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Memories
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42
October 25 • 2018
jn
I
t happened a little more than five
years ago, but Chuck Freedman
remembers every detail.
Going to a Detroit Tigers game
at Comerica Park on a hot Sunday
August afternoon with his father-in-law
and good friend Richard Maltz.
Watching and worrying as Maltz
became ill at the stadium before the
game and was taken to a medical room
and eventually by ambulance to a near-
by hospital, where he passed away of a
heart attack that night at age 55.
“After the doors were shut in the
ambulance, I never saw Rich alive
again,” Freedman said.
The Tigers were a big part of Maltz’s
life. The back of his gravestone contains
the team’s iconic old English “D.”
Maltz went to a Tigers game at
Comerica Park two days before the fate-
ful Aug. 18, 2013, game.
Nancy Schindler, his sister, took
a photo of him at the Aug. 16, 2013,
game.
“That was the last time I saw him,”
she said.
Memories of his friend came flooding
back to Freedman this summer as he
went through scrapbooks put together
by Maltz that contain newspaper stories
and photos.
One of the stories was a column writ-
ten by this reporter, who was the sports
editor of The Daily Tribune at the time.
The Nov. 18, 1988, column was led by
a report on the new Oak Park-Royal
Oak-Huntington Woods flag football
league.
Maltz coached the Oak Park Broncos
team in the league and was pictured
along with players Sam Hirschman and
Michael Sonna.
Coaching recreation teams is how
Maltz met Freedman and so many
others who became friends with him.
Maltz was a baseball, flag football, soc-
cer and basketball coach.
LEFT: Richard Maltz
at a Detroit Tigers
game two days
before he passed
away . ABOVE: Chuck
Freedman still has
the tickets from the
Aug. 18, 2013, Detroit
Tigers game.
“I met Rich when he was an assistant
coach on my baseball team in Oak Park.
I think I was 12 or 13 at the time, and
he was going to college,” Freedman said.
“Rich was great with the kids on our
team. He made sure everyone got to
games and practices and made it back
home. We went to Tigers games, the
batting cage, movies and the arcade
with him and other coaches. Rich was
one of the guys.”
Freedman went to many more Tigers
games and other sports events with
Maltz as the years went by.
“My brother loved people. And he
loved helping people,” Schindler said.
“He was proud of being an older
brother or father figure to the kids on
his team. I know he took his ‘job’ of
being a big brother to me, his little sis-
ter, very seriously.”
Among Maltz’s paying jobs was being
a school bus driver. At the time of his
death, he had a job driving a bus for
Farmington Public Schools.
As he remembered his friend this
summer, Freedman began what he con-
siders a long-overdue journey.
He started a diet and exercise pro-
gram in May that has resulted in him
shedding 45 pounds. He now weighs
183 pounds and wants to lose 10 more.
“I think I weighed about 250 pounds
when we went to that Tigers game in
August five years ago. Rich and I had
both put on some weight,” Freedman
said. “I can’t say what happened to Rich
that day was the only reason for me get-
ting on this program, but it’s one of the
reasons.” ■
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