{"id":168990,"date":"2025-10-22T11:37:49","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T11:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/freddie-freeman-set-for-emotional-return-to-his-moms-hometown-for-world-series-game-1-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T11:37:49","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T11:37:49","slug":"freddie-freeman-set-for-emotional-return-to-his-moms-hometown-for-world-series-game-1-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/freddie-freeman-set-for-emotional-return-to-his-moms-hometown-for-world-series-game-1-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Freddie Freeman set for emotional return to his mom's hometown for World Series Game 1 – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> first baseman Freddie Freeman<\/a> saw the euphoria, tears and sheer elation throughout Canada when the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> pulled off their dramatic comeback victory<\/a> Monday night in Game 7<\/a> to reach the World Series<\/a>.
Certainly, a Blue Jays loss to the Seattle Mariners<\/a> in the ALCS would have made life much easier for the Dodgers.\u00a0 They would have had home-field advantage<\/a> over Seattle in the World Series. They could have stayed home an extra four days. The plane flights would have been about two hours shorter.
Yet, Freeman will confess, it was awfully cool watching the crowd\u2019s reaction to George Springer\u2019s game-winning homer<\/a> and seeing the tears running down Vladimir Guerrero\u2019s cheeks.
Freeman will be wearing a different uniform when the World Series opens Friday at the Rogers Centre (8 p.m. ET on FOX<\/a>), but he\u2019s an awful proud Canadian, too. His parents were born and raised in Canada, and he knows the pride the country is feeling with the Blue Jays returning to the World Series for the first time since 1993.
\u201cI mean, that\u2019s special,\u2019\u2019 Freeman said before the Dodgers played an intrasquad game Tuesday at Dodger Stadium. \u201cWhen you have a whole country that you know is behind one team, that\u2019s pretty amazing.
\u201cAnd then, obviously, what they\u2019ve done. They\u2019ve invested in their team, into that stadium, the visiting clubhouse, they\u2019ve put a lot into the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a>. So to just see the city come together, and get to experience so much jubilation that they had going to the World Series for the first time in 30-plus years, you know it\u2019s an exciting time.
\u201cAnd being from Canada, it\u2019s pretty cool.\u2019\u2019
Freeman, who grew up in Orange County, California, has dual citizenship. Yet, Canada<\/a> always has been dear to Freeman\u2019s heart, particularly because of his late mom, who died from melanoma when Freeman was 10 years old. In the last two World Baseball Classics<\/a>, Freeman chose to represent Canada, rather than play for Team USA.
Now, he\u2019ll be playing in the World Series in front of fans who love him in Toronto, and those who adore him in Los Angeles. But this time around, those cheers might not be so boisterous.
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be pretty special,\u2019\u2019 Freeman says. \u201cI\u2019m not so sure the Canadian fans, the Blue Jays fans, will be cheering for me this time around like I was in the WBC the last couple of times.
\u201cBut it is special. Every time I go there, you just have this feeling inside that you feel just a little bit closer to my mom. So I\u2019m looking forward to it. I\u2019m excited.\u2019\u2019
Freeman\u2019s father, Fred, grew up in Windsor, just across the river from Detroit. He was a diehard Detroit Tigers<\/a> fan, he said, with Al Kaline<\/a> as his favorite player. It was his late wife, Rosemary, who was born and raised in Toronto, a Blue Jays fan,\u00a0 before her family moved to Windsor when she was 16. She met Fred in Windsor, and married when Fred was 21.
Fred and his wife, Alma, will now fly to Toronto on Wednesday. They plan to visit friends they haven\u2019t seen in ages, and Freddie figures he\u2019ll meet new relatives that he didn\u2019t know existed.
\u201cEvery time I go there I always get this little envelope in my locker,\u2019\u2019 Freeman said, \u201cand it\u2019s always like pictures from my third cousin who has found photos in their garage. And they bring them to me. So, I love to going back to Toronto.
\u201cIt\u2019s a special place obviously for my family and I, and every time I go back there, I feel a little bit closer to my mom.\u2019\u2019
Freeman\u2019s mother, Rosemary, is the reason he has chosen to represent Canada in the last two World Baseball Classic tournaments, believing it was his way to honor her on the ballfield.
\u201cI’m not sure this is what she would want me to do,\u2019\u2019 Kershaw said at the last WBC, \u201cbut in my heart, this is what I feel I should be doing to honor her. I think she would be proud that I’m doing this. I think this is the right move to honor Rosemary Freeman.\u2019\u2019
It\u2019s the same reason why Freeman still wears long sleeves under his uniform, and will do so again during the World Series, even with the games played at night and a retractable roof in Toronto.
\u201cI\u2019m fair skinned, so it protects me,\u2019\u2019 Freeman said, \u201cbut mostly, I do it to honor my Mom.\u2019\u2019
It\u2019s unknown what kind of reception Freeman will receive Friday when he\u2019s introduced before Game 1, but considering his popularity, the love he has shown for Canada, it\u2019s hard to believe even the most diehard Blue Jays fans won\u2019t show him respect. Now, once the game starts, and if Freeman hurts the Jays\u2019 chances of winning their first World Series since 1993, it might be a different story.
\u201cI\u2019m a little confused, why?\u2019\u2019 Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, when asked if Toronto fans were expected to boo Freeman. \u201cYou know where he praises his country, he has played for Team Canada, he was traded here. So yeah, he\u2019s a baseball player who loves the U.S., loves Canada, he\u2019s a a heck of a player, even a better person.
\u201cI don\u2019t know what the Blue Jays fans have in store for him, but I don\u2019t think he\u2019ll be fazed by it.\u2019\u2019
The truth is that the entire Freeman family, Fred says, is eagerly looking forward to these games in Canada. If the Blue Jays win, they\u2019ll end a 32-year championship drought. If the Dodgers win, they\u2019ll become the first franchise in 25 years to win back-to back titles.
They\u2019ll even be called a dynasty with 13 consecutive postseason berths, 12 division titles, five pennants and potentially their third World Series title since 2020.
In the words of Roberts, it would put the Dodgers \u201con a Mount Rushmore of sports organizations.\u2019\u2019
\u201cI think it\u2019s special,\u2019\u2019 Freeman said. \u201cI think to be in that position it\u2019s pretty amazing, to even be considered that. I mean you\u2019re looking at obviously the Yankees, the Giants with three [titles] in five years. Just winning one is hard. So, as far as dynasty, I think if you can get three [titles] in a matter of five to six years, I guess you can say it is one.
\u201cI think it\u2019s the sustained winning that the Dodgers have done for so long, and then to cement that with some championships, if we do it, you can call it a modern-day dynasty.\u2019\u2019
Just pardon the good folks of Toronto, despite their affinity for Freeman, if they prefer not to see it.
Follow Bob Nightengale on X @Bnightengale<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman saw the euphoria, tears and sheer elation throughout Canada when the Toronto Blue Jays pulled off their dramatic comeback victory Monday night in Game 7 to reach the World Series.Certainly, a Blue Jays loss to the Seattle Mariners in the ALCS would have made life much easier for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":168991,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-168990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}