World Series walk-off grand slam gives Freeman baseball immortality

LOS ANGELES -- Imagine if you will, and it won’t be hard for Dodger fans to do, a hobbled Dodger great coming to the plate in Game 1 of the World Series. The Dodgers are trailing, and down to their last out. We don’t have to tell you what comes next.

Some 36 years ago, that Dodger was Kirk Gibson. On Friday night, it was Freddie Freeman, and with one swing of his bat, he delivered the most memorable home run since Gibson’s pinch-hit three-run blast off A’s closer Dennis Eckersley all those years ago.

In Freeman’s case, the bases were loaded, making it the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history, giving the Dodgers a 6-3 victory over the Yankees at Dodger Stadium.

“When you get told you do something like that in this game that’s been around a very long time -- I love the history of this game, to be a part of it, it’s special,” Freeman said. “I’ve been playing this game a long time, and to come up in those moments, you dream about those moments. Even when you’re 35 and been in the league for 15 years, you want to be a part of those.”

An hour before the start of one of the most anticipated Fall Classics in the history of the sport, the Dodgers made sure to honor that past. They celebrated the life of Fernando Valenzuela, who passed away earlier in the week.

And in the World Series montage that followed as the two teams lined up down the first- and third-base lines, the Dodgers played highlights of Jackie Robinson, Sandy Koufax and all the legends of the franchise that have helped them win seven championships up to this point.

Part of that montage, of course, included Gibson’s iconic walk-off homer in the 1988 World Series. It is a moment ingrained in Dodgers history, one that has consistently been played and talked about at Dodger Stadium for nearly four decades.

All those legendary World Series moments, including Gibson's, now have some company. Forever, the history of the Dodgers can’t be completed without mentioning Freeman’s heroics on this night.

Freeman’s blast off left-hander Nestor Cortes was the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history and just the second in postseason history. It’s also just the third walk-off homer in postseason history hit when a team was trailing, joining Joe Carter in 1993 and, yes, Gibson in ’88.

“The game honors you, and when you do things the right way, you play the right way, you’re a good teammate, I just believe that the game honors you,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “Tonight, Freddie was honored.”

With the Dodgers down a run heading into the bottom of the 10th, their initial goal was to try and get Shohei Ohtani up to the plate. The Dodgers had Will Smith, Gavin Lux and Tommy Edman due up with Ohtani waiting to get a chance.

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Lux and Edman both reached base with one out, and it looked like L.A. was, at the very least, going to extend the game another inning, at which point New York brought in Cortes. But after Ohtani fouled out on the first pitch he saw the Dodgers were down to their final out. With the left-hander on the mound and runners at second and third, the Yankees then decided to intentionally walk Mookie Betts to get to Freeman with the bases loaded.

“Right when they awarded [the baserunners] second and third, I knew I was going to be coming up in that moment,” Freeman said. “But right when I saw the [intentional walk sign], I went over what I was going to be looking for and tried to be simple and see it and hit it. Luckily, I did.”

Boy, did he. Freeman jumped on the first pitch he saw from Cortes -- a 92.5 mph fastball in and down that caught too much of the plate -- and sent it high and deep. From the moment he connected, the sold-out crowd at Dodger Stadium knew it was gone. Freeman stood at home plate for a few seconds before taking a couple of steps with his bat held over his head. He then placed the bat down and began his jog around the bases, fully cementing his place in baseball history.

“Normally when you see a ball hit like that, your first reaction goes to the batter,” said Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy. “At that moment, the batter is normally going to tell you if he got it good or not. With Freddie, you don’t normally do that, because Freddie just puts the bat down. When you look at home plate, he’s just got the bat holding in the air, hasn’t even taken a step. It was just, ‘Oh my gosh.’ That was pretty cool.”

Three months ago, a moment like this looked impossible for Freeman. After a game in late July, Freeman got a text from his wife, Chelsea, that their youngest son, Maximus, wasn’t doing well. As a family, they rushed their 3-year-old son to the emergency room. Before a day game, Freeman slept in a hospital room, but still found his way into the starting lineup.

A couple of days later, as the team prepared to play against the Astros in Houston, Freeman sat alone in the dining room. He wouldn’t move or talk. His son’s health had gotten worse. Two hours before the game, Freeman rushed out to the airport to fly back to Los Angeles. Freeman then missed more than a week as he tended to the situation.

At the time, nobody knew how long Freeman would be out. There was even a possibility that he wouldn’t return for the rest of the season. All of it was contingent on the health of his son.

Months later, Maximus is pretty close to a full recovery.

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“Seeing Freddie doing Freddie things has been great, especially for him going through a lot this year,” said Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernández. “A lot of injuries, problems with his kid and all of that stuff. But he’s a guy who always stays positive, always working really hard to do whatever it takes to help the team win, and he proved it tonight.”

Freeman’s adversity didn’t stop in August. On the field, he dealt with more injuries than he normally has throughout his 15-year career. He suffered a hairline fracture on his throwing hand, which affected his swing for weeks. Then, on Sept. 26, the day the Dodgers clinched the NL West, Freeman suffered a badly sprained ankle. The Dodgers told him the injury takes four-to-six weeks to heal. Freeman said he needed to be ready in a week.

Since suffering the injury, Freeman arrives at the ballpark at 10:30 a.m. His daily routine, which he can recite immediately, now consists of getting treatment in his upper leg for about 45 minutes. He then gets flipped over and receives treatment on his calf and Achilles. Freeman goes through hours of alternating between hot and cold packets that help alleviate the pain. He then tops it off by getting in the pool for hours.

Some days, the near-five-hour routine works. Some days, Freeman can barely walk, which was the case throughout the NLCS, ultimately resulting in the Dodgers sitting him for Game 6.

On Friday, everything was working just right for Freeman.

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“Freddie is going to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer,” Lux said. “Whenever he’s at the plate -- one foot or not -- you feel pretty good about what he can do. You just kind of felt he was going to get a big hit there. You saw that look in his eyes. You can’t make it up. This guy is playing, broken bones all over the place and he’s still doing a phenomenal job.”

The time off between the NLCS and World Series allowed Freeman to finally reset. His ankle finally started to feel better. On Wednesday, Kiké Hernández said he’d started seeing old Freeman again. Freeman was back to joking with his teammates and critiquing his swing the way he normally does. That all became evident in the first inning when he legged out a triple, bad ankle and all.

“He’s doing something that is basically heroic to put himself in a position to even be available,” Kiké said. “Freddie is Freddie, man. Freddie is a grinder. Not too many superstars would grind the way Freddie does and he’s just a Hall of Famer. This is a pretty special moment in his career.”

When asked about the walk-off grand slam and the instant comparisons it will draw to Gibson’s homer 36 years ago, Freeman laughed.

“I played the whole game, though,” he quipped.

Sure, the leadup to Freeman’s homer might not have been as dramatic. He didn’t jump out of the dugout, seemingly out of nowhere, with a noticeable limp. There was no doubt Freeman was going to be in the starting lineup on Friday. The injuries to the two players were completely different.

But with all that, if you roll Vin Scully’s words over Freeman’s clip, they still ring true. In a year that was so improbable for Freeman, the impossible did happen for the Dodgers’ star first baseman.

“This trophy is what makes you go through the grind every day,” Freeman said. “When you step into Spring Training in February, your eyes are on that, to do everything you can. That’s what’s worth it for me. … Winning a World Series is everything. I will do everything I can to be out there.”