The face covering he wore during a video call in advance of the National League Championship Series couldn’t hide Freddie Freeman’s emotion.
Asked how his time at Orange El Modena High School shaped him as a ballplayer, the Atlanta Braves slugger’s voice cracked as he recalled a bittersweet period of his youth when he emerged as a top prospect while struggling with the loss of his mother, Rosemary, who died of melanoma in 2000, when Freddie was 10.
“My time at El Modena is absolutely, um … it’s hard for me to put into words,” Freeman, 31, said.