Angels' Freese rekindled love of the game

After a season together, Tony Dattoli pulled David Freese aside.

"I told him point blank that 'You're going to be the first Major Leaguer that I've ever coached,'" the St. Louis Community College-Meramec skipper told his third baseman back in 2003. "He laughed at me and said I was crazy."

The coach didn't see a guy who had taken a year off; he saw a leader with the physical tools and baseball intuition to back it up.

Two years earlier, Freese was heading into his senior year at Lafayette High School in the St. Louis suburb of Wildwood and decided his days in baseball were coming to an end.

"I was 100 percent sure that I was done playing," the Angels third baseman said. "I don't know if it was the path I was going down or what, but growing up -- since I was 3 or 4, playing baseball -- I enjoyed every bit of it, but [I] kind of lost the love for it and stepped away."

The man who would become the 2011 World Series MVP finished out his high school career and played one more season of summer ball before hanging up his spikes and attending the University of Missouri -- without the baseball scholarship he had been offered.

"I didn't pick up a baseball for that entire year, just kind of did the whole fraternity thing and went to school," he said. "It was kind of just one big party. I had a blast at Mizzou."

Coach Tim Jamieson and the rest of the Missouri baseball staff reached out to Freese over the winter to see if he'd changed his mind and wanted to play again. But the Show-Me State native still felt like his baseball days were behind him.

Then he got "the bug."

About three weeks before he was supposed to head back to Columbia for his sophomore year, Freese realized just how much he missed baseball.

"It was kind of what I needed, in the sense, to understand that I love the game, and it -- a year at Mizzou -- brought me back to it," the 2012 National League All-Star said. "It was tough to decide. I think that was a big change, to step away from the game and go to school for a year, and then a full year later, kind of turning the world back around and getting back into it."

Freese didn't consider whether it was too late since he knew he physically had it in him. So with the support of his parents, Guy and Lynn, the computer science major transferred to Meramec to figure out if he still enjoyed baseball.

"The first time I got back out there, I knew that I wanted to play," he said. "[I was] truly thankful for [Dattoli] to help me aboard and get that opportunity to play at Meramec, and I just jumped right in, started hanging with the boys again and getting after it."

Freese used that fall to get his bearings on the field back, but it didn't take long for Dattoli to call his newest player his best. The coach immediately noticed how well Freese understood the game.

During his two years at Meramec, Freese excelled on the field while maturing off it. Dattoli remembered how the 19-year-old stepped up as a leader, even when it wasn't asked of him.

"I think one of the things that really helped him was actually taking off that year. It allowed him to get rejuvenated with the game of baseball, and he rediscovered his love of the game, it really did," the coach said. "I think it rekindled everything for him."

With his passion back, Freese was drawn to the University of South Alabama, which boasted an historic program as well as a "hard-nosed family man" in coach Steve Kittrell.

The right-handed hitter helped the Jaguars reach the NCAA Regionals both years he was in Mobile while logging innings on the mound and behind the plate. In his second season, Freese was named 2006 Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year after hitting .414 with 73 RBIs in 60 games. Although he knew on-field success was important, he said it was Kittrell teaching him how to be a man that really set him up for the First-Year Player Draft.

"It seems like David was always smiling, but when he got in the batter's box, he really competed. You could see those eyes when he was on the field," the retired skipper said. "We've had a lot of great history with Luis Gonzalez and Juan Pierre, a lot of Major League players played at South, and David ranks right up there among the best of them."

The Padres selected Freese in the ninth round in 2006, eight rounds after they took Wake Forest third baseman Matt Antonelli. With a first-rounder at his position, Freese was relegated to backup duties at his first Minor League stop -- Class A Short Season Eugene.

"The first few games, I had to go in in the sixth or seventh inning and play or DH here and there, so I had a little chip on my shoulder, for sure," he recalled. "It was frustrating at first to not be an everyday guy when I was so used to playing ball growing up and through college, but I dealt with it just fine and I just worked my way to [Class A]."

That initial limited playing time didn't affect Freese at the plate -- he hit .379 in 58 games before getting promoted to Fort Wayne, where he finished his first season with a composite .317 average.

After a strong second season -- he batted .302 with 96 RBIs for Class A Advanced Lake Elsinore -- Freese received a bittersweet (but mostly sweet) call from Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak in December while sitting at a Burger King in California.

The Missouri native was traded to his hometown team, but it was in exchange for one of his favorites: center fielder Jim Edmonds.

"I was crushed because you think about who you get a chance to play with [when you're traded], and Jim Edmonds is a big-time player throughout his career and I'm a big fan of his," Freese said. "But to be able to come home and get the opportunity to play for the Cardinals was definitely a dream come true."

The third baseman kept his batting average above .300 with Triple-A Memphis in 2008 and broke camp with St. Louis the following spring in place of the injured Troy Glaus. That year proved to be one of his most trying, however, as Freese was sent back to Triple-A after posting a .158 average in 11 big league games.

Freese sat out two months after undergoing surgery on his left ankle in May. After rehabbing his way back to Memphis, he got a late-September callup and finished the season with seven hits and five RBIs in six games. Two more ankle surgeries limited him to 70 Major League games in 2010, but after that year away from baseball, Freese was determined not to get deterred.

"When you get knocked down, just get back up -- whether it's baseball or something in life or anything," he said. "You just have to wipe the dirt off and keep going. I think perseverance is a huge thing in this world and it can take you places."

Favorite hats in baseball. RT @keewee447: #throwback @dfreese23 I'm digging the hat. pic.twitter.com/IEo0X3lbir

— David Freese (@DavidFreese) April 17, 2013

After collecting World Series and NLCS MVP honors along with a Babe Ruth Award as MVP of the entire postseason, Freese remains passionate about baseball in a different shade of red -- with the Angels. And through the ups and downs, he's never regretted his decision to walk away from the game.

"I can honestly say that, if I did what everyone told me to do back then -- if I kept playing -- I wouldn't be playing today," he said. "I think the love definitely would have fizzled out quite quickly."

Entering his second season with the Angels and 13th since he stepped back on the field at Meramec, Freese's love of the game continues.

"I think every day you try to become more and more of a man and understand what you're truly blessed to have, just truly thankful to have the opportunity to play the game," he said. "When you sit back and think about it, you understand what the game gives back and it's incredible.

"Not even to think about the World Series or winning a ring or anything, just the opportunity it gives you to build relationships with players and just people across the game. The history of the game is incredible and it really does a lot for you."