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Speaker 1: Hello everybody. If you've enjoyed Dodger Blue Dream, I beseech

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Speaker 1: you please rate and review the show however you can.

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Speaker 1: I put a ton into making these episodes, and I'd

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Speaker 1: be so grateful if you take this step to help

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Speaker 1: the show. It just takes a moment, and hey, I'd

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Speaker 1: love to know what you think. Thanks so much. Onto

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Speaker 1: the show, bitch time for Dodger base Here comes Freddy Freeman. Monday,

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Speaker 1: August fifth, Dodger Stadium. We saw something we won't forget,

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Speaker 1: a standing ovation in the first Innie number five. Freddie

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Speaker 1: Freeman is back after ten days spent mostly in the

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Speaker 1: hospital at the bedside of his three year old son Maximus,

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Speaker 1: who was at one point fully paralyzed and is now better.

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Speaker 1: Freddie was gone for eight games, which felt like a lifetime.

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Speaker 1: But as I rose to my feet on Monday night,

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Speaker 1: one of nearly fifty thousand, I knew that this wasn't

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Speaker 1: about baseball, and yet it was an ovation and a

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Speaker 1: human story that I wouldn't forget. Welcome to Dodger Blue Dream.

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Speaker 1: I'm Richard Parks. This is a documentary about a baseball

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Speaker 1: season made in real time. Today's episode, Freddy's return.

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Speaker 2: Freddy Freeman was scratched from the lineup today. He is

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Speaker 2: headed back to La. His three year old son, Max

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Speaker 2: has been dealing with transient cinevitis. Cavin Bigio slides over

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Speaker 2: to first base for the game tonight, and Gavin lux

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Speaker 2: is going to be in there at second base. That

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Speaker 2: is the lineup change for today. Is Freddy's out.

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Speaker 1: When Freddie Freeman is not in the lineup, you know

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Speaker 1: something's wrong. Freddie just posts. He plays every day, famously

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Speaker 1: during an era when rest days are common, even for

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Speaker 1: everyday starters, but not for steady Freddie. Mister consistent doesn't

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Speaker 1: like to take days off, and Freddie had started each

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Speaker 1: of the dodgers first one hundred and four games when

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Speaker 1: a couple Fridays ago, on July twenty sixth, manager Dave

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Speaker 1: Roberts delivered a lineup card for a game against the

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Speaker 1: Astros in Houston that did not include his everyday first baseman.

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Speaker 1: Freddie had flown with the team to Houston the day before.

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Speaker 1: He had even been seen on the field doing his

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Speaker 1: normal pregame work, but by game time, Freddy was on

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Speaker 1: his way to catch another plane, this one back home

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Speaker 1: to As the broadcast told us, to be with his family.

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Speaker 1: His three year old son, Maximus, was sick.

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Speaker 3: Friday was hard. That's a hard day.

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Speaker 1: It had all started earlier that week. On Monday, July

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Speaker 1: twenty second, the day the Dodgers opened a series at

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Speaker 1: home against the San Francisco Giants.

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Speaker 3: He woke up Monday morning with the limp and by

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Speaker 3: Monday night he couldn't walk anymore.

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Speaker 1: Transient cinevitis, which is like the pain and the hip.

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Speaker 1: It can be caused by a viral infection.

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Speaker 3: Tuesday, he still couldn't walk, and he couldn't sit up anymore.

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Speaker 3: By that time.

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Speaker 1: Wednesday, during the ninth inning of a game against the Giants,

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Speaker 1: things took a turn.

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Speaker 3: They were on the way to the emergency room, so

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Speaker 3: they met him at the emergency room.

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Speaker 2: That night.

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Speaker 3: He wasn't eating or drinking anymore, and we were still

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Speaker 3: thinking it was transient cinevitis, but obviously things were not progressing.

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Speaker 1: As Wednesday turned to Thursday, Freddy found himself in the

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Speaker 1: er in the wee hours with his son.

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Speaker 3: We got discharged at like three thirty. We had a

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Speaker 3: poin o'clock game. I had like an hour of sleep,

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Speaker 3: so I was surprised. I got to hit that day.

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Speaker 1: That's a base hif the right field. Thursday, after the game,

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Speaker 1: time to board the team plane. The series in Houston

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Speaker 1: starts the next.

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Speaker 3: Day Thursday, and we flew. I called Chelse and faced himself.

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Speaker 3: I don't know if I should be leaving right now.

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Speaker 3: It just something was off. It just felt wrong to leave.

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Speaker 1: Friday, Freddy's in Houston getting ready to play the Astros.

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Speaker 3: So Friday we had a pediatrician appointment at two forty five.

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Speaker 3: I got ready for the game and I disappeared to

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Speaker 3: the clubous because I was on FaceTime for that. That

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Speaker 3: pediatrician said, you need to go to the hospital. Now,

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Speaker 3: this is not a transient cinevitis. They were ready to

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Speaker 3: call an ambulance for him because they didn't think he

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Speaker 3: was going to be able to breathe that long. I

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Speaker 3: immediately ran.

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Speaker 2: Freddy Freeman was scratched from the lineup. Today he is

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Speaker 2: headed back to La His three year old son, Max,

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Speaker 2: has been dealing with Francis.

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Speaker 1: As Freddie rushed to get home from Texas. At the

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Speaker 1: er at Children's Hospital of Orange County, things had taken

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Speaker 1: a turn for the worse.

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Speaker 3: I'm at an airport trying to fly home and getting

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Speaker 3: updates like it was absolutely awful.

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Speaker 1: Max, the asual son of an athlete, had just days

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Speaker 1: earlier been doing front flips, but at the hospital paralysis

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Speaker 1: had set in. It started with his feet.

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Speaker 3: The paralysis usually doesn't take that quickly to move up

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Speaker 3: your body, so it starts in your feet and goes up.

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Speaker 3: Then four had reached his shoulders, which is affecting his

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Speaker 3: diaphragm and breathing. So then two and a half hours

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Speaker 3: he had a ventilator.

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Speaker 1: And by the time Freddy had reached the hospital at

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Speaker 1: about ten pm, Max had been hooked up to a

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Speaker 1: ventilator and a feeding tube.

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Speaker 3: Seeing one of your kids a vent later fighting it

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Speaker 3: was hard.

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Speaker 1: I know Dodger fans wouldn't like this, Freddie would say later,

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Speaker 1: but I would gladly strike out with the bases loaded

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Speaker 1: in the bottom of the ninth inning in Game seven

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Speaker 1: of the World Series, three hundred million times in a row.

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Speaker 1: Then to see that again. Doctors at the hospital diagnosed

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Speaker 1: Max with gillon Bare syndrome, a rare rological condition in

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Speaker 1: which the body's immune system attacks the nerves. Max responded

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Speaker 1: well to intravenous immunoglobin treatments when Max was able to

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Speaker 1: shrug his shoulders. They knew that he would be okay.

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Speaker 1: Just as the paralysis had started from the feet and

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Speaker 1: drifted upwards, now the sensation was returning from top to bottom.

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Speaker 1: Within forty eight hours of being fully paralyzed, Max was

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Speaker 1: taking off his breathing tube and ventilator.

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Speaker 3: We came home Saturday night from the ICU, and he's

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Speaker 3: doing okay. He's his personality's back.

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Speaker 1: He's Max.

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Speaker 3: We started pt. But he's got to relearn how to

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Speaker 3: do pretty much everything.

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Speaker 1: How to walk, how to move his fingers which are

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Speaker 1: fixed in a claw position, how to smile. But he

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Speaker 1: is expected to make a full recovery.

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Speaker 3: He's on his way to being better.

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Speaker 1: July was already on a downward trajectory for this Dodgers team,

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Speaker 1: and in Freddy's absence, things only got worse. After several

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Speaker 1: disappointing losses in Houston games that should have been won.

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Speaker 1: We were swept by San Diego, and we did not

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Speaker 1: look great in eking out our loan series win of

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Speaker 1: the road trip against the hobbled sorrowfully forgotten Oakland A's

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Speaker 1: over the weekend. In all the Dodgers' offense collectively batted

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Speaker 1: just two thirteen without Freddy, and over a five game stretch,

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Speaker 1: we set a franchise record for most strikeouts going back

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Speaker 1: to nineteen oh one when those stats started being tracked.

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Speaker 1: But now Freddy is back.

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Speaker 3: Bay set to right field for Freddy Freeman and for

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Speaker 3: Maximus Freeman.

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Speaker 1: Dodger Blue Dream is written and produced by me Richard Parks.

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Speaker 1: Our story editor is Caitlin Esh. Original music in this

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Speaker 1: episode by William Ryan Fritch, Jonathan Snipes, and by me.

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Speaker 1: Please rate and review Dodger Blue Dream or share it

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Speaker 1: with a friend. Until next time, Go Dodgers.