NEW YORK − It’s the wee hours of Thursday and Freddie Freeman was in a hurry, walking in the tunnel in the bowels of Yankee Stadium.
The Los Angeles Dodgers had just won the World Series championship earlier in the night. He was voted the Most Valuable Player award. He sprayed champagne with his teammates. He embraced his father on the field. He hugged and kissed his wife and son.
He was just about to return to the raucous clubhouse when he was asked about that harrowing, emotional time in late July, the one that nearly turned his life upside down.
Freeman’s eyes moistened, his voice slightly quivered and he confided he was scared, terrified to be honest.
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If the doctors didn’t come through, he might have missed all of this, 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 prodded,’ Fred Freeman said. “And for a week doing that, it was beyond what any human should do, and he was doing it. I don’t know any other person that could have done it.’
This had nothing to do with his struggles, a sudden loss of power, and sitting out in three of the Dodgers’ first 11 postseason games, hitting nothing more damaging that singles.
This had to do with Maximus, his 3-year-old son. Freeman had to leave the team for eight days in July. He seriously considered the possibility of not coming back until next spring.
“Everything was going through my mind at the time,’ Freeman, 35, told USA TODAY Sports in the aftermath of Dodgers’ 7-6 victory over the New York Yankees that clinched their eighth World Series title. “I knew I needed to be with my family. If Max was going to be OK then I was going to ultimately play.’
Freeman paused and then softly said, “If Max was never Ok, then I probably wouldn’t be here.’’
Freeman’s mind raced back to this summer. One day, Maximus is running around like every other toddler. The next, he’s getting a call from his wife, Chelsea, telling him that their son is fighting for his life.
Maximus was placed on a respirator for days, hospitalized for eight in a pediatric intensive care unit and had no feeling below his neck. He was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a condition in which the body’s immune system attacks its nerves.
“The doctors eventually told us that Max was going to be ok,’’ said Chelsea Freeman, Freddie’s wife and mother of their three kids. “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 by himself 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 anything happened to Max.
“Freddie is very emotional, just like his mom,’ Fred Freeman said. “That Friday night, we weren’t sure if he was going to make it. We were praying so hard he’d be there in the morning. They started the medicine and put him on breathing and feeding tubes. He was paralyzed from the mouth down, and then after six hours, there’s a little shrug of the shoulders and the doctor said he’s going to be fine.’
In three months, Max has slowly learned to walk again and be himself, marveling with everyone else as his dad put on one of the greatest offensive performances in World Series history.
He hit .300 and had a 1.000 OPS with a triple, four homers and 12 RBI, tying Bobby Richardson of the 1960 Yankees for the most RBI in a World Series, despite playing only five games. He joined Babe Ruth as the only player to have at least two homers and a triple in the first two games of a World Series.
He was the obvious selection for the World Series MVP, becoming the first Dodger first baseman to win the award.
“It does feel 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 is a Dodger.
“It was so hard with everything he went through with the season, all of the turmoil, Max, his ankle, good things should happen to him and they did.
“God, I’m so proud of him.’
No matter what Freeman does the rest of his career, his performance this postseason will be remembered nothing short of legendary. He limped his way through the first two rounds, had five days off between the NLCS and the World Series and then returned to become the greatest player on the field in the most critical time of the season.
“He probably shouldn’t have been playing,’ Fred Freeman said, “but Doc (manager Dave Roberts) said, ‘Whatever you can give me, your presence there will at least scare somebody.”
He wound up punishing the Yankees, changing the complexion of the World Series with one swing of the bat when he hit a two-out walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning of Game 1.
The Yankees were never the same, just like the heavily-favored Oakland A’s weren’t in 1988 when Kirk Gibson hobbled to the plate and hit a walk-off homer off Hall of Fame closer Dennis Eckersley.
“We felt pretty good coming in,’’ Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said, “but when you have something special like that happen, wow, that just kind of kick-started it. I thought it was pretty fitting for Freddie to do what he did in this World Series.’’
Let’s see, he hit the game-winning homer in the 10th inning in Game 1, the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history.
He hit his second homer in the third inning in Game 2.
He hit his third homer 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 homer in the fourth inning of Game 5, but still drove in two runs in the Dodgers’ key fifth inning.
“Freddie won the MVP on one leg,’’ Dodgers All-Star right fielder Mookie Betts said. “That let you know how good he is.
Freeman came through again and again while teammate Shohei Ohtani hit .105 without an RBI and Muncy didn’t get a hit. Still, he gave his teammates and Roberts all of the credit. He wouldn’t have had the RBI production, he said, if his teammates weren’t on base. He wouldn’t be hitting the home runs without having the best doctors and trainers. And of course, he wouldn’t even be playing baseball without his father.
“This is everything you can possibly ask for,’ Freeman said, “It seems like we hit every speed bump possible over the course of this year. We faced every adversity possible. We overcame every single one.
“This means everything.’’
Freeman, after clutching and kissing the World Series championship trophy and hoisting the MVP trophy above his head, left the stage along with his teammates after the award presentation. They gathered for a team photo in center field. He then walked over to his family standing nearby. He hugged his dad without wanting to let go, telling him he loved him and then his wife and son.
He then strolled across the field, entered the dugout, reached the clubhouse and took part in the celebrations, stopping every few minutes to give another interview.
He was then told by MLB officials that he needed to go to a press conference for his MVP award. He was stopped by several fans and officials for pictures. Suddenly he saw the time and couldn’t believe how late it was. It was nearly 1 a.m. ET and the team plane was scheduled to leave at 2:50 a.m. ET.
The Dodgers weren’t about to leave without him.
Freeman had one more responsibility. He was directed back onto the field for a live interview with the MLB Network. He agreed, but wanted his whole family on the set along with him. He got off the set and walked towards the infield for family pictures. He headed back to the clubhouse, but not before being stopped in front of the dugout for a brief interview with “Good Morning America.’’
By the time Freeman walked back inside, the visiting clubhouse attendants were whisking away all of the empty beer cans and champagne bottles. He grabbed his clothes and headed to the shower to get ready for the flight back home.
It would be a long night, with the Dodgers not scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles until about 6:30 in the morning. He wanted to catch up on his sleep, but he’s got a parade to catch. The Dodgers’ first parade since 1988 is scheduled Friday in downtown Los Angeles on what would be the 64th birthday of the late Fernando Valenzuela.
“Man, what a night,’ Freeman said. “What a season. An unbelievable season. It seems like we hit every speed bump possible over the course of this year. And to overcome what we did as a group of guys, it’s special.’’
And what Freeman did individually will live on forever in Dodger history.
“The whole postseason,’ Muncy said, “we kept going to Freddie and saying ‘Hey, we got you. We know you’re grinding for us right now, but we got you.’
“And this World Series, Freddie told us, ‘Hey, I got you guys. You covered me. Now I got you.’ And that’s exactly what happened.’
The adrenaline rush of the postseason, the euphoria of winning and the prayers for him and his family, Freeman says, allowed all of this to happen.
“I’m blessed,’ he said, “I’m truly blessed.’
Freeman walked to his locker, stripped off his uniform one last time this season, and all of that pain in his throbbing ankle suddenly was gone.
Life, it can drive you crazy, but oh, can it ever be the ultimate gratification.
“I wish I’d never had to go through what we did as a family,’ Freeman said, “but ultimately Maximus is doing really, really well right now. He’s a special boy, but it has been a grind for three months. It really has. It’s been a lot.
“Obviously with the injuries, it makes it all worth it kind of in the end.
“I’ll never compare Maximus to baseball. I won’t. It’s just two separate things, but with him doing really well now, it does mean a little bit extra.’
Maximus, who had an ear infection, wasn’t able to take a six-hour flight and attend the games in New York, but everyone will see him Friday. He’ll be the little guy sitting with his family at the parade, watching the entire city of Los Angeles and Dodger organization celebrate his dad.
“Freddie was just incredible,’ Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “It’s an amazing storybook into his year, and his October, that was so crazy I don’t think that script would have been accepted.
“For him to do what he did, and get there seven hours, eight hours before a game, preparing himself to play as many times as he could to help us win 11 games, it’s not going to get nearly enough credit for what he put himself through.
“Amazing, absolutely amazing.’’
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