Atlanta Braves: uh oh… Freddie Freeman let something slip

After Anthony RIzzo’s rundown of Atlanta Braves star “Frederick” Freeman, opposing fans noticed.  But will they notice this?

Being ‘miked up’ for a national TV telecast is entertaining for the fans, but as Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman is finding out, there are some downsides.

Freeman’s personality certainly lends itself to such things, but during the Cubs/Braves contest on April 19, it was Rizzo’s microphone that provided the fun and games.

Rizzo was the cut-off man on a sacrifice fly hit by Travis d’Arnaud.  On the same play, Freeman tried to advance from second base to third — apparently figuring the ball would be thrown through to home.

Rizzo snagged the throw in from Jason Heyward and immediately set after Freeman, calling “Frederick!” in the process.  Eventually, Rizoo was the Cub who tagged him out with laughs all around the infield.

But as that play gained an instant following due to the national audience, there was some fallout, as Freeman confessed to Buster Olney in a later interview about the incident.

“Now we go on the road and everybody’s calling me [Frederick]… which is great, ’cause that’s my name”, said Freeman.  He went on to explain that he has no problem with that — similar to New York fans serenading Chipper Jones with “Larrrry” chants… which clearly didn’t get under his skin, either.

But then Freeman did say something that he might regret (emphasis added):

“I’m getting my first name called, but that’s okay because I don’t like the name Fred, so as long as you call me Freddie or Frederick, I love it.”

Uh oh.

So just as quickly as opposing fans went from “Freddie” to “Frederick”, they’ll now turn on a dime to start calling him “Fred”.

That’s unfortunate — Freeman just gave bulletin board material to everyone in the country.

So while he just told the world he doesn’t like “Fred”, let’s hope that it’s only a mild aversion to the moniker… because he’s gonna hear it a lot:  especially in New York and Philadelphia.

Then again, maybe it could end up being a motivation factor, perhaps?

Sometimes it just doesn’t pay to be a nice guy, does it?