GLENDALE, Ariz. — Get yourself a hype man like Jason Heyward has in Freddie Freeman.
“He trains hard, he works hard, his work ethic, he’s been around a long time, he’s won a championship,” Freeman said of his new old teammate this spring. “He’s just a wonderful person, and it’s big for this team to have him in this clubhouse.”
Freeman and Heyward played together for four-plus seasons in Atlanta. The Braves’ first-round pick in 2007, Heyward made the opening day roster in 2010. The Braves’ second-round pick in 2007, Freeman joined him as a September callup later that year.
But their friendship started well before that. They were teammates in the minor leagues, Freeman measuring himself against the organization’s top prospect and thinking, “I’ve got to do everything good so I can stay with Jason.”
But their friendship started even before that. The two met as opposing first baseman in the Aflac All-American Game at San Diego State in 2006, 16-year-olds fresh off their junior years in high school.
“He was on the East team. I was on the West team,” Freeman said. “We were all in the hotel and they had kind of a meeting room, a game room where we could all hang out. I don’t even know how it happened. Just for some reason we were drawn to each other and started hanging out every second that week we were there. Then we started playing a couple showcases … He was there. It was the start of a friendship.”
Getting drafted by the same organization took the friendship to another level.
“We were inseparable,” Freeman said. “We were kind of the same like-minded, goal-minded, wanted to get there as fast as possible. We weren’t into any off-the-field stuff. It was just one of those friendships that took off.”
Heyward calls it “super cool” that the two have been reunited eight years after he was traded by the Braves to the Cardinals. Heyward arrived in Arizona ahead of Freeman and sent him a video of their side-by-side…
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