The second step of just about each 12-step restoration program states that “we got here to imagine {that a} energy larger than ourselves might restore us to sanity.”
For one Dodgers fan, that “energy” got here within the type of first baseman Freddie Freeman, whose walk-off grand slam within the tenth inning of a World Collection Recreation 1 victory over the New York Yankees final October offered an impetus for giving up alcohol.
“A man was telling me at a luncheon” throughout final week’s Dodgers neighborhood tour “that he gave up ingesting that night time as a result of he simply wished to be current along with his children,” Freeman, 35, stated at Saturday’s fanfest occasion at Dodger Stadium.
“They have been within the right-field stands, and he didn’t drink that entire sport, and he hasn’t drank since due to how current he was along with his children. These are the tales that give me chills. These are the sorts of issues sports activities can do.”
Freeman’s dramatic grand slam, certainly one of 4 homers he hit to win most dear participant within the five-game World Collection win over the Yankees, left an indelible mark on Dodgers followers, some actually.
Freeman stated he bumped into one fan in Orange County this winter “who had a contemporary tattoo of me holding up my bat,” the enduring pose Freeman struck as he left the batter’s field and his grand slam soared into the right-center subject seats. At Saturday’s fanfest, he signed the leg of a fan who had Freeman tattooed on the limb.
“You notice that sports activities means a lot to individuals,” Freeman stated. “Once you’re on the market enjoying and followers are going nuts, you’re feeling that. However then once you come into private contact with these followers, and so they let you know how a lot it means to them, after which they present you ways a lot it meant to them, it’s actually cool.
“I feel that’s so superb that folks would undergo the ache to place me on their physique.”
No Dodgers participant endured extra ache — bodily and psychological — in the course of the group’s runup to the playoffs and World Collection than Freeman.
The eight-time All-Star missed eight video games in late July and early August whereas his 3-year-old son, Maximus, battled a life-threatening case of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a uncommon neurological situation wherein the physique’s immune system assaults the nerves.
Freeman suffered a extreme right-ankle sprain within the final week of the common season and wanted hours of pregame remedies and a number of injections of pain-numbing treatment to have the ability to take the sphere in the course of the playoffs.
Freeman additionally revealed after the World Collection that he performed your complete month of October with damaged costal cartilage in his sixth rib, an harm that was recognized two days earlier than the postseason and sometimes sidelines gamers for months.
The rib-cage harm has healed, and Freeman stated on Saturday that his son “is ok.” However the ankle harm was extra problematic and can gradual Freeman this spring.
Freeman, a 15-year veteran who’s coming into the fourth 12 months of a six-year, $162-million contract, thought the ankle would enhance with bodily remedy and relaxation, and the tendons and ligaments within the joint did heal on their very own.
However three weeks after the World Collection, when Freeman was in Georgia for Thanksgiving, the swelling and discomfort within the ankle “wasn’t going away,” Freeman stated. “I used to be like, ‘One thing’s simply not proper.’ That’s once I text-messaged Thomas Albert, our head coach, and stated, ‘After I get house, let’s get this checked out.’”
A scan revealed a bone chip that had floated right down to the Achilles tendon in addition to a number of bone spurs. Freeman underwent surgical procedure on Nov. 30 to take away the chip and shave down the spurs.
Eight weeks faraway from surgical procedure, Freeman swung a bat for the primary time on Thursday. He’ll start agility drills by the tip of this week however stated he gained’t start operating till the Dodgers’ first full-squad spring coaching exercise in Arizona on Feb. 15.
Freeman stated he will likely be relegated to designated hitter for the primary week or two of exhibition video games, however the slugger is assured that he will likely be a full-go for the group’s March 18-19 regular-season opening sequence in opposition to the Chicago Cubs in Tokyo.
“I really feel good,” Freeman stated. “I’m on observe.”
The surgical procedure and rehab hardly put a damper on a celebratory three-month offseason for Freeman, whose November included his late-night debut on “Jimmy Kimmel Stay,” an look as a presenter on the Nation Music Awards in Nashville, and an interview with Travis and Jason Kelce on their New Heights podcast.
“It’s been loopy,” Freeman stated. “We did quite a lot of celebrating once we obtained house after successful. It was enjoyable. As I’m out and doing my stuff in the neighborhood, I don’t assume I’ve made it by one outing with out somebody developing [to congratulate me]. And that’s what’s so cool about this.
“When persons are telling me what it meant to them, successful the World Collection and that house run, it’s particular. Clearly, loads went into final 12 months for me. A variety of pace bumps that we hit alongside the best way. And to have it finish like that, it was particular.”
The 2024 season ended with a wild champagne-and-beer-soaked celebration within the visiting clubhouse at Yankee Stadium, however for one Dodgers fan, it started a quest for sobriety.
“Clearly, the rings and the championships, that’s what we’re going for, however to have the ability to impression lives like we have been in a position to do in 2024, that’s why you play sports activities,” Freeman stated. “You’ll be able to change individuals’s lives and create recollections.”