Dodgers' Freeman 'excited' for emotional return to his mom's hometown for World Series
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Freddie Freeman is usually held in high regard amongst Canadian and Toronto Blue Jays baseball fans.
The Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman saw the euphoria, tears and sheer elation throughout Canada when the Blue Jays pulled off their dramatic comeback victory Monday night in Game 7 to reach the World Series.
Freeman will confess, it was awfully cool watching the crowd's reaction to George Springer's game-winning homer and seeing the tears running down Vladimir Guerrero's cheeks.
«I mean, that's special,'' Freeman said before the Dodgers played an intrasquad game Tuesday at Dodger Stadium. «When you have a whole country that you know is behind one team, that's pretty amazing. And being from Canada, it's pretty cool.''
Freeman, who grew up in Orange County, California, has dual citizenship. Yet, Canada always has been dear to Freeman's heart, particularly because of his late mom, who died from melanoma when Freeman was 10 years old.
In the last two World Baseball Classics, Freeman chose to represent Canada, rather than play for Team USA.
When I've had the great pleasure of catching up with Freeman, he goes out of his way to talk about how honoured he is to suit up for Team Canada at the WBC, and how close he feels to his late mom, Rosemary whenever he returns to the birthplace of his parents.
Freeman is aware that Canadians may not be cheering for him this time around
On Friday, when the Los Angeles Dodgers arrive in Toronto for Game 1 of the World Series, Freeman knows where the crowd's allegiance will lie.
"I'm not so sure the Canadian fans, Blue Jays fans, will be cheering for me this time around like it was in the WBC the last couple times," said Freeman to reporters via Zoom on Tuesday.
However, the potential shift in fan attitude isn't going to taint Freeman's feelings towards visiting his parents' home.
«But it is special. Every time I go there, you just have this feeling inside that you feel just a little bit closer to my mom. So I'm looking forward to it. I'm excited.''
Freeman's father, Fred, grew up in Windsor, just across the river from Detroit. He was a diehard Detroit Tigers fan, he said, with Al Kaline as his favorite player.
It was his late wife, Rosemary, who was born and raised in Toronto, a Blue Jays fan, before her family moved to Windsor when she was 16.
She met Fred in Windsor, and married when Fred was 21.
Fred and his wife, Alma, will now fly to Toronto on Wednesday. They plan to visit friends they haven't seen in ages, and Freddie figures he'll meet new relatives that he didn't know existed.
"You know every time I go there, you just have this feeling inside that you feel just a little bit closer to my mom. So I'm looking forward to it, I'm excited. Every time I go there I always get this little envelope in my locker and it's always like pictures of a third cousin that has found photos in their garage and they bring them to me. I love going back to Toronto, it's a special place for obviously my family and every time I go back there I feel a little bit closer to my mom. So I'm looking forward to getting there tomorrow."
Freeman has one home run this October and his slash line of .231/.333/.410 is well below his career post-season numbers. But he is only one season removed from hitting four home runs in the Fall Classic to earn World Series MVP honours.
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