1896 to 1898 and returned to the Washington roster midway through the 1898 season. During the intervening time Freeman had bulked out and had begun to show real skill with the bat (in his 18 at bats in 1891 he had recorded a batting average of .222). In light of this the Senators decided to retrain Freeman as a right fielder, believing that he would be even more useful with the bat than he was with the ball. Albeit with only 107 at bats, he recorded a .364 batting average and a .523 slugging percentage during the final months of the 1898 season. Following his strong showing with the bat, he was named as the Senators' first-choice right fielder for the following season.
The 25 home runs that Freeman recorded in 1899 were truly remarkable by the standards of the time; the second highest total that year was Bobby Wallace's 12. Although Freeman failed to equal Ned Williamson's record of 27 home runs in a season, recorded in 1884, Freeman's total is generally regarded as the greater achievement owing to the dimensions of Williamson's home ballpark of Lakeshore Park (of Williamson's 27 homers, only two were scored away from home). Freeman's tally was not surpassed until 1919, when Babe Ruth scored 29 home runs with the Boston Red Sox.