PHOENIX – After a game opener against Great Britain, Canada meets the United States at Chase Field on Monday night in the World Baseball Classic. For the occasion, Freddie Freeman, an American, will defend the colors of the Canadian team. Reason has a first name: Rosemary.
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Born in California, Freeman was just 10 years old when his mother, Rosemary, died in June 2000. The Los Angeles Dodgers player wears the maple leaf in her honor. The former Atlanta Braves did the same at the 2017 World Classics.
“I want to honor them and make them proud,” Freeman proclaims.
Stand up for the national anthem!
Her Peterborough-born mother had Canada in her blood until her last breath, although she moved to the United States where she started a family with her husband Fredrick, also from Ontario. It was skin cancer that killed Rosemary Freeman after a long struggle in Freddie’s childhood.
“As a kid, you don’t always realize what’s going on,” Freeman told the author. But as I got older, I realized that every time there was a Canadian sports team in town [NDLR: à Anaheim], there we saw matches. Canada never left my parents while my father is also from there. If we watched a hockey game, the Maple Leafs would visit the Ducks.
“My biggest memory is when I must have been about 8 years old and the Angels were hosting the Blue Jays,” he said. During Canada’s national anthem, I was more interested in eating my popcorn while sitting on my bench. Suddenly I felt like the strongest person in the world was lifting me up and it was both my father and mother who made me realize that I had to stand up. It’s times like this that remind me how important it is to my parents to be Canadian.”
The desire to win
Despite illness, Rosemary Freeman insisted that her three sons continue to play sports in the Orange County area. After the death, baseball served as Freddie’s escape route. As such, he can hardly choose a better way to honor his late mother than to represent Canada at an international sporting event.
Photo John E. Moore III/Getty Images/AFP
Freddie Freeman, everyone is smiling.
If she died when Freddie was young, her mother, and that battle with cancer left the foundations behind to develop the values the Dodgers player still holds. Speaking of the game against the United States, Freeman knows it will be quite a challenge for Canada, but he certainly won’t throw in the towel early.
“You have to go into every game and want to win,” he said. If you don’t have that mentality, it’s not the right way to do it. Regardless of the opponent, if you play right, you give yourself a chance to win.