By Caleb Campos –
Home run hero Freddie Freeman led the Dodgers to the 2023-24 world championship. He, in turn, is led by Jesus.
“He’s at the forefront of everything,” the first baseman told CBN Sports during the 2024 All-Star Game. “It’s a big part of who I am and what I want to exude to other people and try to be for my kids, lead them into the path of that as well. That’s just who I am. Christ means a lot to me.”
In the opening game of the World Series against the New York Yankees, Freeman walloped a walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning, unleashing a momentum toward victory the Yankees attempted to contain, but could not.
He followed up that howler with three more home runs, powering the Dodgers forward in the march to their 8th World Series.
At the same time, the home run streak nabbed Freeman a world record of six consecutive home runs in six consecutive World Series games (starting with the Atlanta Braves World Series in 2021.)
Revered and feared for killing the ball, he also reveres Jesus Christ.
“We’ve been having a great network of people (at the Dodgers) to keep us strong, keep the faith, and it’s been really good,” Freeman said. “Anything the Lord lets me do, I do it. I pray before every game, I do everything I can for Him.”
Freeman was born in Southern California to a family that had been in the Salvation Army for five generations.
“When I was kid, all I knew was the Lord. My parents instilled in me that this is what you need to believe,” Freddie told Priority!, a magazine produced by The Salvation Army. ”I truly do believe the Lord died for us and was on that Cross. I will always believe that. The Lord is powerful in my life. I’ve seen Him work in my life and I know if other people let Him into their lives, they’ll see Him work.”
He excelled in baseball, always playing with older kids and being moved up in Little League to older age groups. In high school, he batted .417 as a senior and was named the MVP of the year by the Orange County Register.
The Atlanta Braves drafted him straight out of high school.
“I expect to try to get as quick as I can to the big leagues but also to make sure God’s first,” Freddie said at the time. “If he doesn’t want me to play baseball then that’s not what I was put on this Earth to do.”
By 2010, he joined Atlanta’s first team, which won the World Series in 2021. The Dodgers acquired him the next year.
Freeman has faced serious health issues in his family. When he was 10, his mother, Rosemary, died of melanoma. He wears a long sleeve shirt underneath his jersey always in honor of her.
This year in August, his son Maximus wavered between life and death for eight days in ICU on a ventilator with the rare neurological illness Guillain-Barré syndrome. Freeman took off eight games to be with his wife and son until he stabilized and returned to health.
Then in September, Freeman suffered a severe ankle sprain, which was weak even during the World Series. It didn’t hamper his batting.
Now that he has won his second World Series, Freeman will continue helping his wife with Maximus’ physical therapy.
“I just make sure I put God first and not let temptations get in front of me.”
To learn more about a personal relationship with Jesus, click here
About this writer: Caleb Campos studies at the Lighthouse Christian Academy near Los Angeles.
