Freddie Freeman, Hometown Hero

Frederick Charles Freeman was born September 12, 1989, in Fountain Valley, CA, about 35 miles south of Dodger Stadium. Raised in Orange County, Freeman attended high school at El Modern before being selected by the Atlanta Braves in the second round of the 2007 MLB Draft. Fourteen years in the Braves organization and 12 being with the big league club saw Freman be named to five All-Star teams, win one MVP, and bring home the 2021 World Series trophy.

Coming off the World Series, Freeman entered free agency and broke the hearts of many fans in Atlanta, where he had been a long-time fan favorite. Freeman signed a six-year, $162 million deal with the Dodgers to head back home to California.

A few months before signing, Freeman was a critical part of the Atlanta Braves beating the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2021 NLCS. He overcame going 0-4 back-to-back nights in games one and two of the series, where he uncharacteristically struck out seven times in eight trips to the plate.

Game three of the series saw Freeman reach base four times with three singles and a walk. Jump to game four and Freeman doubled and homered to put the Braves up 3-1 in the series. The fifth game of the series ended in an 11-2 Dodger blowout win, but Freeman was the long bright spot of the Braves offense, hitting a home run for the second straight day.

The Braves clinched a trip to the World Series just two nights later at Truist Park as Freeman reached base more than any Braves player, albeit four walks.

2021 marked Freeman’s first trip to the World Series, and in game one, he drove in a run and reaches base twice in a Braves 6-2 win. The next three games saw Freeman collect hits in all three, all singles, but Freeman made little impact despite the Braves taking a 3-1 series lead.

Game five seemed like it might close out the series as the Braves jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning behind an Adam Duvall grand slam. The Astros tacked on two runs in the second and third to tie the game. Freeman’s third-inning home run gave the Braves the lead. Unfortunately, the bullpen game for the Braves couldn’t hold the Astros, so the series went back to Houston.

The final game of the 2021 World Series will largely be remembered by Jorge Soler’s mammoth home run that left the stadium over the Crawford Boxes. But Freeman was an integral part of Atlanta bringing home the title. He doubled and blasted his fifth home run of the postseason. He caught the final out of the 2021 World Series to become a champion at last.

Freeman is no stranger to the bright lights. He took his talents to Los Angeles, where in his first two seasons, 2022 and 2023, Freeman hit 50 home runs and slashed an impressive .328/.408/.540.

2024 was a bit of a different story for Freeman, who battled injuries and a scary illness involving his son. Freeman was in the lineup every day until July 26. His son Maximus woke up on July 22 with a limp and went into full paralysis several days after. Freeman left the team’s series in Houston to be with his family. Max spent eight days in the pediatric ICU and was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré Syndrome. He is now healthy but still working back to where he can walk again.

Upon returning, Freeman jammed his finger in a game on August 17, which caused a hairline fracture. An ankle injury on September 26 kept him out of the final few games of the regular season. The injury required intense rehab and treatment, which reportedly lasted over three hours a day. It has not been an easy last few months for Freeman.

Playing through injury is never ideal, but maybe the adrenaline of a World Series game helps. Freeman entered the game having not run in a week, given the layoff between game five of the NLCS and game one of the World Series. Maybe the time to rest helped as well.

In his first trip to the plate, Freeman flared a ball down the third base line, which Alex Verdugo wound up misplaying. Freeman hustled for a triple and showed off some dance moves afterward. He nearly left the yard in the sixth, which set up the magical moment in extra innings on that Friday night on October 25.

Anthony Volpe drove in Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the top half of the tenth to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead. With Gavin Lux and Tommy Edman on base, Shohei Ohtani flew out in foul territory, and Mookie Betts was intentionally walked to load the bases. On the first pitch of the at-bat, Freeman took Nestor Cortes deep for a walk-off grand slam that left the bat at 109.2 mph.

Freeman homered again in the third inning of game two on a ball with an 108.7 mph exit velocity. This followed a Teoscar Hernandez homer in the previous at-bat, which proved to the be the difference in the’ 4-2 win, taking a 2-0 lead in the series.

One of the most clutch hitters over the last ten years, Freeman leads all active hitters in MLB with 2267 hits. When Freeman hangs it up for the final time, he could be a member of the 3000-hit club, something that just 33 hitters in MLB history have done. If Freeman plays through his age 39 season, he would need to average 147 hits per season to reach the special 3000 club. Excluding 2020’s shortened season, you would need to go back to 2017 to find the last time Freeman did not collect at least 150, and Freeman played just 117 games that season and still had 135.

Freddie Freeman is the Dodgers' true hometown hero, and he hopes to help the team win its eighth World Series title. How can you not love the game of baseball and Freddie Freeman?