Ah, Roger Freed!!!! One of the things I love about seeing photos or hearing about names from the past are the memories it provides me and Freed gives several. Here are a few of them...
Freed was the International League MVP in 1970 and when the Phils got him in a trade there was much excitement, he was going to provide the power hitting that the club needed. And on Easter Sunday, in the second game ever played at Veterans Stadium, Freed gave us a glimpse of that promise as he hit a grand slam and knocked in 5 runs in an 11-4 win.
Alas he would hit only 6 HRs that year and was clearly an AAAA player. Another memory of that year was that Freed wasn't the only rookie outfielder the Phils were touting, they had a veritable plethora of them. Here is a walk down player memory lane...Joe Lis, who had hit 36 home runs in Triple A the year before [another bust], Mike Anderson, a tremendous prospect with a great arm who was never the same after a terrible beaning incident but still a decent player and oh, a couple of guys who made it.
Willie Montanez, the guy the Phils got when Curt Flood refused to report in the Richie Allen deal, hit 30 home runs and knocked in 99 as a Phillie rookie and in September the team brought up a youngster from Illinois with a great reputation. Fellow named Greg Luzinski and for the next 10 years he would form with Mike Schmidt a middle of the order power pack that would give the Phils and their phans many of the memories that they thought they were getting when they acquired...Roger Freed, the forgotten #20.