George Freese
September 30, 2002 10:07 AM | General
By Mickey Furfari
Mountaineer
Illustrated
George "Bud" Freese was one of the most distinguished athletes ever to come out of Wheeling High.
He played football for three different teams against the great Army juggernaut of 1944-46 that featured All-America running backs Felix "Doc" Blanchard and Glenn Davis. Those were with Pitt, a military service team and then West Virginia.
"Lost all three times, but those games were memorable," Freese recalled on a recent visit to Morgantown.
But baseball was to become the sport in which Freese excelled the longest. After getting his feet wet at WVU in '46 and '47, he joined the Los Angeles Dodgers organization in '48. That triggered his 26-year career as a professional player.
"I was getting tired with the way things were going, so I decided to retire after the 1974 season," he recalled. "At least I could say I made it to the major leagues. And there were just 16 teams then -- not 30 like there are now."
Freese had the distinction of playing alongside his younger brother, Gene, for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1955. George was the regular third baseman and Gene the second baseman.
They were together for 51 games. George hit .257 with 22 RBIs and three home runs. He had played one game with the Detroit Tigers in 1953 before being traded to Pittsburgh and appeared in nine games with the Chicago Cubs as a pinch-hitter in 1961.
"The late Roberto Clemente was a rookie the year I was with the Pirates," Freese remembered. "And I got to meet a few other eventual Hall of Famers while in the major leagues. It was a great experience -- the greatest of my life. "
Ironically, Wheeling High didn't have baseball while he was there. But he was heavily recruited for football as a quarterback. He also had played basketball and helped his school to a state championship.
"I really liked football and could have gone just about anywhere," Freese said. "Alabama, Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina, Pitt and others were interested in me. But all I got from West Virginia was a letter."
So he decided to accept the scholarship Pitt offered in 1944. "We beat West Virginia (26-13) when it had Jimmy Walthall at quarterback and we also beat Penn State (14-0). But we got clobbered by Army and finished with a 4-5 record."
Freese served 13 months in military service, then later transferred to WVU where he played football under Coach Bill Kern for two years. The Mountaineers were 5-5 in 1946 and 6-4 in 1947. Freese was hampered by a knee injury and missed six weeks in his second season here.
He and brother Gene also played together one year in Double-A baseball at New Orleans, where the younger Freese currently makes his home.
"I made $8,000 the year I was in the major leagues with the Pirates," George said. "That wasn't bad when you considered that the minimum then for major-league play was $6,500.
"I was even offered a contract by the Pittsburgh Steelers to play in the NFL," Freese recalled. "That would have paid $5,500. But you couldn't play two sports as a professional in those days."
After retiring in 1974, Freese worked for a sporting goods company with which he had been associated during the off-season. He has been retired 13 years.
Freese and his wife, the former Betty Cobun of Reedsville, reside in Portland, Ore. But they enjoy coming back East every summer. That gives George an opportunity to play in the Pirates Alumni Golf Tournament and also to spend time with brother Gene.
The Freeses have a son, George Robert; a daughter, Nancy Shillingburg and a granddaughter, Elizabeth Shillingburg.
