The Dodgers have played mostly great baseball in Los Angeles for 68 years. How many position players wear the iconic L.A. cap on a Hall of Fame plaque?
Go on, take a guess.
Freddie Freeman, the Dodgers’ star first baseman: “Three?”
Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations: “Two?”
The correct answer is zero.
The players that wear the L.A. logo in Cooperstown: Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Don Sutton. The Fox ownership deprived us of Mike Piazza, and the voters deprived us of Maury Wills, but the answer remains zero.
“That is fascinating,” Freeman said. “That is amazing.”
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That means the first position player to wear an L.A. cap in the Hall of Fame might well be the one that shed tears over leaving the Atlanta Braves. Freeman preferred to stay, but the Dodgers offered him a six-year contract and the Braves did not.
“Going into that offseason, it was hard to imagine him in a different uniform,” Friedman said. “And now it’s really hard to see him in a different uniform than ours.”
Yet the love affair between Freeman and Braves fans was so evident in his 2022 return to Atlanta that, in the moment, Clayton Kershaw said, “I hope we’re not second fiddle.”
Said Freeman: “I don’t shy away. I had 12 great years in Atlanta, but I’m having a blast here. It’s been four wonderful years, a couple of World Series titles. I’m here. I love every minute of this.”
We remember best what we remember last. Freeman is well aware of his legacy.
“Walk-off grand slam,” he said.
No one else in major league history has hit one in the World Series. That was the “Gibby, meet Freddie!” moment.
What is Kirk Gibson remembered for? Do we have to ask?
Gibson played 12 years in Detroit and won a World Series. He played three years in Los Angeles, won a World Series, and one of the greatest moments in baseball history was immortalized by one of the greatest calls in baseball history: “In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened!”
Gibson is a Dodger.
Freeman played 12 years in Atlanta and won a World Series. He has played four years in Los Angeles and won two, with the walk-off grand slam to end one World Series game and a walk-off home run to end an 18-inning World Series game.
Freeman is a Dodger.
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If you could follow him around town, you would see.
“I haven’t been able to leave my house once in the last few years without someone coming up to me,” he said. “Sometimes you just want to incognito and get to somewhere, but you can’t. It’s OK. That just means we’re doing something special here.
“Even in Orange County, it’s kind of taken over. There’s a lot more L.A. hats walking around than Angel hats in Orange County.
“It’s just fun to be a Dodger right now. It’s hard not to watch us wherever we go, and that’s special. It’s a great place to play. People want to come here and play. The fans obviously love us, and we appreciate all of it.”
Even the traffic. Freeman grew up in Orange County, so he takes the L.A. traffic in stride.
“The 55 isn’t that good either,” he said with a grin. “Or the 91.”
It sounds crazy to say that Freeman could play two or three times as long with the Braves and enter the Hall of Fame as a Dodger.
The totals through 12 years in Atlanta: one championship, five All-Star appearances, one most valuable player award, three top-5 MVP finishes, .295 batting average, .893 OPS.
The totals through four years in Los Angeles: two championships, four All-Star appearances, two top-5 MVP finishes, two legendary moments, .310 batting average, .907 OPS.
Freeman is 36. His contract covers two more seasons, although he said he would like to play four more with the Dodgers and then call it a career. That would make 12 years with the Braves, eight with the Dodgers.
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Then, assuming his career does not fall off a cliff: Cooperstown.
“I’ve only been here for four years, and you’re already talking about this?” Freeman said. “That makes me happy because that means I’ve done my job well.”
Reggie Jackson played 10 years with the Oakland Athletics, five with the New York Yankees. His Hall of Fame cap features the Yankees.
Nolan Ryan played nine years with the Houston Astros and eight with the Angels. His Hall of Fame cap features the Texas Rangers, his team for five years.
If Freeman is elected, he and the Hall will confer about which team should be represented on his cap. That conversation might be a decade away, but I’ll say it now: In L.A. and in Cooperstown, Freeman is a Dodger.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
