SPRING HILL, Fla. – Inside Freddie Kranz’s Spring Hill dwelling you can find a set of baseball memorabilia that might stand toe to toe with the Corridor of Fame in Cooperstown.
“I bought some good recollections right here,” Kranz mentioned.
Stacked flooring to ceiling in his again workplace is what Kranz calls his “Dodger Room,” the place Kranz has collected and cataloged a whole bunch of items of memorabilia from his favourite baseball staff, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“Once I moved right here in ’89, that is when it actually took off,” Kranz remembers.
Since transferring to Spring Hill meant being nearer to the Dodgers’ former Spring Coaching dwelling in Vero Seaside, Kranz took annual pilgrimages to observe his Dodgers play ball and add to his assortment.
The backstory:
Kranz was born in Brooklyn when the Dodgers had been a subway cease away slightly than a aircraft journey away.
“That is me in 1955, two years outdated in Brooklyn,” Kranz mentioned, pointing to a small black and white image inside his Dodger Room.
Although they moved to Los Angeles when Kranz was 4 years outdated, the fandom he felt for the Dodgers solely continued to develop.
“It is three hundred and sixty five days a yr,” Kranz mentioned. “Once they win the World Sequence my grandchildren say, ‘It may be a Dodger Christmas!'”
By the numbers:
Whereas his assortment of memorabilia began with one autographed image of former Dodgers’ first baseman Steve Garvey in 1989, at the moment, Kranz would not know simply what number of bobbleheads, baseballs, bats or collector’s objects cling on his partitions.
It is a assortment that begins contained in the Kranz’s storage and continues again into the Dodger Room.
“The group has been good to me,” Kranz mentioned.
And although this 72-year-old superfan bleeds Dodger blue, it wasn’t way back when medical doctors could not cease his Brooklyn-born coronary heart from bleeding out.
“My heart specialist got here down and mentioned all we may do was pray,” Kranz remembers being advised. “After which the surgeon got here down and mentioned ‘I’ve bought to stand up there or else he will bleed to dying.'”
The opposite facet:
In Might, Kranz went to the hospital for a cardiac catheterization. He thought it could be a fast process, however it turned out to be something however.
“Sadly, they perforated an artery. I used to be bleeding out,” Kranz defined.
Freddie’s spouse, Nora, was advised to arrange for the worst.
“They got here in and advised me that he is bleeding and that they are making an attempt to not do main surgical procedure,” Nora Kranz mentioned. “It did not work and just a little bit later they mentioned they needed to and to ‘Name your loved ones and pray.'”
These prayers had been, fortunately, answered.
“The surgeon got here down and mentioned, ‘I held your husband’s coronary heart for 45 minutes to ensure the adhesion stayed on,'” Kranz was advised afterward.
Now, Freddie’s coronary heart is as soon as once more beating simply nice.
“I admire life,” he mentioned.
And that coronary heart is now longing to see his beloved Dodgers chase one other World Sequence title.
“I’d say I do not get as mad after they lose, however I’d be mendacity,” Kranz joked.
And maybe with one other World Sequence to have fun, Kranz would proceed so as to add to his prized Dodger Room.
The Supply: The data on this story was gathered in an interview with Freddie Kranz.
