Freddie Freeman is the latest Dodgers World Series legend for the ages.

Freddie Freeman was accepted Friday for the rest of his life.

From the second level of the double-decker bus he rode with his teammates, Freeman looked out on a world that was no longer the same.

Before the Dodgers won the World Series. Before he hit What home run.

Dodger Stadium rocked as the players took the field for the celebration after the parade. The decibel level increased by several orders of magnitude when an image of Freeman holding his son appeared on the video board.

Freddie! Freddie!

Freeman later addressed the crowd and was unable to finish his speech without being heckled.

Freddie! Freddie!

For Los Angeles residents who aren’t old enough to watch Kirk Gibson or Orel HershiserFreeman, for whom the pandemic championship four years ago felt as if it had been won on another planet, Freeman is their first postseason hero.

Whenever they hear the name Freddie, they don’t think of Freddie Mercury or Freddy Krueger, even on Halloween.

Now there is only one Freddy in Los Angeles.

“I did everything I could to get on that field for you guys,” Freeman told the Dodger Stadium crowd. “I’m glad I did it because now we have a championship.”

The legend of Freeman’s performance as World Series MVP only grows over time. After the decisive Game 5 win over the New York Yankees, Freeman told ESPN that he played in the postseason with a severely sprained right ankle.

The day before the Dodgers’ first playoff game, Freeman fell to the ground during practice. Tests later showed that he had broken the costal cartilage of six ribs.

Recovery from injury usually takes months.

Freeman looked compromised in the NL Division Series against San Diego Padresas well as the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets.

“He wasn’t close to 100% when he was in the box.” manager Dave Roberts said.

The World Series was a different story, with Freeman delivering a performance for the ages. He drove in 12 runs in five games against the New York Yankees. The total matched the World Series record first set in 1960 by Bobby Richardson.

“I thought it would be quite fitting to see what Freddie did in this World Series,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “The whole postseason we’d go up to Freddie and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got you, we know you’re hot, we’ve got you.’ At that World Series, Freddie told us, “Hey guys, I got you. You had my back and now I’ve got you.

“And that’s exactly what happened.”

Over time, the details of this World Series will gradually fade from the city’s collective memory. But people remember how they feel, and they will always remember how they felt when Freeman hits a grand slam in Game 1 which sent the Dodgers from a certain defeat to a momentum-killing victory – just like the previous generation did with Gibson’s Homer in the 1988 TV series against the Oakland Athletics.

“People,” said manager Roberts, “remember the moments.”

Roberts knows this from personal experience, as he is revered to this day in Boston for the stolen base that started the Red Sox’s historic comeback in the 2004 American League Championship Series.

The day after the Grand Slam, Freeman was offered a glimpse into his future. The Dodger Stadium crowd has chanted his name often in his three years with the team, sometimes when he walks into the box, sometimes after he hits a big hit. In the second game, they chanted his name after every pitch in every at-bat he had.

After that game, Freeman said, “When I walked up to the plate and hit the bat for the first time today, it was hard not to smile inside.”

A former MVP and eight-time All-Star, Freeman was already a popular player. And to think, the Orange County native never would have signed with the Dodgers if his former team, the Atlanta Braves, had offered him a six-year contract.

“Now it feels like he’s a Dodger,” said his father, Fred. “He feels like a Dodger, he looks like a Dodger, and he is a Dodger.”

At a rally at Dodger Stadium, Freeman once again thanked fans for the way they supported him while his 3-year-old son Max was temporarily paralyzed by a rare neurological disease.

His fans responded with a standing ovation, and they will continue to thank him by chanting his name, naming their children after him, and paying for his food in these parts as long as he lives.