Freddie Freeman’s first Dodgers homestand options an emotional Braves reunion and a fated house run

LOS ANGELES — Eddie Perez was on the sector at Dodger Stadium by 2:30 p.m. PT on Monday, hours earlier than both the Los Angeles Dodgers or the Atlanta Braves have been scheduled to start batting apply. The primary individual he noticed was Freddie Freeman, who enveloped him in a heat, tight, affectionate hug that would not let up.

“Let me go,” Perez mentioned, “as a result of I am gonna begin to cry.”

Perez, the longtime Braves catcher who has stayed on with the group as a serious league coach, is not one to get emotional. However seeing Freeman — in a Dodgers uniform, in individual, for the primary time — almost received him.

A dozen years in the past, Perez stood within the guests’ bullpen at Residents Financial institution Park in Philadelphia when Freeman hit his first profession house run off Roy Halladay. Perez scrambled to find the baseball however could not discover it. He knew then that Freeman would develop right into a particular baseball participant, and he remained by his aspect whereas he amassed 5 All-Star appearances, three Silver Slugger Awards, a Gold Glove, an MVP trophy and, on the second day of November in 2021, a World Collection title with the identical group that drafted him.

Now there he was once more, similar as at all times, solely completely different.

“I informed him, ‘That is not the correct blue for you,'” Perez mentioned. “However I do not need to make him really feel unhealthy. I need him to take pleasure in being right here.”

On the night time Freeman agreed to a six-year, $162 million contract with the Dodgers, Perez despatched him a congratulatory textual content message and instantly acquired a cellphone name in return. “I do not know what occurred,” Freeman mentioned on the opposite line on March 16. Two days earlier — after reportedly declining an ultimatum by Freeman’s representatives at Excel Sports activities Administration, particulars of which have been chronicled by ESPN’s Buster Olney — the Braves had used a package deal of prospects to amass All-Star first baseman Matt Olson from the Oakland Athletics. The event shocked Freeman, who was all of the sudden left scrambling to discover a new group despite the fact that all he ever wished to do was play for the Braves.

As soon as his subsequent vacation spot was decided, Perez urged Freeman to embrace the change and never look again. Perez talked up the advantages of Freeman’s father, who nonetheless lives in close by Orange County, having the chance to observe him often. He informed him the Dodgers, a group perpetually in championship competition, represented a perfect plan B. And he left him with the next message:

Be your self, and the followers in L.A. will love you identical to they did in Atlanta.

As Freeman navigated by way of his first homestand as a Dodger, these followers at occasions appeared to elevate him.

Loud, boisterous “Fre-ddie!” chants appeared to comply with Freeman round like a soundtrack. They have been there when he stood alone on second base in the eighth inning of the home opener. They have been there when he hit his first Dodgers house run in his first at-bat towards his former group on Monday night time. They have been there when he crossed house plate following a line-drive homer off Charlie Morton on Wednesday afternoon. They have been there as he strolled to the batter’s field for many of his 31 plate appearances over these final seven days.

“We’re all people,” Freeman mentioned. “All of us have feelings and all that. For 50,000 folks, each single night time, each single time I stroll into the field, to make me be ok with myself, and know that they care about me — which means rather a lot.”

Over the span of simply three days in March, Freeman realized he would not be a Courageous, selected a brand new group and was launched on the Dodgers’ spring coaching facility, instantly navigating not solely a brand new group but in addition a brand new spring coaching facility in a brand new state. Three weeks later, Opening Day arrived. Seven days after that, the house opener. 4 days after that, the one main league group he had ever recognized got here to city. It was all taking place so quick, the feelings turned overwhelming, and the chants meant every little thing.

“It isn’t typical,” Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner mentioned. “In my 9 years right here, I do not suppose I’ve seen any participant the place they chant his title each at-bat.”

Lifelong Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw sensed the assist might need been amplified as a result of the followers believed Freeman wanted them.

“Which may be very perceptive of the followers if that is true,” Kershaw mentioned. “It has been cool to see. I do know Freddie appreciates it.”

Monday was the primary time Freeman had seen any of the Braves’ gamers, coaches and employees members since all of them took half in a parade by way of downtown Atlanta and Cobb County on Nov. 5. He made his approach into the visiting clubhouse to distribute hugs and reminisce about that day, then met Braves basic supervisor Alex Anthopoulos within the dugout and shared a dialog so emotional that the 2 moved downstairs so cameras would not catch them. Later, because the Braves went by way of pregame stretches, he made it a degree to shake arms with Olson, who informed him how welcoming his new teammates had been.

When Freeman stepped onto the sector together with his household to obtain his Silver Slugger Award, his oldest son, Charlie, sprinted towards Braves shortstop Dansby Swanson for a hug. When he settled into the batter’s field a half hour thereafter, he glanced at his good pal, Braves catcher Travis d’Arnaud, smiled and mentioned, “That is bizarre.” Two pitches later, he lined his first Dodgers house run over the wall in left-center area.

It got here on a fastball up and away, however d’Arnaud did not suppose the pitch kind and placement would’ve mattered.

“It was destiny,” he mentioned.

Braves reliever A.J. Minter engaged in an eight-pitch showdown with Freeman later in Monday’s recreation, in the end getting him to fly out. The 2 shared a smile as Freeman jogged again to his dugout. “I want Freddie might’ve been a lifelong Courageous,” Minter mentioned. “However we could not get it executed, and he needed to decide for him and his household.”

Freeman, his spouse, Chelsea, and their three kids have settled on a spot in Studio Metropolis, an L.A. neighborhood simply past Hollywood, and Freeman remains to be making an attempt to determine probably the most environment friendly path to the ballpark. Charlie Freeman has made it onto the identical Little League group as Kershaw’s son, Charley Kershaw. After Sunday’s recreation, the 2 of them took half in an Easter Egg hunt within the left-field space of Dodger Stadium.

Sooner or later, Freeman hopes, his new life will begin to really feel as acquainted as his previous one.

“I simply wished to see them and hug them,” Freeman mentioned of his former Braves teammates. “Whenever you undergo the grind of 162-game seasons and playoffs — and a whole lot of these guys I have been with for a number of years. To undergo dropping within the first spherical a number of occasions, dropping to the Dodgers in 2020, after which in the end successful the championship collectively, that bond is there perpetually. We’re all going to be teammates for nonetheless a few years, however we’re gonna be buddies longer than we’re teammates. Now we get to do reunions collectively and all that as we become old. Hopefully I can do some reunions with the Dodgers, too.”

ESPN’s Marly Rivera contributed to this report.