If the sun is blocked at some point Sunday by clouds passing over Dodger Stadium, Freddie Freeman won’t move his sunglasses to the brim of his cap.
He doesn’t want his shades to obscure the Dodgers’ logo.
“It will be on the back of my hat,” Freeman said. “That’s Bobby. Bobby’s still in me.”
Freeman smiled often Saturday as he told stories of his first MLB manager, Bobby Cox, whose death was announced earlier in the day by the Braves. The Dodgers are in the middle of a three-game series against the Braves.
Cox, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014, was 84.
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A September call-up in Cox’s final season as a manager, in 2010, Freeman’s time with the Braves didn’t overlap much with Cox’s. However, Freeman said Cox had an oversized influence on him.
“A manager who relentlessly had our backs,” said Freeman, who was in the Braves’ major-league spring training camp in each of Cox’s last two years.
Freeman recalled walking into the Braves’ clubhouse for the first time on Sept. 1, 2010, and seeing a lineup card on which he was listed as the team’s No. 6 hitter.
“I almost threw up,” Freeman said.
Freeman was staring into space in front of his locker when Cox walked over. The manager dropped an expletive, which was followed by a question: “What took you so long to get here to the big leagues?”
“All the nerves immediately went away,” Freeman said.
Freeman said everyone who was in Cox’s orbit had stories like that.
“A lot of how the game goes is already played out before the game,” Freeman said. “There’s meetings with pitching coaches, who’s available, who’s down, but the managers that can connect with you as a person, that’s what makes a great manager. And that’s what Bobby was.”
Freeman’s favorite memory of Cox wasn’t even from a baseball field or clubhouse. In spring training of 2017, Freeman and his wife were out to dinner with their then-6-month-old son, Charlie. They ran into Cox and his wife.
“To see Hall of Famer Bobby Cox, the joy on his face when he saw my 6-month-old son, that’s the stuff I will never forget,” Freeman said.
