When opening day was finally approaching, Freddy Freeman had a lot more problems than improving his swing and practicing his feel.
It was hard enough to take a few steps.
I didn’t want to start with that, said the first Atlanta Brave Baseman. I could win.
And then some more.
Freeman easily won the MVP award of the National League on Thursday and left behind a difficult year in which he was so sick with Kovid-19 that he prayed: Please don’t take me with you.
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Freeman won 28 of the top 30 seats in the American Baseball Writers’ Association. The Los Angeles Dodgers’ outfielder Muki Betts was second and the San Diego Padres’ Manny Machado was third.
In a season affected by the pandemic, from spring training to the World Cup, it may be appropriate to award the last grand prize of the year to a person infected with the coronavirus.
Three weeks before his late opening at the end of July, Freeman’s body temperature rose 104.5 degrees and he lost his sense of taste and smell. At one point he remembered that he had prayed a little because I wasn’t ready yet.
It’s had a very strong influence on me, he said.
Freeman says it took him a few weeks of the season to find his support. He also tried to save his energy – he missed his daily baseball practice on the field and reduced the number of jumps from first base while holding on to the runners.
The 31-year old Freeman found his pass fast and with 13 homeruns and 53 RBI’s in total, he beat .341 in 60 games. A powerful left-handed baseball player, capable of splashing the ball all over the field, led the Majors with 23 doubles and 51 runs.
With four All-Star victories, the Brave Men won in the Netherlands for the third time in a row and achieved a World Series victory for the first time since 1999.
| Player | 2. | 3. | 4 | 5. | 6. | 7. | 8. | 9. | 10 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freddy Freeman, brave. | 28 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 410 |
| Mookie Betts, Dodgers… | 2 | 21 | 5 | — | 1 | 1 | — | — | — | — | 268 |
| Manny Machado, Padres. | — | 2 | 16 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 | — | — | — | 221 |
| Fernando Tati Jr., Padres. | — | 2 | 5 | 14 | 5 | 2 | 1 | — | — | 1 | 201 |
| Juan Soto, international. | — | 3 | 2 | 5 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 2 | — | — | 172 |
| Marcell Ozuna the brave. | — | — | 2 | 1 | 11 | 14 | 2 | — | — | — | 167 |
| Traa Turner, citizen. | — | — | — | 2 | — | 1 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 83 |
| Mike Jastrzemski, the Giants. | — | — | — | 1 | — | 3 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 81 |
| Cory Seeger, Dodgers. | — | — | — | — | — | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 43 |
| Trevor Bauer, the Reds. | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 32 |
Freeman is the sixth player in the history of the Braves franchise to become the Most Valuable Player of NL. The last time Chipper Jones received this honour was in 1999 – Freeman wears a torn Braves T-shirt under his uniform, given to him by Jones.
Dale Murphy, twice vice president of Brave of the NL MVP, announced Freeman’s victory over the MLB network.
Jose Abreu, a Chicago White Sox scratch player, received the MVP award in the American Hockey League in recognition of his team’s return to the playoffs for the first time since 2008.
For the first time since Ryan Howard and Justin Morno won an MVP in 2006, some first baseballers.
Betts asked Frank Robinson to be the only player to win the MVP title in both leagues. The 28-year-old striker was honored by the AL in 2018 and Boston won the World Series title.
Betts, who was sold by the Red Sox in Los Angeles earlier this year, scored 292 with 16 Gomer and 39 RBI’s and was the catalyst for the Dodgers to race for their first championship since 1988.
Machado made .304 with 16 home runs and 47 RBI’s when San Diego reached its first play-offs since 2006. Padres Fernando Tatis, Jr. finished fourth in the poll, while Washington fielder Juan Soto finished fifth.
Freeman earned $185,185 and Abreu received $37,037 in contract bonuses, which were pro-rata as a result of the shortened season.
For the first time in more than 75 years, the MVP trophies do not bear the name and likeness of the commissioner of the first Kenesaw Mountain Landis baseball.
In an article published by Associated Press in late June, former MPs Barry Larkin, Terry Pendleton and Mike Schmidt said they preferred to remove Landis’s name from future badges for fear of the way he dealt with black players.
In October, the vast majority of BBWAA members voted to remove all entries of Landis from the MVP trophy, and this year no one will receive the award. In 2021, the organization will discuss the possibility of naming him after another person, including Black League stars Josh Gibson and Robinson as possibilities.
That’s it. That’s it. It’s time to put down the name, Freeman said.
Pendleton works for the brave, and Freeman noticed it when his friend performed this summer. Freeman said he thought Robinson’s name on the board was the right one.
Landis became a commissioner in 1920 and thanks to his reign, which ended with his death in 1944, not a single black athlete played in the Majors anymore. Jackie Robinson broke the color baseball barrier in 1947.
Landis’ legacy is still a complex history, including documented racism, said John Thorne, an official historian prior to his studies.
In 1931 Landis entrusted the BBWAA with control over the collection and presentation of the MVP. During the World Series of 1944 the group decided to put the name of Landis on the plaque. Since then, his name has been on all MVP badges and he is more prominent than the actual winners of the Kenesaw Mountain Landis Memorial Award.
The Associated Press has contributed to this report.
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