1971 Topps #575 Bill Freehan
About Bill Freehan
Freehan played 117 games in 1970, and his bat slipped to .241 with 16 home runs. He drove in 52 runs, threw out 47 percent of base stealers and fielded .997. Bone graft surgery on his lower back followed on September 2. He rebounded in 1971 with a .277 average, 21 home runs and 71 RBI. He caught 144 games and hit three home runs in a 12-11 loss to Boston on August 9. Card #575 is a fifth-series issue that shows him with Detroit.
Bill Freehan was born November 29, 1941, in Detroit, Michigan. At the University of Michigan he caught and played end and linebacker in football, batting an all-time Big Ten record .585 as a sophomore in 1961 and winning All-America honors as a catcher before signing with his hometown Tigers. He debuted that September and spent his entire 15-year career (1961, 1963-1976) behind the plate for Detroit, making 11 All-Star teams and winning five straight Gold Gloves from 1965 through 1969. He held the major league record for a catcher's career fielding percentage (.9933) until 2002 and the career putouts mark (9,941) into the late 1980s. He was Detroit's catcher for the 1968 championship and finished runner-up in that season's AL MVP voting. Freehan later coached Michigan's baseball team from 1989 to 1995 and instructed Tigers catchers; he was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1982. He died August 19, 2021, at 79, of Alzheimer's disease.
Sources: Wikipedia · SABR BioProject · Baseball-Reference · Baseball Almanac
Graded population (PSA & SGC)
| Grader | Total | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1-4 | Auth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA | 358 | 0 | 3 | 109 | 173 | 55 | 10 | 8 | 0 |
| SGC | 20 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
Graded population — a scarcity guide, not a price. Data as of 2026-10-19. Half grades fold down for both graders (8.5→8); PSA qualified slabs (OC, ST, PD, MC and the like) are not counted.
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Related cards
Team card: #336 Detroit Tigers
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- #39 Tigers 1971 Rookie Stars
- #71 1970 American League Strikeout Leaders
- #86 Mike Kilkenny
- #101 Les Cain
- #120 Willie Horton
- #133 Mickey Lolich
- #154 Cesar Gutierrez
- #180 Al Kaline
- #208 Billy Martin
- #229 Jim Hannan
- #265 Jim Northrup
- #296 Tom Timmermann
- #316 Fred Scherman
Frequently asked questions
What is the 1971 Topps #575 card?
It is card #575 of the 752-card 1971 Topps Baseball set, picturing Bill Freehan of the Detroit Tigers.
How many cards are in the 1971 Topps Baseball set?
752 cards, tracked as 761 collectible states. Numbers run from 1 to 752 with none skipped, issued in six print series (132/131/130/130/120/109 cards), the sixth (#644-752) the high numbers; seven cards carry catalogued print variations that the master set counts separately - the #42, #265 and #306 photo pairs and the #123, #206, #369 and #619 checklists, #369 and #619 in three printings each.
Sources: Trading Card Database, PSA (its price guide, master set registry and set article), BaseballCardPedia, Cardboard Connection, Baseball Almanac, Baseball-Reference, the SABR BioProject and the National Baseball Hall of Fame, PSA & SGC population reports. Card data compiled and maintained by T206Cards.com. Page last updated 2026-10-25.