By Martin RogersFOX Columnist Sports
These things may vary from person to person, obviously, but overall it is not our nature to feel sorry for someone who has just landed a $ 162 million contract.
Wells of kindness do not usually flow to a man who has just moved to a beautiful new home in Studio City, one of Los Angeles suburbs.
The fact that a person is a professional athlete is more likely to cause malice than compassion, especially a baseball player who has now bathed in a series of love, everything.
Here we are again, in the middle of the Major League Baseball season getting stronger and stronger, and I was moved to reach out and give Freddie Freeman clarity, visibility, and journalism.
Come here big man, it will be fine.
Over the past week he has done a number of very clear things. Although he grew up in Orange County, Calif., Freeman would have preferred to return to Atlanta, still with the Braves, living in a far-flung house where he spent 15 years before actually living back home to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Freeman’s contract with the Braves came to an end when he helped the company wait for the World Series, back in November. The upcoming MLB closure put negotiation on a new deal, and in March, he penned a six-year deal with the Dodgers, which is where the $ 162 million comes from.
So far, as usual. The Pro runner gets a great free day to move from the place he made his name to and is happy and successful.
However, when the Dodgers traveled to Georgia to stand for three games last week, it was not a normal comeback. Freeman spent most of his short time in Atlanta in emotional turmoil, spending an entire eight-minute press conference.
“I don’t know all the emotions, it’s hard to put into words,” he cried. “I’m just happy to be back.”
There was a lot to get attention for when he was introduced to his World Series ring last season by Atlanta manager Brian Snitker, and more than once when he was praised by the Atlanta crowd at every venue.
He played well in the series, beating several home runs, but by the end of the third game – when it was time to go – the feeling was still there.
It was a little sad, in fact, not really lost to the Dodgers in Clayton Kershaw’s game, who clearly said he hoped “we’re not second” to Freeman’s mind.
On Tuesday, it was reported that Freeman fired his agent, Casey Close of Excel Management, which led to the season’s negotiations with the slugger.
However, travel deprivation was not particularly difficult to define. Freeman would like to stay with the Braves and return there as a visiting player reminded him of how much he misses.
Not everyone liked the side view. Many Dodgers fans must hate it.
I can’t lie, I loved it. Maybe it’s because I’m not as old as I want to be, or because baseball seems to have produced the emotional side of us all, but it felt like a setback at a different time.
The loyalty of one team often died. Athletes have a connection to cities, for sure, but in most cases they travel to greener and richer grass, giving them nothing more than shoulder sightings.
Freeman came to love a place, and an organization, too, to get the feeling that he would return every penny of the Dodgers deal. The sport doesn’t allow much for such things, and it would be an amazing set of events if he somehow left and returned to Atlanta now.
They may all seem ungrateful to LA, but this is what we want from players isn’t it, honesty?
“Over time, Freeman may love LA,” Mark Bradley wrote in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Maybe in his first few months he writes for Dodger as a case of buyer’s regret. to stick together. “
Now, we have an interesting story about how one of the most important players in one of the best teams in baseball is looking for another. And that’s why I felt bad for him.
Emotions aren’t usually something that professional athletes get a lot of these days, probably because they get a lot in other ways.
It is difficult for the public to truly convey the compassion of their hearts to a millionaire, a millionaire, who, on the outside, seems to have a much cooler life than the rest of us.
Sports enthusiasts have a collective power to sympathize with their loved ones, especially in unfortunate situations such as serious injuries and in fact in times of personal tragedy.
But feeling sad for football or baseball or basketball or soccer player, because they feel unhappy – or bored? That really doesn’t matter.
There are always exceptions. Freeman is that. If nothing else, he has elevated the game “I will always love you (enter the appropriate city name)” to a whole new level.
The players gave speeches and open-minded interviews, produced full-page newspaper ads, announced themselves (enter the name of the appropriate team) for life, before.
Freeman, with his tears and actions, did more. He is in pain, and he showed it. Residents felt – and were delighted.
Freddie Freeman.
Where he visits only occasionally, but where his heart – it seems – will always be.
Martin Rogers is the author of FOX Sports and the author of FOX Sports Insider. You can join the daily newsletter here.
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