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LOS ANGELES – 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?<\/p>\n
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Go on, take a guess.<\/p>\n
Freddie Freeman, the Dodgers\u2019 star first baseman: \u201cThree?\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers\u2019 president of baseball operations: \u201cTwo?\u201d<\/p>\n
The correct answer is zero.<\/p>\n
The players who wear the L.A. logo in Cooperstown, New York: Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Don Sutton. The Fox ownership deprived fans of Mike Piazza, and voters deprived Maury Wills, but the answer remains zero.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is fascinating,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cThat is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
That means the first position player to wear an L.A. cap in the Hall of Fame might well be the one who 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing into that offseason, it was hard to imagine him in a different uniform,\u201d Friedman said. \u201cAnd now it\u2019s really hard to see him in a different uniform than ours.\u201d<\/p>\n
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, \u201cI hope we\u2019re not second fiddle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Said Freeman: \u201cI don\u2019t shy away. I had 12 great years in Atlanta, but I\u2019m having a blast here. It\u2019s been four wonderful years, a couple of World Series titles. I\u2019m here. I love every minute of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
We remember best what we remember last. Freeman is well aware of his legacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWalk-off grand slam,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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No one else in major league history has hit one in the World Series. That was the \u201cGibby, meet Freddie!\u201d moment.<\/p>\n
What is Kirk Gibson remembered for? Do we have to ask?<\/p>\n
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: \u201cIn a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened!\u201d<\/p>\n
Gibson is a Dodger.<\/p>\n
Freeman played 12 years in Atlanta and won a World Series. He has played four years in Los Angeles and won two, including 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.<\/p>\n
Freeman is a Dodger.<\/p>\n
If you could follow him around town, you would see.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t been able to leave my house once in the last few years without someone coming up to me,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes you just want to incognito and get somewhere, but you can\u2019t. It\u2019s OK. That just means we\u2019re doing something special here.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven in Orange County, it\u2019s kind of taken over. There are a lot more L.A. hats walking around than Angels hats in Orange County.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just fun to be a Dodger right now. It\u2019s hard not to watch us wherever we go, and that\u2019s special. It\u2019s a great place to play. People want to come here and play. The fans obviously love us, and we appreciate all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even the traffic. Freeman grew up in Orange County, so he takes L.A. traffic in stride.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 55 isn\u2019t that good either,\u201d he said with a grin. \u201cOr the 91.\u201d<\/p>\n
It sounds unlikely that Freeman could play two or three times as long with the Braves and enter the Hall of Fame as a Dodger.<\/p>\n
The totals through 12 years in Atlanta: one championship, five All-Star appearances, one MVP award, three top-five MVP finishes, a .295 batting average, .893 OPS.<\/p>\n
The totals through four years in Los Angeles: two championships, four All-Star appearances, two top-five MVP finishes, two legendary moments, a .310 batting average, .907 OPS.<\/p>\n
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 and eight with the Dodgers.<\/p>\n
Then, assuming his career does not fall off a cliff: Cooperstown.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve only been here for four years, and you\u2019re already talking about this?\u201d Freeman said. \u201cThat makes me happy because that means I\u2019ve done my job well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reggie Jackson played 10 years with the Oakland Athletics and five with the New York Yankees. His Hall of Fame cap features the Yankees.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019ll say it now: In L.A. and in Cooperstown, Freeman is a Dodger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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