Lance Parrish has served in many capacities for the Detroit Tigers&;as a player, a minor-league catching instructor, a minor-league manager, a major-league coach, and a television color analyst. He is an eight-time All-Star and the recipient of three Gold Gloves. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Phil Pepe is the author of more than 40 books on sports, including collaborations with Yankees legends Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin, and Whitey Ford. He is a former Yankees beat writer for the New York Daily News and a former president of the Baseball Writers Association of America. Al Kaline is a former right fielder for the Detroit Tigers, a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and a front office official for the Tigers.

Catcher

1. Bill Freehan

2. Ivan Rodriguez

3. Mickey Cochrane

4. Mickey Tettleton

5. Matt Nokes

This is not a misprint, and it's not evidence of my ignorance of baseball history. I know Mickey Cochrane is in the Hall of Fame, Pudge Rodriguez will be once he becomes eligible, and Bill Freehan is not. I know Cochrane had a lifetime batting average of .320 and that he hit over .300 nine times, that Rodriguez is hovering around .300 lifetime and has hit over .300 10 times, whereas Freehan had a lifetime batting average of .262 and batted .300 just once.

But the objective here is not to pick an all-time team, but to pick my all- time Tigers team. Cochrane played for the Tigers only four of his 13 major league seasons (the other nine were spent with the Philadelphia Athletics). Rodriguez made his name, for the most part, with the Texas Rangers; he was a Tiger for only five of his almost 20 major league seasons. Freehan was "Mr. Michigan." He spent his entire 15-year career with the Tigers.

So Bill Freehan is my choice as the No. 1 catcher in Tigers history because of his longevity with the team — and I'll take the flak from those who would disagree. Actually, I don't feel I have to apologize for picking Freehan as the Tigers' No. 1 catcher — that's how good he was.

Besides, Freehan is a hometown guy. A Detroit native, he was a football and baseball star at the University of Michigan (and when his playing career was over, he went back and coached his alma mater's baseball team from 1990–95) who was signed out of college by the Tigers for the then-princely sum of $100,000.

That was in 1961. Two years later, Bill took over as the Tigers' No. 1 catcher at the age of 21 and kept the job for the next 14 seasons, except for 1974, when he played more games at first base than at catcher. After he became the Tigers' regular catcher, he was a fixture there, making the All-Star team 10 straight years, seven as a starter. He even had the honor of catching a pop-up off the bat of Tim McCarver for the final out of the 1968 World Series, which is entirely fitting because Bill was, and is, one of the most popular players in Tigers history.

I admit to being slightly biased where Freehan is concerned. Bill was still the Tigers' No. 1 catcher as I was coming up through their farm system in the mid-1970s. After his career ended in 1976, he would come down to spring training and work with the catchers, so naturally he worked with me quite a bit. The Tigers made me his pet project. He spent a lot of time with me in the bullpen and on the field working on mechanics, so he sort of became my personal instructor and mentor. I learned a lot from him.

As a young guy trying to soak up knowledge, having a guy like Bill Freehan there to learn from, with all he has accomplished in the game, gave a big boost to my development. One thing was especially helpful: Bill and I are about the same height — he's 6'2" and I'm 6'3" — and I struggled to find a comfortable stance behind the plate. I never knew if I was low enough, nor did I ever get confirmation from anyone that I had a proper stance until Bill started working with me.

Bill made good suggestions, like getting me to spread my feet more, and he would always tell me if I was doing things right. Getting that reassurance that I was on the right track from someone like him, such an outstanding catcher, was a great boost for my confidence.

All of the pitchers I talked to for whom Freehan caught, including Mickey Lolich, John Hiller, and Hank Aguirre, had nothing but great things to say about Bill. They praised his ability to handle a pitching staff, to call a game, to set up hitters, and to stay on the same page about pitch selection throughout the course of the game. From what they said, he was a very good glove man who rarely dropped anything, which I found interesting, because Bill used one of those old "no break" gloves. When I was in high school, I played with one. It was like a big, round pillow with a little pocket. Unless your glove was really broken in, you needed to catch two-handed. But these guys — Lolich, Hiller, and Aguirre — just raved about Freehan's hands, how soft they were and how well he handled pitchers.

All of that is supported by his statistics. Freehan led the American League in putouts six times and in fielding average three times, and he won five Gold Gloves. When he retired, he had a career fielding percentage of .9333, a major league record for catchers that lasted for almost 30 years. He also had major league records for career putouts and total chances that would last for more than 10 years, and he was ninth in major league history in games caught.

As a hitter, Freehan finished with 200 homers and 2,502 total bases, placing him third all-time among American League catchers at his retirement.

On the Tigers' all-time list, Bill is 10 in games played and at-bats and ninth in home runs. He also holds a couple of Tigers records I'm sure he'd rather not have. He's their all-time leader for a single season and a career in getting hit by a pitch.

Five years after he retires (if he ever does retire), Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez will be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, in all likelihood in his first year of eligibility. It will be an honor and distinction that is richly deserved.

What Mickey Cochrane and Gabby Hartnett were to the 1920s and 1930s, Bill Dickey was to the 1940s, Yogi Berra and Roy Campanella were to the 1950s, Johnny Bench and Carlton Fisk were to the 1970s, and Fisk and Gary Carter were to the 1980s, Pudge Rodriguez is to the 1990s and 2000s — the standard by which all catchers are measured.

Pudge is a pretty amazing catcher. As far as numbers go, there are not too many guys who can compete with him — in offense as well as defense.

I remember watching Pudge when he came up with Texas in the early 1990s. He was a pretty good hitter, but the thing that stood out to everybody was his defensive skill, especially in throwing. Hitters just couldn't steal off him, and they couldn't get too far off base or they would be picked off.

The thing that baseball people talk about when they look at a catcher is footwork. When you're throwing the ball to second base or you're trying to pick a runner off first, the movement of your feet is a big determinant in how fast your throw will get there. I have always said that Pudge had the quickest feet of any catcher I have ever seen.

In 1999, when Rodriguez won the American League's Most Valuable Player award playing for Texas, somebody asked me about him, and I said, "This guy, when he's behind the plate, has a chance to control the tempo of the game and control the opposition's running game. He's that good. Guys are afraid to get off first base too far, they don't get good leads,...