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Freddie Freeman wins World Series title after months of anguish

Umito November 1, 2024

NEW YORK − It was the early hours of Thursday and Freddie Freeman was in a hurry, walking through the tunnel in the bowels of Yankee Stadium.

The Los Angeles The Dodgers had just won the World Series championship earlier in the night. He was voted most valuable player price. He splashed champagne with his teammates. He hugged his father on the field. He hugged and kissed his wife and son.

He was about to return to the noisy clubhouse when he was asked about that poignant and emotional time in late July, the one that almost turned his life upside down.

Freeman’s eyes got wet, his voice shook slightly and he confided that he was scared, terrified to be honest.

If doctors hadn’t intervened, he might have missed it all, the greatest triumph of his baseball career.

It had nothing to do with his severely sprained right ankle, the one that left him in a walking boot, with his father, Fred, driving him for six hours of treatment each day in late September.

“I was watching him get pushed and pushed,” Fred Freeman said. “And for a week, doing that, it was beyond what a human should do, and he was doing it. I don’t know anyone else who could have done it.”

It had nothing to do with his struggles, a sudden loss of power and his absence in three of the Dodgers’ first 11 playoff games, hitting nothing more damaging than singles.

It concerned Maximus, his 3-year-old son. Freeman had to leave the team for eight days in July. He is seriously considering the possibility of not returning until next spring.

“Everything was going through my head at that point,” Freeman, 35, told USA TODAY Sports following Dodgers win 7-6 against the New York Yankees who won his eighth World Series title. “I knew I needed to be with my family. If Max was okay, then I was finally going to play.”

Freeman paused, then said softly, “If Max had never been well, then I probably wouldn’t be here.” »

Freeman’s mind returned to that summer. One day, Maximus runs like all the other toddlers. The next day, he receives a call from his wife, Chelsea, telling him that their son is fighting for his life.

Maximus was placed on a ventilator for several days, hospitalized for eight hours in a pediatric intensive care unit and had no feeling below his neck. He was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndromee, a condition in which the body’s immune system attacks its nerves.

“The doctors finally told us Max was OK,” said Chelsea Freeman, Freddie’s wife and mother of their three children. “But if that wasn’t the case, absolutely, I think Freddie would have stopped. It would have been too hard. »

Fred Freeman, who raised Freddie and his two brothers alone after his wife, Rosemary, died of melanoma when Freddie was 10, wasn’t sure it would have been possible for Freeman to return to the Dodgers this year if something had happened to Max.

“Freddie is very emotional, just like his mother,” Fred Freeman said. “That Friday night, we didn’t know if he was going to make it. We were praying so hard that he would be there in the morning. They started.”

Over three months, Max slowly learned to walk and be himself again, marveling at everyone as his father delivered one of the greatest offensive performances in World Series history.

He hit .300 and had a 1.000 OPS with a triple, four home runs and 12 RBIs, tying Bobby Richardson of the 1960 Yankees for the most RBIs in a World Series, despite playing only five games. He joined Babe Ruth as the only players to hit at least two home runs and a triple in the first two games of a World Series.

He was the obvious selection for World Series MVP, becoming the first Dodgers first baseman to win the award.

“It feels like he’s a Dodger now,” Fred Freeman said. “He’s definitely a Dodger. He feels like a Dodger. He looks like a Dodger. And he’s a Dodger.

“It was so hard with everything he went through during the season, all the turmoil, Max, his ankle, good things should happen to him and they did.

“My God, I’m so proud of him.”

No matter what Freeman does for the rest of his career, his playoff performance will be remembered as legendary. He limped through the first two rounds, had five days off between the NLCS and the World Series, then returned to become the biggest player on the field at the most critical time of the season.

“He probably shouldn’t have played,” Fred Freeman said, “but Doc (manager Dave Roberts) said, ‘Whatever you can give me, your being out there will at least scare somebody. ‘”

He ended up punishing the Yankees, changing the complexion of the World Series with a single swing of the bat when he hit a two-out grand slam in the 10^th round of game 1.

The Yankees have never been the same, just as the heavily favored Oakland A’s weren’t in 1988 when Kirk Gibson limped to home plate and hit a home run off Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley.

“We felt pretty good coming in,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said, “but when something special like that happens, wow, that kind of sparked the kickoff. I thought it was pretty fitting for Freddie to do what he did in that World Series.

Let’s see, he hit the winning home run in the 10th^th inning of Game 1, the first grand slam in World Series history.

He hit his second home run in the third inning of Game 2.

He hit his third home run in the first inning of Game 3, tying a World Series record.

His fourth came in the first inning of Game 4, setting a World Series record.

And he nearly hit his fifth home run in the fourth inning of Game 5, but he still drove in two runs in the game. Dodgers’ key fifth inning.

“Freddie won the MVP on one leg,” Dodgers All-Star right fielder Mookie Betts said. “That shows you how good he is.

Freeman came up big again and again while teammate Shohei Ohtani hit .105 with no RBI and Muncy went hitless. Still, he gave all the credit to his teammates and Roberts. He wouldn’t have had the RBI production, he said, if his teammates weren’t on base. He wouldn’t hit home runs without the best doctors and trainers. And of course, he wouldn’t even play baseball if it weren’t for his dad.

“That’s all you can ask for,” Freeman said. “It seems like we’ve hit every speed bump possible this year. We’ve faced every adversity possible. We’ve overcome every single one.

“It means everything.”

Freeman, after grabbing and kissing the World Series championship trophy and hoisting the MVP trophy above his head, left the stage with his teammates after the awards ceremony. They gathered for a team photo at center field. He then headed towards his family who were nearby. He hugged his father without wanting to let go, telling him he loved him, then his wife and his son.

He then walked across the field, entered the dugout, reached the clubhouse and took part in the celebrations, stopping every few minutes to give another interview.

MLB officials then told him he had to go to a press conference for his MVP award. He was stopped by several fans and officials for photos. Suddenly he saw the time and couldn’t believe how late it was. It was almost 1 a.m. Eastern Time and the team plane was scheduled to take off at 2:50 a.m. Eastern Time.

The Dodgers weren’t going to leave without him.

Freeman had an additional responsibility. He was returned to the field for a live interview with the MLB Network. He agreed, but wanted his whole family to be on set with him. He got off the plate and walked to the infield to take family photos. He returned to the clubhouse, but not before being stopped outside the dugout for a brief interview with “Good Morning America.”

By the time Freeman went back inside, attendants visiting the clubhouse were taking away all the empty beer cans and champagne bottles. He grabbed his clothes and headed to the shower to get ready for the flight home.

It would be a long night, with the Dodgers not arriving in Los Angeles until around 6:30 a.m. He wanted to catch up on his sleep, but he has a parade to attend. The first Dodgers parade since 1988 is scheduled for Friday in downtown Los Angeles, which would be the 64^th birthday of the late Fernando Valenzuela.

“Man, what a night,” Freeman said. “What a season. An incredible season. It seems like we’ve hit every speed bump possible this year. And overcoming what we’ve done as a group of guys is special.”

And what Freeman did individually will live forever in Dodger history.

“Throughout the playoffs,” Muncy said, “we kept going to Freddie and saying, ‘Hey, we got you. We know you’re fighting for us right now, but we got you.’

“And at that World Series, Freddie told us, ‘Hey, I got you guys. You got me covered. Now I have you.’ And that’s exactly what happened.”

The adrenaline rush of the playoffs, the euphoria of winning and the prayers for him and his family, Freeman says, made it all happen.

“I am blessed,” he said, “I am truly blessed.”

Freeman walked to his locker, took off his uniform one last time this season, and all that pain in his nagging ankle suddenly disappeared.

Life, it can drive you crazy, but oh, can it one day be the ultimate gratification.

“I wish I never had to go through what we went through as a family,” Freeman said, “but ultimately, Maximus is doing really well right now. He’s a special boy, but it’s been a chore for three months. That’s really the case.

“Obviously with the injuries it’s worth it in the end.

“I will never compare Maximus to baseball. I won’t do it. They’re just two separate things, but since he’s doing so well now, it means a little extra.”

Maximus, who suffered from an ear infection, was unable to take a six-hour flight to attend the games in New York, but everyone will see him on Friday. He will be the little guy sitting with his family at the parade, watching the entire city of Los Angeles and the Dodgers organization celebrate his father.

“Freddie was just incredible,” said Andrew Friedman, Dodgers president of baseball operations. “It’s an incredible storybook about his year, and his month of October, which was so crazy that I don’t think that storyline would have been accepted.

“For him to do what he did and show up seven hours, eight hours before a game, preparing to play as many times as he could to help us win 11 games, that’s not going to get him enough credit for what he put himself through.

“Amazing, absolutely incredible.”

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