Freeman named World Series MVP after record-setting homer spree

NEW YORK – He hobbled into this World Series with nothing to prove, really. Yes, of course, Freddie Freeman wanted that second ring after earning one with Atlanta in 2021. Yes, of course, he wanted to do his part to lift the Los Angeles Dodgers, who had swooped in and signed him when his “hometown” Braves found a different fit at first base in 2022.

But considering he severely sprained his right ankle near season’s end, little was expected of Freeman offensively. And anyway, he had already done enough in 15 big league seasons to earn the respect of the MLB world, to prove himself one of the most reliable run-producers in the sport, to solidify his standing as an annual All-Star and to probably get the call from Cooperstown five years after he finishes.

The World Series, though, is a call of a different sort. For a fortunate few, it is not just an opportunity to win some bling but to become an October legend. And after swatting one of the most dramatic dingers in Fall Classic history and then piling on in an epic personal performance, Frederick Charles Freeman has become exactly that. He is the man we will most associate with the Dodgers’ defeat of the New York Yankees that was completed with a 7-6 victory in Game 5 on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium, and he was the obvious choice for Willie Mays World Series Most Valuable Player Award presented by Chevrolet.

Freeman made history in the 10th inning of Game 1 with the World Series’ first-ever walk-off grand slam. And then he kept going.

In only five games, Freeman drove in 12 runs to tie the World Series record set by the Yankees’ Bobby Richardson in 1960 (in seven games). He swatted homers in each of the Fall Classic’s first four games to join the Astros’ George Springer (2017) as the only player to homer in four straight games within a single World Series. And in doing so, he extended his record-setting personal World Series homer streak to six, dating back to 2021. His final World Series slash line was a ridiculous .300/.364/1.000.

This capped an emotional year for Freeman, who missed eight games during the regular season while his 3-year-old son, Max, battled Guillain-Barré syndrome, a serious auto-immune disorder.

Max is doing much better now, and his dad sure gave him a lot to cheer.

With the bases loaded and the Dodgers down to their final out in Game 1, Freeman connected with a Nestor Cortes fastball and smacked it into Dodger Stadium’s right-field pavilion seats. That swat stood on its own as the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history, but it also harkened back to that most pure and beautiful of baseball moments, when the Dodgers’ Kirk Gibson pinch-hit on two injured legs against Hall of Fame closer Dennis Eckersley of the A’s and willed a walk-off Game 1 homer over the wall, to nearly the same spot and at almost exactly the same time of night.

It was eerie, it was epic, it was enrapturing.

In the first inning of Game 1, Freeman had ripped a liner the other way down the third-base line and motored to third — a triple that proved his personal five-day layoff (Freeman nursed the ankle by sitting out the Dodgers’ NLCS Game 6 clincher on Oct. 20) had made him eligible to accelerate. The time off also gave him the opportunity to get his swing right, and we’d have to say it worked.

Freeman delivered again in Game 2, taking Yankees starter Carlos Rodón deep with a solo shot on a high heater.

And if there were any doubt that the Dodgers could carry their momentum into the uninviting Bronx when the Series shifted east, his two-run homer off Clarke Schmidt in the first inning of Game 3 removed it and immediately took the pinstripe-clad crowd out of the game.

In Game 4, Freeman punched a lined two-run shot to the short porch in right off Luis Gil in the first inning. And in the Game 5 clincher, he drove in a pair of runs with a single.

Though Freeman was NL MVP in the shortened 2020 season with the Braves and has been an All-Star eight times, it has been deceptively easy for him to be overshadowed on a Dodgers team featuring a soon-to-be three-time MVP in Shohei Ohtani and a one-time MVP and now-three-time World Series champ in Betts.

In this star-stocked World Series, however, Freeman absolutely outshined everybody on the field, and, in all likelihood, removed whatever little doubt might have existed about his future Hall of Fame case.

That he did it on one good ankle only makes the achievement more remarkable.

“He’s just such a good example for all of us,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, “even when you’re not healthy, just to be out there and post because it matters.”

Freeman is the fourth first baseman to win World Series MVP and the first since Boston’s Steve Pearce in 2018. He’s also the ninth Dodgers player (10th occurrence) to win the honor, captured most recently by Corey Seager in 2020.