Robert Lawrence "Buck" Frierson (July 29, 1917 – June 26, 1996) was an American

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

for the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. Since , the team ...

. He is most famous for his minor league performance in 1947, when he hit 58

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

s with 197

runs batted in A run batted in or runs batted in (RBI) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if th ...

. Frierson stood at 6' 3" and weighed 195 lbs."Buck Frierson Statistics and History"
''baseball-reference.com''. Retrieved 2010-11-27.

Career

Frierson was born in Chicota, Texas. He started his

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Moder ...

career in 1937, with the Texarkana Liners of the East Texas League."Buck Frierson Minor League Statistics & History"
''baseball-reference.com''. Retrieved 2010-11-27. In 1938, he had his breakout season, batting .342 with 15 home runs. However, his hitting declined the following season. He rebounded by hitting .335 in the

Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League The Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League was a Class B level Minor League Baseball organization that operated for the better part of 60 seasons, with teams based in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymo ...

in 1940. Frierson then moved up to the Class A Eastern League in 1941. After batting .310 for the

Wilkes-Barre Barons The Wilkes-Barre Barons were a basketball team from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The Barons played between 1933 and 1980 in different United States, American sports league, leagues. The team won 11 titles during this time, including while playin ...

, he was called up to the Cleveland Indians late in the season. In his five major league games, he batted .273 with 2 runs batted in. That would be the only chance he would ever get in the majors. Frierson spent 1942 back in Wilkes-Barre before leaving professional baseball for the next three seasons due to

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He returned in 1946 with the Sherman Twins. Despite playing in only 84 games, he made an immediate impact, batting .391 with 25 home runs. Frierson had his best year in 1947. That season, he slugged a career-high 58 homers and drove in 197 runs for Sherman-Denison, leading the

Big State League The Big State League was a mid-level, Class B (baseball), Class B level circuit in American minor league baseball that played for 11 seasons, from 1947 through 1957. Its member clubs were exclusively based in Texas. The Corpus Christi Clippers (19 ...

in both categories. He batted .379 and also led the league in

games played Games played (GP) is a statistic used in team sports to indicate the total number of games in which a player has participated (in any capacity); the statistic is generally applied irrespective of whatever portion of the game is contested. Associat ...

hits Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * '' H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block * ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998 * ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014, a British compilation album s ...

, and total bases. The 197 RBI is the fifth highest total in

minor league baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

history. Frierson was batting .367 in 1948 when he moved up to the

Dallas Eagles Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

of the Class AA

Texas League The Texas League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated in the South Central United States since 1902. It is classified as a Double-A league. Despite the league's name, only its five South Division teams are actually based in the ...

. He spent 1948 to 1951 in the Texas League. In 1952, Frierson returned to the Big State League with the Paris Indians. He had another good season, batting .376 with 24 home runs. He topped the circuit in batting average,

slugging percentage In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at-bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at-bats for a given player, an ...

, hits, and

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

s."1952 Big State League Batting Leaders"
''baseball-reference.com''. Retrieved 2010-11-27. Frierson retired from professional baseball in 1953. He died in 1996, at the age of 78.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frierson, Buck 1917 births 1996 deaths Major League Baseball outfielders Cleveland Indians players Cedar Rapids Raiders players Wilkes-Barre Barons (baseball) players Sherman–Denison Twins players Dallas Eagles players Oklahoma City Indians players Denver Bears players Paris Indians players Harlingen Capitals players Baseball players from Lamar County, Texas People from Lamar County, Texas 20th-century American sportsmen