It was Roy Hobbs in “The Natural.’’
It was classic Hollywood.
“It might be," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “the greatest baseball moment I've ever witnessed."
Freddie Freeman, who could barely walk a week ago with his badly sprained ankle, who left the team this summer and didn’t know if he’d return with his 3-year-old son fighting for his life, stepped to the plate Friday night in front a screaming crowd of 52,394, and produced one of the most dramatic events in World Series history.
Freeman, swinging on the first pitch from Yankees left-hander Nestor Cortes, hit a 92-mph fastball that soared high into the right field pavilion, nearly the exact spot that Gibson homered to in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.
It was the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history, and the first walk-off World Series homer on a first pitch since Mickey Mantle for the Yankees in Game 3 of the 1964 World Series.
Freeman stood at home plate raised his bat into the air, tossed it aside, and slowly ran around the bases as Dodger Stadium literally shook.
It felt like, just kind of floating," Freeman said. “Those are the kind of things when you're five years old with your two older brothers and you're playing wiffle ball in the backyard. Those are the scenarios you dream about, two outs, bases loaded in a World Series game. …