Freeman is dancing his way into the history books

This story was excerpted from Juan Toribio’s Dodgers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

LOS ANGELES -- In between innings on Wednesday, the Dodgers panned to the crowd for a dance cam. That’s not unusual at Dodger Stadium or anywhere else for that matter.

But instead of the normal dance cam, the Dodger Stadium video board was encouraging everyone to show off their best “Freddie Dance,” which is just putting both hands up in the air and showing off some hip work.

It’s the dance the Dodgers have been showing off when hitting an extra-base hit since the start of the second half of the season. The dance, of course, was inspired by Freddie Freeman’s dance moves during the Dodgers’ gala earlier this year.

Naturally, it’s been Freeman who has shown off his dance more than anybody else this season because of the ridiculous campaign he’s been putting together at the plate.

Through August, Freeman is on pace to put together a season we haven’t seen in nearly a century. Freeman has 51 doubles already this season, putting him one shy of matching Johnny Frederick’s Dodgers record, which was set in 1929 as a member of the Brooklyn Robins.

Freeman is currently on pace for 63 doubles this season, which would put him just four shy of the all-time record set by Earl Webb in 1931. If Freeman hits that pace -- or comes close to it -- he would be the first player to do it since Charlie Gehringer in 1936.

“I don’t know what the record is but if he gets the record, I’ll be on record and say I’ll do the 'Freddie Dance,'” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts joked. “He has a song now, the 'Freddie Dance,' I guess. So it’s gaining some traction.”

With a month left to play in the regular season, Freeman has a 14-doubles lead over Jeimer Candelario and Nathaniel Lowe, who are tied for second in the Majors with 37. If Freeman is able to keep that distance, it would be the second largest gap between the doubles leader and the player in second place.

In an era that encourages launch angle and leans heavily on analytics, Freeman has shown that his approach still has plenty of value. Freeman would often be the first to say he’s just trying to line the ball over the shortstop’s head. It might sound cliche, but it seems to be working just fine for the Dodgers’ star first baseman.

So well, in fact, that Freeman’s 465 career doubles is the fifth-most by any player through their age-33 season, behind just Albert Pujols (524), Miguel Cabrera (523), Robin Yount (481) and Robinson Cano (479).

It’ll be interesting to see how Freeman closes out what is turning into quite the historic season for the 2020 NL MVP.