DENVER –– Freddie Freeman has made afuture Hall of Fame careerout of a simple offensive approach.
“My dad always taught me: Hit the ball to left field,” he said.
Which, during his childhood in Orange County, made Garret Anderson his favorite baseball player to watch growing up.
“As a left-handed hitter, seeing him be able to hit line drives to left field whenever it felt like he pleased, he could do it,” Freeman said. “He made me, as a little boy, love watching the game of baseball.”
That’s why Friday’sstunning news of Anderson’s death, at age 53, struck an especially somber chord for Freeman –– who not only idolized Anderson as a kid but eventually forged a personal relationship with the three-time All-Star as his own MLB career took off.
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“You always hear, ‘Don’t meet your heroes,’” Freeman told The California Post. “But then I got to meet him, and I was like, ‘I’m glad I did.’ Because he was a beautiful man. And I wish he was still here. He meant a lot to so many people … I’m at a loss for words really.”
An avid Angels fan in his adolescent years, Freeman always marveled at Anderson’s approach in the box and the ease with which he sent so many of his 2,529 career hits screaming the other way over the shortstop’s head.
It served as inspiration forFreeman’s own game, giving him a role model to look up to as a similarly tall, lanky left-handed hitter always looking to go to the opposite field.
“I just loved watching Garret hit and Darin Erstad play defense,” Freeman recalled of going to Angels games as a kid with his dad. “When you’re taught to hit the ball to left field, and then you see a major leaguer who is pretty much doing what you’re being taught to do, you gravitate toward him.”
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
