DENVER \u2014 Freddie Freeman met his hero and made a friend. He lost both of them on Friday.<\/p>\n
Growing up in Orange County, \u201c10 minutes from Angel Stadium,\u201d Freeman said he was \u201ca massive Angels fan,\u201d watching games every night with his father. One player in particular became his favorite \u2013 Garret Anderson,<\/a> another tall, left-handed hitter with the kind of sweet swing Freeman\u2019s father was trying to teach him.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a 9- to 13-year-old \u2026 it was a great time to be an Angel fan,\u201d Freeman recalled of watching the Angels of the late \u201990s and early 2000s. \u201cWhen you see a player who is literally doing what you do in practice as a big-leaguer \u2013 obviously, he was an All-Star, a Silver Slugger, one of the best players consistently over time, year after year in that era. You gravitate towards the best players, and Garret, in my eyes, was the best player along with Tim Salmon and Darin Erstad and those guys.<\/p>\n \u201cI just felt drawn to him because it just felt like he could hit a line drive to left field whenever he wanted to and then he could turn on balls. \u2026 It just felt like he was a pure hitter. I just loved to watch him play.\u201d<\/p>\n As a 19-year-old in his first major-league spring training camp with the Atlanta Braves, Freeman found himself in the same uniform as his hero. Anderson\u2019s 15-year run with the Angels had just ended<\/a>, and his career was winding down when he signed as a free agent with the Braves in 2009.<\/p>\n The 10-year-old fan inside Freeman was delighted. The 19-year-old professional had to keep his cool.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was my first big-league camp, so I wasn\u2019t talking much. And it was his first year away from the Angels, so \u2013 he was always quiet as I got to know him, but he was super quiet then in a new place, new people,\u201d Freeman said with a smile. \u201cBut I was two lines over (during workouts) watching everything he did. Whenever I saw him walk to the cage, I walked to the cage. I just wanted to be around him. It was someone I grew up wanting to be like.<\/p>\n \u201cOver those couple weeks, we exchanged pleasantries but that was it. Then he signed with the Dodgers the next year, and I didn\u2019t see him much. Over the years, as I got better and was longer in the big leagues, he caught wind that he was my favorite player.\u201d<\/p>\n Freeman\u2019s uncle worked at Orange Lutheran, where Anderson\u2019s children went to school, and through him, Anderson reached out and invited Freeman to play golf someday. Freeman was hesitant and took \u201cover a year\u201d to accept. The two finally played a round together at Shady Canyon Golf Club in Irvine.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the greatest day,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cI was smiling from ear to ear all day. Sometimes you get told, \u2018Don\u2019t meet your hero,\u2019 and he was my hero. But it was the complete opposite of that. It was the best day and we became closer, texting over the years. I\u2019d run into him at Haute Cakes (Caffe) in Newport.\u201d<\/p>\n