EASLEY — “I just always wanted to be the best. I never said I’m better than you. I wanted somebody else to say it.”
Those were the words recently of Todd Freeman, who got drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1977 (29th round) and in 1979 (2nd round) by the Milwaukee Brewers.
Randy Bray, Steve Garrison and Gregg Powell – three of the best “baseball minds” in the Easley area – went down memory lane last weekend and talked about the standout baseball career of Freeman. They still remember him starring in baseball as the 1977 graduate of Easley High School and a standout American Legion baseball player.
“Todd had great talent,” said Bray, the former Post 52 legion coach, “and he had good speed for a guy that strong.”
Continued Bray, about a certain game, “We were playing at Greenwood and I was an assistant coach. We were losing by 2 runs and the bases were loaded, and there was 2 outs. He (Freeman) drills one and the left fielder misses it, and it goes to the fence. And when it was over, we had scored 3 runs and Todd was on third base. Well, they claimed that he had missed first base.”
Bray had a few choice words for the umpire about the call and was kicked out of the game.
The memories of Freeman continue on.
“He just loved the game,” said Garrison. “You could just tell he (Freeman) was ready to play and he wanted someone to hit him the ball. Today when you speak to Todd, he is very calm and humble. That’s the way he was at the games. Without saying anything, it was just how he carried himself. Confident, but humble and a natural talent. Todd was the guy on our team that you wanted to play at his level. So, he made everybody else better because of his talent. He’s like a brother to me. I played one halfback and he played the other halfback (in football) back in elementary school.”
Continued Garrison, about Freeman, “I loved it when the ball was hit to him at third base. He could field a bunt down third-base line better than anybody. I knew if he threw it off the line – it was going to come right to me (at first base). He made you better because of his accelerated level of the game.”
Garrison does recall one game of Freeman.
“We were playing down at Laurens and their baseball field was about 30 feet away from their football stadium,” Garrison said. “Todd hit one over the stadium and it landed in a track meet (on the football field). It was easily 500 feet.”
Powell, meanwhile, was a former teammate of Freeman. And to this day, Powell feels that Freeman is the best all-time player in Post 52 legion baseball history.
“I was in ninth grade and I was the backup third baseman (behind Freeman),” said Powell. “Todd just had a presence and he hit some shots. Coach Barbary would sometimes take us down to Clemson (University) for practice and they’d let us hit in the batting cages. Well, that was Todd’s freshman year (at Clemson). We went down to watch him play that day and he hit a grand slam in his first at-bat against Georgia Southern.”
Then, Powell remembers another instance of a monster home run by Freeman at the old Glenwood Park (where the Easley Combined Utility Systems is now). In fact, Powell said Freeman and former Boston Red Sox great Jim Rice (from the Anderson area) were the only ones to ever hit the ball by the big tower in left-centerfield. “I saw Todd hit one there and somebody told me that Jim Rice also hit one there too,” said Powell. “That would have to be a 480 or 500-foot shot.”
State Champs! Close to 50 years ago, Freeman played on the only state championship in baseball history at Easley High School. The Green Wave turned in a 4-2 victory over South Florence in the state championship game of Class 4A competition. They had a 20-game win streak that season and finished 23-3 overall. David Loggins was the head coach.
“We had played together in my ninth and 10th year and had total confidence in what each player could do,” Freeman said. “and everybody got along.”
Memorable home run: Freeman hit one home run during his time with the Burlington Bees in Iowa (Class A).
And he still remembers it, a shot to left centerfield.
There were no family or friends at his minor league game in Iowa on that day.
“I choked up on the bat and was surprised it went out,” Freeman said. “I never hit a ball that was more than 15 feet high. If it went out, it was hit just hard enough to go out. I had nobody there (in Iowa) as far as fans. It was a job, but it was a lot more stressful.”
Better than him: Todd, to this day, still says that his son (Ben) was a better baseball player than him. Ben played at EHS and then played baseball at Newberry College. Ben, though, decided early on to hit the academic trail over sports.
“He (Ben) could’ve gone further in baseball than I did, but he’s wanted to be a neurosurgeon since he was in eighth grade,” Todd said. “He’s better than I ever was.”
A different era: There was no travel ball when Freeman grew up. Just making the American Legion baseball team was a big deal and – it is often said – that it was like making a college team. His dad, Joe, would hit him ground balls and his brother (David) would play first base. “We went as often as we could practice somewhere,” Todd said. “Back then, there was really no where to practice.”
Todd’s dad passed away at the young age of 44 due to a blood blot that hit his heart. “I was 10 or 11 (years old),” Todd said. “He (his dad) could throw it, and he loved the game. He was talented. He was 6-3 and 200 pounds. I would’ve loved to of been his size.”