LOS ANGELES -- Thirty-six years ago around these parts, Kirk Gibson hobbled out of a trainer's room, willed one of the most improbable walk-off home runs in baseball history and celebrated the occasion by lifting his right fist into the air. On Friday night, Freddie Freeman raised his bat.
With the bases loaded, two outs and his Los Angeles Dodgers trailing by a run in the 10th inning of one of the most highly anticipated World Series in recent memory, Freeman turned on an inside fastball from Nestor Cortes and watched it fly, sending the Dodgers to a stirring 6-3 victory over the New York Yankees in Game 1.
Bedlam surrounded him. A sold-out Dodger Stadium crowd of 52,394 went into a frenzy. Teammates spilled out of the dugout in uncontrollable glee. And for Freeman -- limited all month by a severely sprained right ankle, grinding through the tail end of a bizarre, at-times disheartening season -- it was almost as if time stood still. He raised his bat to the sky then began a numbing trot around the bases.
"I felt like nothing," Freeman said. "Just kind of floating."
With the bases loaded, two outs and his Los Angeles Dodgers trailing by a run in the 10th inning of one of the most highly anticipated World Series in recent memory, Freeman turned on an inside fastball from Nestor Cortes and watched it fly, sending the Dodgers to a stirring 6-3 victory over the New York Yankees in Game 1.
Bedlam surrounded him. A sold-out Dodger Stadium crowd of 52,394 went into a frenzy. Teammates spilled out of the dugout in uncontrollable glee. And for Freeman -- limited all month by a severely sprained right ankle, grinding through the tail end of a bizarre, at-times disheartening season -- it was almost as if time stood still. He raised his bat to the sky then began a numbing trot around the bases.
"I felt like nothing," Freeman said. "Just kind of floating."
