2,500 Hits, One Swing

The Front Row

Fred Freeman has thrown Freddie batting practice since childhood and still does it in the offseason. When Freeman was about twelve, his father experienced chest pain one night. Freddie pushed him to go to the hospital, where doctors said he likely would have died in his sleep from congestive heart failure. Fred changed his habits. The batting practice continued.

In 2024, Freeman hit the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history. He crossed home plate and went straight to his father in the front row. He later said the moment belonged mostly to his dad — that his swing exists because of him.

2,500

Freddie Freeman reached 2,500 career hits on June 9, 2026. He was 36, in his fifth season with the Dodgers. The Braves drafted him in the second round in 2007 out of El Modena High School in Orange, California; he signed for $409,500 and never played college ball. By September 2010 he was in Atlanta, and he stayed twelve seasons. He won the MVP in 2020, the Hank Aaron Award the same year, and a World Series with the Braves in 2021. He signed with Los Angeles before the 2022 season and has been there since, adding two more championships in 2024 and 2025.

He has been an All-Star ten times and won the Willie Mays World Series MVP in 2024. He holds dual Canadian-American citizenship through his parents, both from Ontario, and has played for Team Canada. He always wears long sleeves in games to honor his mother Rosemary, who died of melanoma when he was ten.

He has 136 hits this season and 2,567 for his career, still playing first base for the Dodgers at 36.

Reporting: Oberlin Review, MLB.com, Wikipedia. Career and biographical data: MLB StatsAPI, via the Fever engine.