Welcome to The Opener, where every weekday morning during the regular season you’ll get a fresh, topical column to start your day from one of SI.com’s MLB writers.
LOS ANGELES — The first home run of the rest of Freddie Freeman’s career came against the only team he had ever known until this year, and against the friends that moved him to tears upon seeing them before the game. Freeman had not seen most of his World Series champion Braves teammates since their victory parade. Now a Dodger, either because he overplayed his hand or because the Braves saw an opening to get the next Freeman (most likely both), Freeman emphatically turned the page by swatting his first homer as a Dodger in his first at bat against his former team.