Most of the time in sports, the best stories play out right in front of our eyes during the heat of the competition, but every now and then, a story that happens “off the field” steals the show.
That’s certainly the case with this recent revelation that Los Angeles Dodgers (and former Atlanta Braves) first baseman Freddie Freeman shared on the On Base with Mookie Betts podcast.
Freeman opened up with his current teammate about how a former teammate (and Braves legend) Chipper Jones literally saved him when a snow storm hit Atlanta in 2014.
Freddie laughed pretty much the whole time he told the story, but first had to set up why he was out in the snow in the first place:
“Chipper and I used to live next to each other 40 minutes north of Turner Field. We gotta go to Turner Field because there’s a luncheon that we gotta go and talk.
We got alerts that were like ‘hey, it’s about to snow,’ and I had to try and get home. And it wasn’t like a snowing downpour, it was ice. So it took 9 hours to get off of the exit of where I live. 9 hours.”
Nine hours to get back on a route that typically takes 40 minutes… that’s Atlanta traffic right there. Freeman was clearly in need of help (after things got desperate on the weather prolonged trek), and his knight in shining armor wasn’t too far away:
“There was peeing in bottles, you know, what are you gonna do? Finally I got to a shopping center. My phone was dying, I had one percent left.
Chipper texts me and says ‘where are you?’ I said ‘I don’t know the exact location,’ but I took a picture, sent it, and then boom, phone died.”
Once the phone died, Freeman had no idea what was going to happen next, and had no real plan to get back home.
He decided to stay put, which ended up paying off for him:
“45 minutes later, there is a guy coming in camo on an ATV, and it’s Chipper in full camo and he’s like “let’s go, we’re going home.’ (I’m in) a leather jacket and I had Louis Vuitton shoes on.
It’s like 20 degrees and we’re on an ATV. He’s going as fast this ATV can go. I’m (shivering) holding onto him for dear life. Atlanta wasn’t prepared for the snow, and then they made a bobblehead out of it.”
The fact that Atlanta made a bobblehead in honor of the whole thing is absolutely hilarious, and I’ve got to say, they nailed the outfits of both Freeman and Jones.
You can listen to the interview (and see the comical bobblehead) in the video below:
