Bob Freels

Countless Illinois high-school basketball players knew Bob Freels as “Mr. Steps,” the hawkeyed referee who made sure no traveling penalty went uncalled.1 Freels apparently became so fond of the nickname that he carries it for eternity: It’s etched into his gravestone in his hometown of Mascoutah, Illinois, in the southern part of the state, about 25 miles as the crow flies from St. Louis, Missouri.2

A former minor-league pitcher, Freels didn’t pick up a similarly memorable nickname on the diamond. But he has a line in the big-league record book because of serving as a replacement umpire during an umpires’ strike in April and May 1979, working eight St. Louis Cardinals games at Busch Stadium. At other points in his life, Freels was a US Navy veteran, a teacher, a principal, a coach, and a sporting-goods salesman.

Freels was born Robert Leroy Bergheger in St. Louis on July 18, 1927.3 Records and newspaper stories indicate that he spent his childhood in the Mascoutah home of his grandparents, William and Mary Bergheger, and was known as Bergheger through his high-school years.4 His mother, Hilda Bergheger, married Earl Freels of St. Louis when the boy was about seven years old,5 and he began to use his stepfather’s last name around the time of his 18th birthday.6

Freels grew into a multisport star as a member of Mascoutah Community High School’s Class of 1945. His feats may have been most notable on the basketball court, where he was a leading scorer on the Mascoutah High team that won a local conference title.7 Freels put up 38 points in one game, setting a school record that lasted for more than 30 years. (In 1976 he officiated the game in which his record was broken.)8

On the baseball field, Freels was described as Mascoutah’s “mound star” and “mound ace.”9 Pitching summer baseball on his 18th birthday in 1945, he hurled a seven-hit shutout against a team from nearby Belleville.10 In his final appearance that summer, he outdueled a rival pitcher who later gained fame in another sport. Freels scattered seven hits for a 4-3 win over Bob Goalby, a Belleville native who went on to win 11 PGA Golf Tour events, including the 1968 Masters.11 Freels also won varsity letters in track and band, in which he played the trombone.12

His youth spared Freels combat duty in World War II. The war in Europe ended a few weeks before his high-school graduation in May 1945,13 while the fighting in the Pacific ended in early September. Freels enlisted in the Navy in July 1945 and achieved the rank of Seaman First Class before being discharged in August 1946.14

As early as first grade, Freels shared a classroom with a girl named Constance “Connie” Mann. When he developed into a high-school basketball star, Mann was part of the cheerleading squad rooting him on. Freels and Mann were married on September 27, 1947, and remained wed for the rest of his life. Their family eventually numbered five sons.15 Another significant aspect of Freels’ future life also fell into place in 1947, as he registered as an Illinois high-school basketball official.16

Freels followed two paths after leaving the Navy. He attended college – first at the University of Illinois, then at McKendree College in Lebanon, Illinois, about eight miles north of Mascoutah – while also pursuing a professional baseball career in the minor-league system of the St. Louis Browns.17 He also did construction work and worked in a foundry during winters, and his hobbies during these busy years included hunting and fishing.18

His pro career got off to a scorching start in 1947, when the 20-year-old went 19-2 with a 2.15 ERA, leading the league in wins, for the Belleville (Illinois) Stags of the Class D Illinois State League. Freels lost two decisions, then won 19 in a row, including a 10-3 complete-game win on “Bob Freels Night” against Marion on August 22.19 He received a set of golf clubs and a bowling ball and bag as gifts from the Mascoutah business community.20

Seasons of 13, 14, and 12 wins followed as Freels worked his way up through Classes C and B. His teammates in these seasons included future big-leaguers Roy Sievers, Don Larsen, and Don Lenhardt. Freels – who was listed as 6-feet-1-inch tall, 200 pounds, throwing and batting right-handed – also occasionally played first base and the outfield, particularly with the Wichita Falls, Texas, team in 1949, when he made 25 appearances at first and 14 in the outfield.

The 1951 season brought another sensational performance, as Freels went 17-5 with the Dayton Indians of the Class A Central League – tied for third in the league in wins with teammate Ryne Duren – and pitched briefly in Double A for the San Antonio Missions. He also got at least one chance to show his stuff to the parent club. On April 3, 1951, Freels gave up seven hits and four runs in five innings against the Browns while pitching for San Antonio.21

Life must have seemed promising for Freels as 1952 began. At 24, he was just two levels below the majors, and he’d posted impressive numbers in the minor-league system of the team with the American League’s worst pitching staff.22 A newspaper profile of him that January noted that he “hopes to make [the majors] as soon as possible.”23

Instead, the season turned disastrous. First, Freels tried out unsuccessfully for the Triple-A Toronto Maple Leafs that spring before being returned to lower levels.24 Then a shoulder injury stopped his career in its tracks. Pitching for Class B Wichita Falls, he was hurt in his first start, then was returned to San Antonio.25 Freels also pitched a single game for San Antonio, giving up four hits and a walk without retiring a batter. He never pitched another pro game. Late in the season, he was reported to be pitching batting practice for the Browns – not the big-league job he’d had in mind when the season started.26

Freels’ education, fortunately, laid the groundwork for a productive transition out of baseball. While still a junior at McKendree, he took a job in the fall of 1950 as physical-education director and basketball coach at a Catholic high school in Breese, Illinois, about 23 miles from Mascoutah.27 Freels also excelled in local sandlot baseball in the early 1950s, switching to first base.28

After three years at the high school in Breese, Freels became principal at an elementary school in Centralia, Illinois. He stayed in that role until 1965, when he resigned to become a salesman for Curt Smith Sporting Goods, a business that employed several salesmen who had been prominent on the region’s scholastic sports scene.29

Throughout the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s, Freels officiated high-school and college games, including baseball, basketball, and football. These amateur games were lower in profile than Freels’ later work in major-league baseball, but they were not always lower in intensity – especially high-school basketball. During a state final game in March 1972, Freels was tripped and kicked by a cheerleader from one of the teams and later called on a police officer to protect him from a threatening spectator.30

The following year, the irate coach of a losing team publicly blasted Freels’s officiating. “We talked about Freels before the game because we knew he was travel crazy. … When you see that Freels is officiating, you know you’re going to have about 20 traveling calls,” Coach Sherrill Hanks of Quincy High School said.31 Another longtime coach “fired” Freels on the spot three times after tournament losses.32 News reporters weren’t always friendly either, like the one who accused Freels and a partner of “legal larceny” after a game in 1967.33

During his brief time working in the big leagues, Freels said the trials of Illinois high-school basketball had prepared him well for the majors: “Compared to doing an East St. Louis-Collinsville basketball game, [major-league umpiring] is a piece of cake. The state basketball tournament has more pressure than this.”34

Freels might have continued officiating amateur sports until he retired, if not for labor strife in early 1979 involving the major leagues’ unionized umpires. Seeking pay increases, the regular umps did not report when spring-training games started on March 7, and most of them stayed away as the regular season approached.35 The umpires had also walked off the job for a single day the previous season – August 25, 1978 – before a court order forced them back to work.

Major-league teams were responsible for obtaining their own umpiring crews to keep the games going, and here the Cardinals ran into problems. An amateur umpiring group called the Greater St. Louis Umpiring Association staffed the first four home games before its members voted to stop.36 A similar group from Illinois rejected the Cardinals’ offer outright, leaving the team to scramble for umps from other sources.37

Joe McShane, an executive vice president for the Cardinals, was tasked with rounding up umpires, and it was presumably McShane who vetted and hired Freels.38 Freels told a reporter he’d been contacted by someone in the Cardinals’ organization and had submitted his résumé to the team.39

The 51-year-old rookie reached the majors on April 30, 1979, working at third base for the Houston Astros’ 6-5 win over the Cardinals. Between May 1 and May 13, he umped seven more games at first, second, or third base. He never worked the plate in a major-league game and never ejected anyone.

Although he wasn’t on the field for any major statistical milestones, such as no-hitters or cycles, Freels’ stint in the majors included a few modest historical footnotes. Between May 4 and 6, he worked three games involving the Pittsburgh Pirates, who went on to win the World Series. The eventual champions lost two of those three games.

The 1979 season was also the last for Lou Brock, the Cardinals’ left fielder and future Hall of Famer, who retired with a then-record 938 stolen bases.40 Freels, working at second base on May 4 and 13, made the “safe” call when Brock notched career stolen bases 919 and 920.41 In the latter game, Freels also got a minor slap on the wrist from a St. Louis sportswriter who cited him for calling a “very questionable” force play at second.42

The replacement umps of 1978-79 tried to do their jobs unnoticed, but some of them attained local or national attention because of disputed calls. In mid-May, Freels received a brief moment in the spotlight for a bang-bang call he didn’t even make.

On May 15 the Cardinals and Montreal Expos were locked in a scoreless tie in the bottom of the ninth inning when St. Louis’s Garry Templeton tried to steal second base. He was ruled safe on a close play despite the Expos’ protests. Later in the inning, after Templeton was eliminated on a double play, the Cardinals’ Mike Phillips drove in George Hendrick for the game’s only run. An Associated Press story that appeared in newspapers as far away as Ottawa, Ontario, cited Freels as the ump who made the challenged call.43 But box scores in Baseball-Reference and Retrosheet, as well as other game accounts, make clear that the ump at second base that night was Bob Sharp, another spring 1979 replacement.44 Freels did not umpire, at all, in this game.

In fact, since he had last umpired on May 13, Freels’ major-league career was already over on May 15, although he did not know it. The unionized umps reached agreement to return on May 19, sending the majors’ temporary fill-ins back to the obscurity of local umpiring.45 Freels said he was content to return to selling sporting goods by day and calling high-school games at night. “I wouldn’t want the travel, what with the family and everything,” he said.46

Freels continued to umpire and referee through the late 1980s, maintaining his vigilant eye for penalties. “Will Bob Freels ever stop officiating high school basketball?” a local sports columnist asked in January 1988. “If he doesn’t, will he at least stop calling ‘traveling’ 47,000 times per game?”47 Freels also spent his later years attending baseball games in St. Louis and, reportedly, displaying a skilled hand at the barbecue grill.48

In 1994 Mascoutah High retired Freels’ number-7 basketball jersey.49 He was inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Centralia (Illinois) Sports Hall of Fame in December 2000.50

Bob Freels died of cancer on October 7, 2002, in Centralia, Illinois. He was 75 and was survived by wife Connie; sons Brad, Craig, Scott, Kirk, and Todd; and eight grandchildren. After services, “Mr. Steps” was buried in Mascoutah City Cemetery.51

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Rory Costello and Len Levin and fact-checked by members of the SABR BioProject fact-checking team. The author thanks the Giamatti Research Center at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum for research assistance.

Sources and photo credit

In addition to the sources credited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for background information on players, teams, and seasons.

Photo of Bob Freels from the Belleville (Illinois) Daily Advocate, August 22, 1947: 5.

Notes

1 Kimberly Ratliff, “Robert L. Freels, 75; Former Teacher, Star Athlete, Referee,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 24, 2002: AA4. A basketball player who picks up and holds the ball is allowed to take up to two steps after doing so; any more than two steps constitutes a traveling penalty.

2 Findagrave entry for Robert L. Freels, accessed February 2025, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73801164/robert-l-freels. As of the start of the 2025 season, Freels was the only big-league player, coach, manager, or umpire to be either born or buried in Mascoutah, according to Retrosheet.

3 As of February 2025, Baseball-Reference and Retrosheet placed Freels’ birth in Mascoutah, where he grew up. However, an August 1946 Navy discharge document, accessed via Familysearch.org in February 2025, lists his birthplace as St. Louis: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSBM-9323-L?view=index&personArk=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AQPC7-3CJR&action=view&cc=2832983&lang=en. He is also described as a St. Louis native in “Meet the People of Breese,” Breese (Illinois) Journal, January 10, 1952: 1.

4 The 1930 US Census reported Robert L. Bergheger, 2½ years old, living in William and Mary Bergheger’s home, while the 1940 Census listing for Earl and Hilda Freels in St. Louis did not list Robert as part of their household. 1930 Census listing (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GR4P-FDD?view=index&personArk=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AX3MH-B1W&action=view&cc=1810731&lang=en) and 1940 Census listing (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9MB-BXYH?view=index&personArk=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AK74F-PWV&action=view&cc=2000219&lang=en) accessed via Familysearch.org in February 2025. The Belleville (Illinois) News-Democrat and Daily Advocate archives, searched via Newspapers.com in February 2025, detailed Bergheger’s career as a star high-school athlete in numerous stories. One story that mentions both Freels’ star athletic career and his boyhood residence with his grandmother is “Robert Freels Joins Browns’ Growing List,” Belleville News-Democrat, March 13, 1947: 9.

5 A news item from April 1933 noted Earl Freels’ divorce from a previous wife: “Divorces Granted,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 20, 1933: 5D. “Mr. and Mrs. Earl Freels” are mentioned in a July 1934 news item about a surprise party for young Robert Bergheger’s seventh birthday: Nettie L. Haines, “Mascoutah Correspondence,” Belleville Daily News-Democrat, July 20, 1934: 9.

6 Based on a search of Newspapers.com in February 2025, the first appearance of Bob, Bobby, or Robert Freels in the Belleville Daily Advocate or News-Democrat occurred on July 9, 1945, in a brief item noting Freels’ enlistment in the Navy. “Mascoutah,” July 9, 1945: 12. A reference to Freels visiting his grandmother, Mary Bergheger, in Mascoutah and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Earl Freels, in St. Louis appears in “Mascoutah,” October 11, 1945: 13. The young athlete is also referred to as “Bob (Bergheger) Freels” in “Locals Visit Hannibal After Tilt Here Today,” Belleville Daily Advocate, April 28, 1947: II:1.

7 Robert Goodrich, “Team ’44, Memories Live On,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 21, 1988: I1.

8 Larry Thoeming, “Indians Wrap Up Season in Regional,” Mascoutah (Illinois) Herald, March 10, 1976: 16.

9 “Bergheger Not on Hill and Indians Lose,” Belleville News-Democrat, October 16, 1944: 8; “Waterloo Clinches Cahokia Conference Fall Baseball Title,” Belleville Daily Advocate, October 7, 1944: 5.

10 “Edwards Evens City Series by Downing Giants,” Belleville Daily Advocate, July 19, 1945: 9.

11 “Edwards Defeats Giants to Break Their Series Tie,” Belleville Daily Advocate, August 9, 1945: 9; Todd Eschman, “Belleville Native, Golf Legend Bob Goalby Dies at 92,” Belleville News-Democrat, January 22, 2022: 1A.

12 “Meet the People of Breese,” Breese (Illinois) Journal, January 10, 1952: 1.

13 Victory in Europe Day, or V-E Day, was celebrated on May 8, 1945, and Freels graduated 20 days later. “Mascoutah C.H.S. Graduation to Be Held Monday Night,” Belleville Daily Advocate, May 26, 1945: 5.

14 “Mascoutah,” Belleville Daily Advocate, July 9, 1945: 12; Erna Berghager, “Mascoutah Correspondence,” Belleville Daily News-Democrat, December 28, 1945: 12; “Local Items,” Mascoutah Herald, August 7, 1946: 4.

15 Ratliff, “Robert L. Freels, 75; Former Teacher, Star Athlete, Referee”; “Mann-Freels Nuptials Read Saturday Evening,” Mascoutah (Illinois) Herald, October 1, 1947: 4; Robert Goodrich, “Team ’44, Memories Live On,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 21, 1988: I1.

16 Bill Etling, “Coaches Pick Businessman, Eight Others for Hall of Fame,” Belleville News-Democrat, June 22, 1990: 1D. At the time this biography was researched, the earliest mention in the Newspapers.com database of Freels working as an amateur athletic official occurred in the Belleville News Democrat, November 24, 1948: 12.

17 “Four From Illinois Besides Phillip on Illinois Squad,” Belleville Daily Advocate, December 11, 1946: 7; “Five Students from Here Attending McKendree,” Mascoutah Herald, November 15, 1950: 2.

18 “Meet the People of Breese.”

19 “Stags Win Title; No. 19 for Freels,” Belleville News-Democrat, September 13, 1947: 5; “Lucchesi and Freels Star for Belleville,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 23, 1947: 7A.

20 “Local Boy Honored,” Mascoutah Herald, August 27, 1947: 1.

21 “Browns End Losing Streak at Harlingen,” McAllen (Texas) Valley Evening Monitor, April 4, 1951: 7. Freels, while playing for Belleville in 1947, had also pinch-hit against the Browns in an exhibition. “Browns Trim Stags, 7-3, Before Capacity Crowd,” Belleville News-Democrat, August 29, 1947: 6.

22 The 1951 Browns posted a league-worst ERA of 5.18, more than a point above the league average. They surrendered more hits, walks, and home runs, and gave up more runs and earned runs, than any other AL team.

23 “Meet the People of Breese.”

24 “Six Hurlers on Mound in Long Leaf Workout,” Fort Lauderdale (Florida) Daily News, March 11, 1952: 2B; “By Jinx,” Waco (Texas) Tribune-Herald, April 10, 1952: 14.

25 “Bob Freels Returned to San Antonio Club,” Wichita Falls (Texas) Daily Times, June 6, 1952: 12; “Jinx Tucker’s Hot Shots,” Waco News-Tribune, May 22, 1952: 20.

26  “Jinx Tucker’s Hot Shots,” Waco Tribune-Herald, August 24, 1952: II:4.

27 “Personal,” Breese Journal, November 30, 1950: 8.

28 “Freels With .388 Tops Hitters with Slaughter-Straub,” Belleville Daily Advocate, September 22, 1953: 9.

29 Ratliff, “Robert L. Freels, 75; Former Teacher, Star Athlete, Referee”; “Bob Freels Will Be Sales Representative for Firm,” Breese Journal, May 13, 1965: 1; “50 Years of Hometown Service,” Belleville News-Democrat, November 17, 1996: 2 (special advertising section). Curt Smith, owner of the business, was inducted into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1990 – the same year Freels received that honor. Etling, “Coaches Pick Businessman, Eight Others for Hall of Fame.”

30 Joe Meyer, “Lincoln High Placed on Probation,” Edwardsville (Illinois) Intelligencer, May 4, 1972: 3; Don Metzger, “‘Ugly’ Situation Prevails at Game,” Alton (Illinois) Evening Telegraph, March 11, 1972: B1.

31 Mac McGee, “Rails’ Reid Advised Patience and It Paid Off Against Quincy,” Decatur (Illinois) Daily Review, March 14, 1973: 14; Buford Green, “Porta Ends Area Drought,” Jacksonville (Illinois) Journal Courier, March 15, 1973: 25.

32 Mark Skaer, “Pick Loss Kahok Aid,” Belleville News-Democrat, August 30, 1978: 1B. From the context of the story, it appears that the defeated coach did not have the authority to actually fire Freels; the “firings” were merely an expression of intense disapproval.

33 Joe Meyer, “Sideline on Sports,” Edwardsville Intelligencer, January 21, 1967: 7.

34 Mark Skaer, “Freels Having Ball, Strike,” Belleville News-Democrat, May 2, 1979: 1B.

35 Associated Press, “Sub Umps Behind Plate,” North Adams (Massachusetts) Transcript, March 8, 1979: 20; Jack Craig, “Who Will Be the Umpires?,” Boston Globe, April 5, 1979: 51. The Globe reported that rookie AL ump Ted Hendry was “ignoring” his colleagues’ labor action, while the Associated Press reported that National League ump Paul Pryor signed a contract individually and went back to work for personal and financial reasons. “Umpires Are Upset at Lone Non-Striker,” Daily Hampshire Gazette (Northampton, Massachusetts), April 5, 1979: 40.

36 Neal Russo, “Local Umps Won’t Work for Redbirds,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 17, 1979: 5C.

37 “Illinois Group Won’t Work, but Cards Have ‘Lots of Umps,’’’ St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 19, 1979: 1E.

38 “Illinois Group Won’t Work, but Cards Have ‘Lots of Umps.’”

39 Skaer, “Freels Having Ball, Strike.”

40 Brock was later surpassed by Rickey Henderson, who retired with 1,406 stolen bases; entering the 2025 season, Henderson still held the record for career steals.

41 The May 4 game, against Pittsburgh, and May 13, against the Atlanta Braves, were Freels’ only appearances umping at second base. Freels was also on the field for a caught-stealing call against Brock on April 30, though Freels did not make the call: He was working at third base, and Brock was caught at second.

42 Tom Barnidge, “Vukovich Speaks, Braves Get Message,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 14, 1979: 1C. Barnidge wrote that Braves shortstop Pepe Frías “was not within three feet of second base” when Freels called an out on a run-scoring force play.

43 “Jays, Expos Lose,” Ottawa Citizen, May 16, 1979: 31. The story here is credited only to “Citizen wire services,” but other newspapers credited it more specifically to the Associated Press.

44 The St. Louis Post-Dispatch called the umpire “Sharp” in its box score but “Bob Short” in a photo caption, perhaps confusing him with the former Washington Senators and Texas Rangers owner of the same name. Tom Barnidge, “Denny Dazzling, Phillips Sharp as Cardinals Win,” May 16, 1979: 1D.

45 Jane Gross, “Strike Is Out, Work Is In for Umps,” Newsday (Long Island, New York), May 19, 1979: 29.

46 Skaer, “Freels Having Ball, Strike.”

47 Larry Thoeming, “SportsView,” Mascoutah (Illinois) Herald, January 4, 1988: 30.

48 Bucky Albers, “’51 Indians Memories Flood Back,” Dayton (Ohio) Daily News, September 9, 1989: 1B; Goodrich, “Team ’44, Memories Live On.”

49 “Mascoutah High Retires Four Numbers,” Mascoutah Herald, December 15, 1994: 17. At the same ceremony, the school also retired the number of Steve Lanter, who had broken Freels’ single-game scoring record in 1976.

50 “Inducted Into Hall of Fame,” Breese Journal, January 25, 1990: 8; Gene Isbell, “Izzy Writes,” Mascoutah Herald, December 21, 2000: 2A.

51 Ratliff, “Robert L. Freels, 75; Former Teacher, Star Athlete, Referee.”