Freddie Freeman matches Hall of Famer with World Series feat in Yankees nightmare

Never forget, the New York Yankees chose Anthony Rizzo over Freddie Freeman. Never forget, the Yankees decided to call upon Nestor Cortes Jr., who hadn't pitched in a month, to face Freeman with the bases loaded in extra innings of World Series Game 1 last year. We will be talking about these occurrences until our very last breath.

And Freeman did it again in this year's Fall Classic. He walked it off for the Dodgers in Game 3 on Monday night. The 18-inning marathon ended in a 6-5 LA victory thanks to Freeman's solo bomb off Brendon Little that sent Dodger Stadium into a frenzy.

That's two World Series walk-offs in as many years for the 36-year-old, and in the process he matched a Hall of Famer. Goose Goslin notched walk-off hits in the World Series back in 1934 and 1935 and was the only player to do it twice.

Freeman has now flipped back-to-back Fall Classics on their head. The Dodgers stealing Game 1 of the 2024 World Series vs the Yankees with his walk-off grand slam in extras all but effectively demoralized New York before they eventually lost in five games. On Monday night, one swing of the bat concluded an 18-inning marathon that very much might've had the exact same demoralizing effect on Toronto.

Yankees should never be forgiven for passing on Freddie Freeman for Anthony Rizzo

For about the 27th time over the past two years, the Dodgers are showing the Yankees where their process has gone horribly wrong — from personnel decisions to trades to free agent investments to execution of analytics. But the Yankees can't get a clue. They will do it their own way until it succeeds (it won't) or it burns (likely happening soon).

We don't know for sure how history might've been altered if the Yankees had acted more aggressively when they could have stepped in front of the Dodgers. Maybe nobody wanted to come to New York. It's certainly possible. But when you draw a line in the sand with the top talent on the market (Freeman, Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, etc.), you put yourself in a position to lose. And then you make people not want to come to New York with that type of approach.

Freeman hit .300 with a 1.364 OPS, four homers and 12 RBI last year in the World Series against the Yankees. Yamamoto dominated New York in his lone World Series start. Snell powered LA back to the World Series this year. There's a pattern, and one team is reaping the rewards and the other is taking steps back.