For Dodgers star Freddie Freeman, much of the | College News

The second step of just about each 12-step restoration program states that “we came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”

For one Dodgers fan, that “power” got here in the type of first baseman Freddie Freeman, whose walk-off grand slam in the tenth inning of a World Series Game 1 victory over the New York Yankees final October offered an impetus for giving up alcohol.

“A guy was telling me at a luncheon” during final week’s Dodgers neighborhood tour “that he gave up drinking that night because he just wanted to be present with his kids,” Freeman, 35, mentioned at Saturday’s fanfest occasion at Dodger Stadium.

“They were in the right-field stands, and he didn’t drink that whole game, and he hasn’t drank since because of how present he was with his kids. Those are the stories that give me chills. Those are the kinds of things sports can do.”

Freeman’s dramatic grand slam, one of 4 homers he hit to win most dear participant in the five-game World Series win over the Yankees, left an indelible mark on Dodgers followers, some actually.

Freeman mentioned he bumped into one fan in Orange County this winter “who had a fresh tattoo of me holding up my bat,” the iconic pose Freeman struck as he left the batter’s box and his grand slam soared into the right-center area seats. At Saturday’s fanfest, he signed the leg of a fan who had Freeman tattooed on the limb.

“You realize that sports means so much to people,” Freeman mentioned. “When you’re out there playing and fans are going nuts, you feel that. But then when you come into personal contact with these fans, and they tell you how much it means to them, and then they show you how much it meant to them, it’s really cool.

“I think that’s so amazing that people would go through the pain to put me on their body.”

No Dodgers participant endured more ache — bodily and mental — during the crew’s runup to the playoffs and World Series than Freeman.

The eight-time All-Star missed eight video games in late July and early August whereas his 3-year-old son, Maximus, battled a life-threatening case of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a uncommon neurological situation by which the physique’s immune system assaults the nerves.

Freeman suffered a extreme right-ankle sprain in the final week of the common season and needed hours of pregame therapies and a number of injections of pain-numbing medicine to have the ability to take the area during the playoffs.

Freeman additionally revealed after the World Series that he performed the complete month of October with damaged costal cartilage in his sixth rib, an damage that was identified two days earlier than the postseason and usually sidelines gamers for months.

The rib-cage damage has healed, and Freeman mentioned on Saturday that his son “is fine.” But the ankle damage was more problematic and can gradual Freeman this spring.

Freeman, a 15-year veteran who’s coming into the fourth 12 months of a six-year, $162-million contract, thought the ankle would improve with bodily remedy and relaxation, and the tendons and ligaments in the joint did heal on their own.

But three weeks after the World Series, when Freeman was in Georgia for Thanksgiving, the swelling and discomfort in the ankle “wasn’t going away,” Freeman mentioned. “I was like, ‘Something’s just not right.’ That’s when I text-messaged Thomas Albert, our head trainer, and said, ‘When I get home, let’s get this looked at.’”

A scan revealed a bone chip that had floated down to the Achilles tendon in addition to a number of bone spurs. Freeman underwent surgical procedure on Nov. 30 to take away the chip and shave down the spurs.

Eight weeks faraway from surgical procedure, Freeman swung a bat for the first time on Thursday. He will start agility drills by the finish of this week however mentioned he received’t start operating till the Dodgers’ first full-squad spring coaching exercise in Arizona on Feb. 15.

Freeman mentioned he might be relegated to designated hitter for the first week or two of exhibition video games, however the slugger is assured that he might be a full-go for the crew’s March 18-19 regular-season opening collection towards the Chicago Cubs in Tokyo.

“I feel good,” Freeman mentioned. “I’m on track.”

The surgical procedure and rehab hardly put a damper on a celebratory three-month offseason for Freeman, whose November included his late-night debut on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” an look as a presenter at the Country Music Awards in Nashville, and an interview with Travis and Jason Kelce on their New Heights podcast.

“It’s been crazy,” Freeman mentioned. “We did a lot of celebrating when we got home after winning. It was fun. As I’m out and doing my stuff in the community, I don’t think I’ve made it through one outing without someone coming up [to congratulate me]. And that’s what’s so cool about this.

“When people are telling me what it meant to them, winning the World Series and that home run, it’s special. Obviously, a lot went into last year for me. A lot of speed bumps that we hit along the way. And to have it end like that, it was special.”

The 2024 season ended with a wild champagne-and-beer-soaked celebration in the visiting clubhouse at Yankee Stadium, however for one Dodgers fan, it started a quest for sobriety.

“Obviously, the rings and the championships, that’s what we’re going for, but to be able to impact lives like we were able to do in 2024, that’s why you play sports,” Freeman mentioned. “You can change people’s lives and create memories.”