As the ball soared toward the stands, as the Los Angeles Dodgers poured out of their dugout and spilled onto the field, most of the sellout crowd of 52,394 had to be thinking about Kirk Gibson. Another hobbled left-handed slugger, defying common sense and biology, limping to the plate and ending Game 1 of a World Series with a walk-off home run to right field to bring L.A. three wins from the title.
But as he danced around the bases, Freddie Freeman, the owner of the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history, the scoreboard flashing DODGERS 6, YANKEES 3, was thinking about his dad.
