DENVER –– Freddie Freeman has made a future Hall of Fame career out 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’s stunning 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.
“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 for Freeman’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.”
Eventually, Freeman’s own career would bring him into Anderson’s direct orbit.
In 2009, they were in spring training together with the Braves, when Freeman was just a teenage prospect and Anderson was a 16-year veteran who had just left the Angels.
While Freeman relished his brief interactions with Anderson in that year’s camp –– he still vividly recalls stretching alongside him on the field –– he never mentioned his childhood admiration to his new, elder teammate.
Instead, it wasn’t until 2019 that Anderson “finally caught wind” he’d been Freeman’s favorite player, the Dodgers star joked.
And before long, they formed a connection while crossing paths around Orange County.
Turned out, Anderson’s children went to school at Orange Lutheran, where one of Freeman’s uncles worked and got to know the Anderson family.
In recent years, Freeman and Anderson also became occasional golf partners, playing together at Shady Canyon Golf Club in Irvine.
Freeman’s favorite memories of Anderson were from every time he visited Angel Stadium with the Dodgers. If Anderson was there, Freeman would wave over Dodgers team photographer Jon SooHoo to get a picture of them.
“Like, ‘Jon! Jon! Get me and my favorite player!’” Freeman recalled with a laugh.
Like the rest of the baseball world, Freeman said he was shocked to learn of Anderson’s passing Friday.
“53 is too young,” he said. “Getting to know him, and how nice and genuine and wonderful of a human as he was –– it doesn’t make sense.”
At one point, he almost got choked up while describing the impact Anderson had on him.
“To say he ‘was‘ my favorite baseball player is really saddening to me,” Freeman said. “But I don’t wanna talk about the sad stuff because he brought so much joy to so many people.”