Dodgers Freddie Freeman Feels He Let Down Team Canada in WBC
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Team Canada's run in the World Baseball Classic is over after being eliminated by Team Mexico on Wednesday, 10-3.
Our very own Freddie Freeman was out there representing Team Canada, but didn't play in the final game against Mexico. Freeman was unable to play in Wednesday's match as he suffered a mild right hamstring injury against Colombia on Tuesday.
He injured the hamstring as he swung in his first pitch in the top of the third inning and ended up flying out on the foul third base side. Freeman ran gingerly to first, and that ended up being his final AB in the tournament.
Canada manager, Eric Witt, announced he would be out for the rest of the torunament. The Dodgers All-Star first baseman shared with LA Times writer Mike Digiovanna that he felt he let his country and teammates down.
"It was really tough. I apologized to [Canada coach] Greg Hamilton. I feel like I let them down. He obviously reassured me that I didn’t, but that’s just the way I feel," Freeman said.
"Watching on TV when you’ve invested as much as you have in the last week, it’s definitely tough to watch. It was a wonderful week. Canada, we put on a good show, a lot better than 2017. To not see it all the way through is hard. So there’s a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth having to leave the WBC."
That's the competitive spirit of Freddie.
Freeman wants to be out there no matter what, and we learned that last season in his first year with the Dodgers. He played in 159 out of the 162 games and those three games he sat out weren't by choice.
Representing your country is the ultimate honor, but you can't risk something like that to cause you to miss time with your MLB club who is paying you the big bucks.
I'm sure this tournament didn't go the way he wanted (same with the Dodgers organization), but he has bigger fish to fry with the Dodgers. LA needs him healthy in order to make a deep postseason run, and good news is, he avoided anything real injury.
