SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — In his first game as the reigning World Series MVP, Freddie Freeman did what he does. A total of 125 days have passed since Freeman etched himself into Los Angeles Dodgers lore forever, returning in Gibsonian fashion from a gruesome right ankle injury and launching the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history.
Nothing will ever be the same. But some things don’t change.
Freeman, playing in his first Cactus League game of the spring after that ankle required offseason surgery, drew a prolonged cheer even in a visiting spring training park on Thursday at Salt River Fields.
“I’m in gray pants and getting some cheers,” Freeman said. “It’s kind of different.”
Then he went down quickly to two strikes in his first at-bat, waited out a pair of pitches in the dirt and laced a fastball from Colorado Rockies right-hander Bradley Blalock into right field for a single.
So began the next stage of Freeman’s Dodger life.
“It’s been a little different everywhere I go,” Freeman said of the attention. “Everyone knows who I am. That’s because good things happened.
“Very uncomfortable for me. You guys know I just like to do my job and go home. … I appreciate it, I really do. It’s not something you set out for but you take it in stride. You appreciate what you created for people and I don’t take that for granted, what we were able to accomplish last October.”
Thursday was a relatively simple day’s work, with Freeman going 1-for-3 with a pair of flyouts.
“I actually felt pretty good,” Freeman said of his swing. “Saw pitches well. Felt like I swung at strikes.”
One thing Freeman has always done is hit. But things feel different for him now as an immortal for a franchise he never envisioned playing for. His status as a Dodger is cemented.
It’s a level of celebrity in a sports town that few can truly understand — except maybe Freeman’s manager, who will never have to buy a drink in Boston again after one of the most iconic stolen bases in baseball history.
“I think it’s one of those things that, in sports, people really look towards moments in time,” said Dave Roberts, who swiped that base to help the Boston Red Sox snap their curse in 2004. “You know, where they were at, at that moment in time when something special happened.”
At least one minor distinction: Roberts hasn’t had his autograph tattooed onto a fan’s calf, as one fan apparently did with Freeman after seeking out his signature this winter.
“I think with Freddie, he hears it. He’s going to hear it every day, certainly during the baseball season, about how someone was grateful or thankful for that moment,” Roberts said. “But he just does a great job of focusing on the job at hand and certainly having the gratitude — that appreciation — for what that moment did for many, many Dodger fans across the world.”
It’s a moment that lingered into this spring when Freeman continued to feel discomfort in his ankle through Thanksgiving. The severe sprain he thought he’d suffered was actually torn ligaments, along with a bone spur that had traveled dangerously close to his Achilles tendon.
Freeman admitted he went down a “rabbit hole” this offseason with his son, Charlie, rewatching the Game 1 home run. He also went back and watched when he injured the ankle, rolling it badly trying to beat out a groundball on the night the Dodgers clinched the division.
“I’ve seen it,” Freeman said. “It’s gross. … I still feel it.”
Recovery from surgery has forced the meticulous Freeman to give a backseat to his usual spring routine.
“He’s handling it as well as Freddie can handle not playing,” Roberts said. “But I don’t necessarily think it’s that bad of a thing. I think, you know, given all that he’s done over the last X amount of years, to temper or manage the workload, I just don’t think it’s going to be that costly.”
Freddie Freeman runs to first base after hitting a single in his first plate appearance of spring training. (Rick Scuteri / Imagn Images)
Thursday marked his first game action. He’s still not quite 100 percent, as he showed in wearing tape on his right ankle for the first time this spring. The tape job wasn’t quite as thick as the spat tape job he received throughout October, but it was a notable precaution for an ankle that’s still healing 12 weeks after surgery. Freeman said he’ll keep having his ankle taped through at least the All-Star break.
“I wish it felt like the left one, but it doesn’t,” Freeman said, describing the ankle as “good enough.”
The hope, Freeman said, is to serve as the designated hitter again on Saturday before playing the field for the first time Sunday. That will be a test of the ankle’s strength and a chance to get closer to the 30 at-bats he desires before the Dodgers open the season March 18 in Tokyo against the Chicago Cubs.
For now, the healing process means some concessions — and maybe a day off or two in April for the 35-year-old.
“We’ll see,” Freeman said. “I don’t have an answer to that. You guys know I’ll fight tooth and nail to be in the lineup every single day, but I do understand keeping me on the field as much as they possibly can.”
(Top photo: Rick Scuteri / Imagn Images)
