NEW YORK – As opening day of Major League Baseball’s coronavirus-altered 2020 season finally approached in late July, Freddie Freeman had far bigger concerns than perfecting his swing and practicing his scoops.
Just being able to walk a few steps was hard enough.
“It wasn’t the way I wanted to start, with COVID,” the Atlanta Braves first baseman said. “I was able to beat it.”
And then some. Freeman easily won the National League MVP award Thursday, topping off a trying year in which he was so ill with COVID-19 during the preseason that he prayed “please don’t take me.”
Chicago White Sox slugger José Abreu earned the American League MVP, a reward for powering his team back into the playoffs for the first time since 2008.