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Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman rocked by death of baseball ‘hero’ Garret Anderson

April 19, 2026

DENVER — Freddie Freeman met his hero and made a friend. He lost both of them on Friday.

Growing up in Orange County, “10 minutes from Angel Stadium,” Freeman said he was “a massive Angels fan,” watching games every night with his father. One player in particular became his favorite – Garret Anderson, another tall, left-handed hitter with the kind of sweet swing Freeman’s father was trying to teach him.

“As a 9- to 13-year-old … it was a great time to be an Angel fan,” Freeman recalled of watching the Angels of the late ‘90s and early 2000s. “When you see a player who is literally doing what you do in practice as a big-leaguer – obviously, he was an All-Star, a Silver Slugger, one of the best players consistently over time, year after year in that era. You gravitate towards the best players, and Garret, in my eyes, was the best player along with Tim Salmon and Darin Erstad and those guys.

“I just felt drawn to him because it just felt like he could hit a line drive to left field whenever he wanted to and then he could turn on balls. …. It just felt like he was a pure hitter. I just loved to watch him play.”

As a 19-year-old in his first big-league spring training camp with the Atlanta Braves, Freeman found himself in the same uniform as his hero. Anderson’s 15-year run with the Angels had just ended, and his career was winding down when he signed as a free agent with the Braves in 2009.

The 10-year-old fan inside Freeman was delighted. The 19-year-old professional had to keep his cool.

“That was my first big-league camp, so I wasn’t talking much. And it was his first year away from the Angels, so – he was always quiet as I got to know him, but he was super quiet then in a new place, new people,” Freeman said with a smile. “But I was two lines over (during workouts) watching everything he did. Whenever I saw him walk to the cage, I walked to the cage. I just wanted to be around him. It was someone I grew up wanting to be like.

“Over those couple weeks, we exchanged pleasantries but that was it. Then he signed with the Dodgers the next year, and I didn’t see him much. Over the years, as I got better and was longer in the big leagues, he caught wind that he was my favorite player.”

Freeman’s uncle worked at Orange Lutheran, where Anderson’s children went to school, and through him, Anderson reached out and invited Freeman to play golf someday. Freeman was hesitant and took “over a year” to accept. The two finally played a round together at Shady Canyon Golf Club in Irvine.

“It was the greatest day,” Freeman said. “I was smiling from ear to ear all day. Sometimes you get told, ‘Don’t meet your hero,’ and he was my hero. But it was the complete opposite of that. It was the best day and we became closer, texting over the years. I’d run into him at Haute Cakes (Caffe) in Newport.”

Then Freeman woke up Friday morning to the news that was delivering gut punches throughout the baseball world.

“It was the worst,” he said. “I got a text that said, ‘Did you see it?’ ‘See what?’ “Garret Anderson passed.’ I was, ‘No way.’ I don’t have Twitter or any of that stuff, so I started typing his name into Google, and when it came up, I was hoping it was some ridiculous website. But it said ‘X Angels (the team’s X account).’

“I just sat there. Totally shocked.”

He reached out to other members of the Dodgers’ traveling party with connections to the Angels – coach Dino Ebel, broadcaster Jose Mota, physical therapist Bernard Li. They had all been rocked by the same news of Anderson’s sudden death.

“He was just a good man. Every encounter with him just put a smile on my face,” Freeman said. “He made me love baseball even more.”

POSSIBLE MOVE

Freeman is expecting the birth of his fourth child any day now. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts would not confirm a potential move to the paternity list this weekend, saying only that the team would “have a conversation” Sunday, possibly.

Roberts did confirm there was no injury situation that would cause the team to make a roster move at this point.

Meanwhile, Ryan Ward was removed from the lineup at Triple-A Oklahoma City Friday and traveled to Denver.

The Pacific Coast League MVP in 2025, Ward was added to the 40-man roster for the first time last November. If he is activated from the taxi squad, it would be his first promotion to the big leagues after parts of four seasons in Triple-A.

STEWART STATUS

Right-hander Brock Stewart made his second rehab appearance with Class-A Ontario Friday night. It did not go as well as the first one when he struck out all three batters he faced.

This time, he retired the first two batters he faced then allowed a single and hit a batter. He was pulled after throwing 22 pitches.

ALSO

Right-hander River Ryan was scratched from his scheduled start for Triple-A Oklahoma City on Friday and placed on the injured list with a minor hamstring injury. Ryan allowed five runs on nine hits over seven innings in his first two starts with OKC this year.

UP NEXT

Dodgers (RHP Roki Sasaki, 0-2, 6.23 ERA) at Rockies (RHP Michael Lorenzen, 1-2, 8.10 ERA), Sunday, 12:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM

Orange County Register

News Details

Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman rocked by death of baseball ‘hero’ Garret Anderson

POSSIBLE MOVE

STEWART STATUS

ALSO

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