The Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fameis proud to announce the induction, posthumously, of Mervin Freeman of Goodwater into the Hall of Fame, Individual Category as a player/builder on Saturday, Aug. 15, in Battleford.
Merv Freeman was born March 11, 1931, to Clarke and Bernice Freeman of Goodwater. Growing up on the farm north of Goodwater, there was always lots of work to do, but baseball was always on his mind.
Slim Bartelmy was coach and manager of the Goodwater team when Freeman was a teenager and part of the team. He faithfully attended practices and games. He was a great athlete with super reflexes and lots of power. With the lack of good pitchers and trying to win tournaments, Freeman played many times. When his arm could not carry the pitching duties, he took on the duties of catching and first base.
As a catcher, Freeman knew the weaknesses of every batter in the league, making pitching much easier with his ability to call a smart game. He also knew the umpires and did a great job keeping them on their toes. Freeman was also a very powerful left handed, clean up batter. A high fastball usually ended up out of the park.
Freeman was picked for the Souris Valley League All-Star team to play at the Indian Head tournament. Although they did not win, they represented the Souris Valley League very well.
Playing with or against Freeman was always a pleasure as he was a great sportsman and gave a person credit where credit was due.
During his twenty years of playing baseball, from the late 1940s through the late 1960s, Freeman recorded a .300 batting average.
Following his years of playing baseball, Freeman coached the Goodwater team for several years with great success. He had a very good work ethic with young players and developed many young men into successful baseball players. He was instrumental in keeping the Souris Valley Baseball League going at a time when fastball was in competition.
Freeman and his wife Jean had three children, Ken, Sharon and Janice.
He farmed and raised cattle until his retirement in 2005.
Freeman died Feb. 18, 2009.
