Magical and unforgettable, and if you don’t like any of those adjectives there are a thousand others to define the decisive moment of the first game of the World Series. Much has been said and written about the historic clash between the Yankees and the Dodgers, but Freddie Freeman’s battered it all. And this just starts.
Almost nothing short of consummating New York’s victory in extra innings, a connection from Freeman to the first shipment he saw from Cuban Nestor Cortez took the center field fence with the limp bases to erase a career disadvantage and give Los Angeles a 6-3 win in the initial clash of the October Classic.
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“I felt like nothing, like floating,” Freeman explained about his sit-ins at that moment. That’s the kind of thing when you’re five with your two older brothers and you’re playing in the backyard, those are the scenarios you dream of, two outs, full bases in a World Series game.
From the moment the ball came fired, the nearly 55,000 fans at the stadium were left in ecstasy and recalled a similar moment that occurred 36 years, when a limited Kirk Gibson came to the plate to mark a quadrangular in the first match of another World Series in 1988, because Freeman is on the ground with his right ankle injured.
“I have lived that game many times in my mind,” Freeman revealed at the press conference after the meeting.
But Freeman’s connection proved historic for another reason he was the first grand slam in World Series history and, by the way, put the Yankees in an awkward position because they wouldn’t want to return to New York with two defeats in a row.
It also meant the third home run to leave the field to a World Series op-ed in franchise history, along with Max Muncy’s in Game 3 in the 2018 Classic and Gibson’s ever-remembered in Game 1 in 1988.
“That’s great,” Freeman said when he heard about his gesta. Obviously, that’s… It’s kind of amazing. But when they tell you you’ve done something like that in this game that’s been around for a long time, I love the story of this game; being a part of it is special. I’ve been playing this for a long time, and getting to those moments, you dream of those moments even when you’re 35 and you’ve been 15 in the league, you want to be part of them.
Undoubtedly, this meeting did not disappoint, because the Dodgers and Yankees – the best in the National and American Leagues, who face each other in the Autumn Classic for the first time in 43 years – played a first game worth waiting.
Freeman couldn’t perform in the fourth and sixth games of the Championship Series because of the problems with his injured ankle, which he had dealt with the entire post-season, but in the days leading up to the first Game of the World Series, he said there was no doubt he would be in the lineup.
The Dodgers starter’s batter eclipsed an astronomical Giancarlo Stanton who had put the Yankees in front with a 2-1 slate and that was his 16th in playoffs, but that unfortunately for his team left no impact consequence.
Freeman’s, however, will be remembered for a long time, and more so if the Dodgers come to win this World Series in front of a delusional audience.
“It’s the kind of energy the crowd brought in tonight,” Freeman stressed. First World Series game. Everyone’s been talking about this all week.
