Braves: Freddie is Not the Villain Here
This article, written by somehow who has Citizens Bank Park (where the Phillies play) as their background image on Twitter, seems more like a smear campaign against Freeman than what it should have been, which was an article highlighting his work ethic.
And you see some of that in there, but she ends it with this:
"The Braves are proud of what they see as a defining part of their club’s unique culture. Maybe it’ll backfire someday, maybe it already has and their best players would be playing better with built-in days off"
The entire time I’m reading the article I’m trying to figure out if the writer is praising Freddie for his work ethic or blaming him for why the team isn’t performing better.
Here is what we know and have known for a while, Freddie Freeman is going to play every day that he can. For the most part, that’s always been a great thing.
At the end of 2019 when he was dealing with bone spurs is the only time I’ve seen Freddie try to push through and it really cost the team.
That mentality, though, is the same type of mentality you see from the greatest players of all time. I saw someone mention that’s the same mentality that a Michael Jordan, Tom Brady or Kobe Bryant has/had.
And while yes, they may have been bullies in the clubhouse, they were always doing it to try and push someone to be better — to help the team be better.
But it’s true in baseball just like any other sport, everyone is playing banged up and less than 100 percent — especially this time of year.
Does a couple of off-days throughout the year really change that fact? I don’t think so, but I’d love to see an argument otherwise.
I believe it helps them more mentally than physically, which is the point that was made with Dansby. Baseball is much more of a mental grind than other sports.
And not everyone is built the same. While Freddie has that type of worth ethic, it’s understandable if others don’t and they need a breather every now and then to reset.
In our work environments, you can probably think of people with each of these attitudes and it doesn’t make one a better worker than the other if they both get the job done.
And even Freddie admitted in the article that it’s probably too much sometimes (with how he picks on players for taking off days).
But that’s the guy I want leading my team — someone who you know is going to be in the lineup every day and give you everything he has.
That’s why the players consider him their leader and it’s why they want to be in the lineup every day because they see how hard Freddie works to be in the lineup and his desire to win every game.