American-born World Series hero Freeman has touching reason why he plays for Canada

Canada might not have had a team in the World Series since 1993, but one of its most iconic baseball players has a shot at winning another ring this year.

Los Angeles Dodgers star Freddie Freeman has been arguably the best player so far in this year’s Fall Classic, hitting a home run in all four games to date. Dating back to his championship win in 2021 while playing for Atlanta, the 35-year-old has homered in a record six straight World Series games.

With his Dodgers unable to close things out last night over the New York Yankees in Game 4 but holding a 3-0 series lead, Freeman has a good chance of bringing home another ring.

And given his history of repping Canada’s national team, there will likely be a lot of people north of the border rooting for him to do so.

Though he represented the USA at the 2005 World Youth Baseball Championship in Mexico, he switched his representation to Canada for the 2017 and 2023 World Baseball Classic tournaments despite never living in the country.

But he has a pretty touching reason why he chose to represent the maple leaf.

Freeman’s dad was born in Windsor, while his mom was born in Peterborough. Freeman grew up in the Orange County suburb of Fountain Valley, California, but holds dual citizenship for both countries.

And while family ties got him the citizenship, it was a touching maternal connection that led him to repping Canada internationally.

“Most people don’t know that, but my mom passed away when I was ten years old of Melanoma skin cancer, and that’s why I play for Team Canada,” Freeman said in a video put out by the Dodgers back in 2023.

“I don’t know if this is what she would want me to do, but in my heart, it’s what I feel I should do.”

The full video of Freeman explaining his connection to Canada is below:

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