Freddie Freeman’s first Dodgers home features an emotional Braves reunion and a fateful escape home

LOS ANGELES – Eddie Perez was on the field at Dodger Stadium at 2:30 p.m. PT on Monday, hours before Los Angeles Dodgers or Atlanta Braves was scheduled to start polishing practice. The first person he saw was Freddie Freemanwho wrapped him in a warm, tight, loving embrace that didn’t let go.

“Let me go,” Perez said, “because I’m going to cry.”

Perez, the longtime Braves catcher who has stayed with the team as a major league coach, is not an emotional person. But seeing Freeman – in a Dodgers uniform, for the first time, almost understood him.

A dozen years ago, Perez stood in front of the visitors at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia as Freeman hit his first career home game against Roy Halladay. Perez tried to find the baseball but couldn’t find it. Later, he learned that Freeman would grow into an exceptional baseball player, and that he remained by his side while he amassed five All-Star appearances, three Silver Sluggers, one Glove. gold hand, an MVP title and on the second of November 2021, a World Series title with the same organization drafted for him.

Now he was there again, the same as always, just different.

“I told him, ‘That’s not the right blue for you,’” Perez said. “But I don’t want to make him feel bad. I want him to like being here.”

On the night Freeman agreed to a six-year, $162 million contract with the Dodgers, Perez sent him a congratulatory text message and immediately received a phone call back. “I don’t know what happened,” Freeman said on the other end of the line on March 16. Two days earlier – after being reported by Freeman’s representative at Excel Sports Management to reject an ultimatum, only details about that is chronicles by Buster Olney of ESPN – Braves used a prospect pack to get the first All-Star warrior Matt Olson from Oakland Athletics. This development shocked Freeman, who suddenly left the fray to find a new team even though all he wanted to do was play for the Braves.

Having determined his next destination, Perez urged Freeman to embrace change and not look back. Perez talked about the benefits of having Freeman’s father, who still lives in nearby Orange County, have the opportunity to monitor him regularly. He told him that the Dodgers, a championship-fighting team, represented an ideal plan B. And he left him the following message:

Be yourself, and the fans in LA will love you just as they did in Atlanta.

As Freeman passed through his first home as a Dodger, those fans showed up at one point to give him a lift.

“Fre-ddie!” Noisy, boisterous! Bible verses seem to follow Freeman around like a piece of music. They were there when he stood alone on the second base in the eighth inning of the opening goal at home. They were there when he hit his first home game against the Dodgers in his first game against his old side on Monday night. They were there when he passed the house number plate after a drive straight into the street Charlie Morton on Wednesday afternoon. They’ve been there as he strolls to the hitter’s box for most of his 31 appearances on his plate in the past seven days.

“We’re all human,” Freeman said. “We all have feelings and all that. For 50,000 people, every night, every time I walk into the box, to make me feel good about myself and know that they care about me – That means a lot.”

In the space of just three days in March, Freeman knew he wouldn’t be a Brave, decided on a new team and was introduced to the Dodgers spring training facility, instantly navigating more than one new organization but also a new spring training facility. in a new state. Three weeks later, Opening Day arrived. Seven days later, the house opened. Four days later, the only big team he had ever known arrived in the city. It all happened so fast, the emotions ran high, and the chants meant it all.

“It’s atypical,” the Dodgers third keeper Justin Turner speak. “In the nine years I’ve been here, I don’t think I’ve seen any player where they chant his name one at a time.”

Dodgers’ Ace for Life Clayton Kershaw felt support could have been increased because the fans believed Freeman needed them.

“That’s understandable to the fans if that’s true,” Kershaw said. “It’s great to watch. I know Freddie appreciates that.”

Monday was the first time Freeman had seen any of the Braves players, coaches and staff since they all joined a parade through downtown Atlanta and Cobb County on Nov. He went into the visitation club to give hugs and reminisce about that day, then met Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos in the vault and shared a conversation so emotional the two moved Move downstairs so the camera doesn’t catch them. Then, as the Braves went through their pregnancy, he decided to shake hands with Olson, who told him what it was like to welcome his new teammates.

As Freeman stepped onto the field with his family to accept the Silver Slugger, his eldest son, Charlie, sprinted toward the Braves. Dansby Swanson because the A hug. As he settled into the hitter’s box half an hour later, he glanced at his good friend, the Braves catcher. Travis d’Arnaud, smiled and said, “This is so weird.” Two pitches later, he paved the way for his first Dodgers home through the wall in the left midfield area.

It comes with a quick ball and goes far, but d’Arnaud doesn’t think pitch type and position will matter.

“It was fate,” he said.

Courageous Pills AJ Minter engaged in an eight-yard showdown with Freeman later in Monday’s game, ultimately knocking him out. They both shared a smile as Freeman jogged back to his canoe. “I wish Freddie could be a Brave for life,” Minter said. “But we couldn’t finish it, and he had to make the decision for him and his family.”

Freeman, his wife, Chelsea, and their three children have settled in Studio City, an LA neighborhood just outside of Hollywood, and Freeman is still trying to figure out the most productive route to the ballpark. Charlie Freeman was on the same Little League team as Kershaw’s son, Charley Kershaw. After Sunday’s game, the two took part in an Easter Egg hunt in the left area of ​​Dodger Stadium.

At some point, Freeman hopes, his new life will start to feel as familiar as the old one.

“I just wanted to see them and hug them,” Freeman said of the former Braves teammates. “When you go through 162 seasons and the knockouts – and a lot of the men I’ve been with over the years. Losing the first round many times, losing to the Dodgers in 2020, and then finally the end. win the championship together, that relationship lasts forever. We will all be teammates for many more years, but we will be friends longer than we are teammates. Now we can. reunited together and all of that we grow old. Hopefully I can reunite with the Dodgers too.”

Marly Rivera of ESPN contributed to this report.