St. Louis Cardinals World Series hero David Freese has made headlines by abruptly turning down induction into the team’s Hall of Fame.
Freese batted an astounding .545 in the 2011 National League playoffs. Freese hit three home runs in the National League Championship Series victory for St. Louis over Milwaukee. He drove in seven runs in Game 6 of the World Series against the Texas Rangers, and he was the hero of the game by hitting the walk-off home run in Game 7. He set a record for most post-season RBI (21.) He was both the NLCS MVP as well as the World Series MVP.
He was a one-man wrecking crew for the Cardinals.
Cardinal fans had voted online for Freese to be inducted into their hall of fame, but on Saturday, the franchise revealed that he had withdrawn his nomination.
Freese flat-out refuses to be inducted and offers no explanation. He only provided the cryptic line- “I look at who I was during my tenure, and that weighs heavily on me.
Despite collecting the most votes on the fan poll, Freese, a member of the Cardinals from 2009–2013, will no longer be a part of the Class of 2023. Freese, who is 40 years old, apologized to the supporters in a press statement.
Freese, who grew up in the Greater St. Louis region, was a huge Cardinals fan and spent the first five of his 11 MLB seasons with the team. The Padres traded for the 2006 draft selection in 2008, and he eventually joined the organization that year.
Three years later, thanks mainly to Freese’s epic Game 6 home run, he won the National League Championship Series MVP award and the World Series MVP on the team’s historic run to their eleventh championship. After playing for the Pirates and the Dodgers, the 2012 All-Star was dealt to the Angels in 2013 and retired the following year, in 2019.
