HOUSTON — The friendliest man in baseball is a champion. Freddie Freeman, the Atlanta Braves’ slugger known for smiles, small talk and soft-serve ice cream, hit the last home run of the season and caught the throw from shortstop for the final out of the World Series. Nice guys finish first.
This is the life Freeman wanted — the baseball career, yes, but also the reputation he has earned along the way. He owed that much to his mother, Rosemary, who died of melanoma in 2000.
“He felt like, to honor his mom, he had to be a great kid,” his father, Fred Freeman, said on the Minute Maid Park infield late Tuesday night, after the Braves finished off the Houston Astros, 7-0, in Game 6.