Freddie Freeman: Are Dodgers More Fueled Following Early Postseason Exit Last Year?
Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman is a fan favorite for a lot of different reasons. He’s a native Southern Californian, he looks great in Dodger blue, and he’s one of the best players in baseball. There’s not much not to like about Freddie.
A few things people love were on display on Tuesday. Freeman and his family took part in the “Dodgers Love LA Community Tour” by helping the Long Beach Salvation Army distribute food to local families in need. Freeman’s smile, compassion, and kindness are all things fans love about him.
Then Freeman talked to the media, and LA fans who are still frustrated by the team’s disastrous loss to the Padres in the NLDS will love what he had to say.
“Every time you lose, all 29 other teams should have fuel going in the next season. For me, a loss — yes, we won 111 games and blah blah blah and all that but, no matter in you win 80, 60, 110, if you don’t win the World Series you lost. That’s how I view every single season, you have one goal. A fan base has one goal and you owe it to that fan base and if we lose we all lose. The Houston Astros should be the only happy team leaving 2022. So yes, we had a great summer. We did, we had a wonderful summer but we lost. And if that doesn’t fuel you every single year, then you have no business being a professional baseball player. Or a professional athlete. You have one job every time you walk into training camp, spring training, whatever beginning camp is, that’s to win the World Series and we didn’t do that last year. So, if you don’t have the fuel to try and do it again — I mean, that’s why we’re crazy. We start it all over and try to attempt it again every single year. …
“A lot of people picked us to win last year and we had a really good team but I think everyone that knows baseball, crazy things happen. Did anybody think an 87 win Philadelphia Phillies team was going to get to the World Series. An 88 win Atlanta Braves team is gonna win the World Series. That’s why we play so many games and that’s why it’s eight, nine months long because baseball is a beautiful sport and sometimes it can smack you right down and it did to us last year but we’re excited to be going in a couple weeks.”
No ballplayer should be satisfied after losing in the postseason, especially to an inferior team. It’s probably not as cut-and-dried as Freeman makes it seem — for example, while the Phillies would have loved to win it all, they have to be happy with how the 2022 postseason went for them overall — but yes, a team like the Dodgers should be fired up after losing a series they should have won last year.
The last time Los Angeles lost a postseason series they definitely should have won, they came back the next year and dominated the regular season and the postseason to win the 2020 World Series. Let’s hope that history repeats itself (although we can do without a repeat of the rest of 2020, thank you very much).
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