Matt Van Stone, of Wapwallopen, is shown with his son Jaxon at Yankee Stadium’s Derek Jeter monument and retired number prior to a World Series game last week.
Courtesy Matt Van Stone
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David A. Jolley
Freddie Freeman celebrates with the World Series MVP trophy after leading the Dodgers to the championship last week.
Ashley Landis | AP photo
It has been said many times the Major League Baseball season is a marathon, not a sprint, and there is nobody better to exemplify that than Freddie Freeman of the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
When Freeman accepted the Series’ Most Valuable Player award last week, it was the latest in a string of events this year that ultimately turned out well for the perennial all-star first-baseman and likely future Hall of Famer.
He ended the regular season limping around on a bad ankle and was later found to also have an injured rib. He had to wonder how effective he would be in the playoffs, and his father even told him he was too injured to play.
Fortunately for Freddie, the Dodgers had the best record in major league baseball and a first round bye that gave him an extra week to receive medical treatment.
He was still physically limited as the National League Division Series between the Dodgers and San Diego Padres began and only played sparingly.
Still hobbled to a degree, he did not have a good National League Championship Series against the New York Mets, getting just three hits in 18 at-bats and a low .167 batting average with one RBI.
That all changed beginning with Game 1 of the World Series against the New York Yankees when Freeman dramatically gave Los Angeles the win with a walk-off grand slam – the first in World Series history.
He kept hitting home runs through the first four games of the Series. Combined with homers in the last two games of the 2021 World Series while playing for the Atlanta Braves, Freeman set a new record of six consecutive World Series games with a home run.
Throughout the five games against the Yankees, Freeman batted .300 with four home runs and a record-setting 12 RBIs, clearly earning him the MVP honor.
In typical fashion during the postgame awards ceremony, Freddie pointed to the World Series trophy and said that was the important one, the one that signified team success.
He couldn’t have knocked in 12 runs, he observed, without his teammates being on base when he came to the plate. Nobody who knows Freddie was surprised by him putting other people before himself.
Freeman’s biggest test this past season, though, was a personal one that began during the All-Star break in July when his young son, Max, developed a viral infection that prevented the youngster from standing or walking without experiencing pain.
Doctors originally diagnosed Max with transient synovitis from the viral infection, but when Max’s condition worsened to include full body paralysis, it was determined he had a severe case of Guillain-Barre syndrome.
This rare neurological autoimmune disease where the body’s immune system attacks the nerves — even more rare in children — resulted in Max being put on a ventilator to assist with breathing.
Freddie, of course, took an emergency leave from the Dodgers, so he and his wife, Chelsea, could be at their son’s bedside around the clock. Fortunately, Max’s condition improved and he was again able to breathe on his own.
It has been a long recovery, and it was not until October that Max, with plenty of physical therapy, was able to show his neurologist he could once again walk. When something like this happens and your child gets better following a critical illness, it is infinitely more important than winning sports championships and MVP awards.
I am a lifelong Philadelphia Phillies fan, but Freddie Freeman has long been one of my favorite players. He has beaten my Phillies so many times over the years, but his overall professionalism, tremendous play, total effort and humanity more than earned my respect. I consider it an unfortunate circumstance he happened to play the bulk of his career with the Braves.
The ultimate compliment you can give is to say you wish an opposing player was on your team. Freeman is that kind of player, teammate and fan favorite.
Baseball is the sport of parents and children playing catch in the yard and going to games together. Perhaps it is because it is a summer game with a 162-game schedule, played mostly when the kids are out of school and the weather is good, but baseball and family just seem to fit so well.
Family is paramount to Freeman. His mom passed away when he was 10 years old and his dad later survived a life-threatening medical issue. Mr. Freeman played an integral role in Freddie’s development as a person and a baseball player, and he was at game five to see his son become a world series champion for the second time with an overall performance for the ages.
My friend, Matt Van Stone, grew up in Connecticut before coming to Pennsylvania and pitching for the King’s College baseball team. A lifelong Yankees fan, he remembers well going to games in the Bronx with his dad.
When Matt became my work colleague, we started an opening day practice of taking a long, late lunch so we could watch the return of the baseball season. Opening Day is, after all, a baseball holiday.
It wasn’t surprising when Matt told me he was taking his young son, Jaxon, to Game 4 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium. Luckily for Jaxon, a fan of the Bronx Bombers like his dad, that was the game the Yankees convincingly won. So, he was happy on the ride home – at least until he fell asleep.
The important thing, though, was Matt sharing the long Yankees history and experience with his son and moving their family baseball tradition forward to the next generation.
Allow me to borrow from a well-known major league sponsor’s tagline. Win or lose, generations of families enjoying baseball together is, in a word, priceless.
David Jolley is a sports fan and historian, public relations and marketing communications consultant, writer, and author. For more content, please visit davidajolley.com.