51s’ Freeman chasing dream on rocky road

It's another day at the park when Choo Freeman can chase a ball's flight over an open field of freshly mowed grass before reeling it in.

Catching them seems to come naturally.

Now, when he latches onto to one, he doesn't have to worry about getting pounded to the turf and picking clumps of the sod from his facemask.

The 51s center fielder was so adept as a wide receiver at Dallas Christian High School that the 50 touchdown passes he caught rank as one of the greatest prep seasons in football-crazy Texas.

The three-time all-state player accepted a scholarship to play football for Texas A&M. And the Aggies were going to let him play baseball.

Cowhide replaced pigskin full time when the Colorado Rockies drafted him out of high school.

The right-handed batter spent 1998 to 2003 in the Rockies' farm system before splitting 2004 between its Triple A team and the big club, where his first big league home run came in Yankee Stadium.

He was up and down between the minors and majors in 2005 before spending all of last year with the Rockies, where he played in a little more than half the games and hit .237 with two home runs.

"In Colorado he'd been up to the majors a couple of times and the team ran out of options," 51s manager Lorenzo Bundy said before Thursday night's game, in which Las Vegas beat Tacoma 9-3.

The Los Angeles Dodgers signed the 6-foot-2-inch, 200-pound Freeman to a minor league contract in February shortly after the Rockies released him.

The soft-spoken native of Frisco, Texas, a Dallas suburb, accepts being behind younger Dodgers outfielders.

One player ahead of Freeman is Matt Kemp, 22, a starting Dodgers outfielder before injuring his shoulder three weeks ago. Kemp is with the 51s for what is expected to be a brief stint to rehabilitate the injury.

Kemp hit he saw Thursday over the fence in right-center field to give the 51s a 2-0 lead and later lined a triple off the right-field wall.

Freeman was taking notes.

Considered one of the Pacific Coast League's top defensive outfielders, he knows offense is where he needs improvement.

He got off to a hot start this season but is fighting a 1-for-16 slump that continued Thursday when he went 0-for-4 to drop his average to .310.

"He might be a late bloomer," Bundy said. "Some guys don't figure it out offensively until they're 26 or so."

"This is a good chance for me," said Freeman, 27, whose high school teams won six state championships (football, basketball and baseball). "As long as I'm on the field."

Freeman has taken most of his nine-year professional career to adjust to the psychological differences between baseball and football.

"Football is more aggression, and you go with your instincts," he said. "Baseball is more laid-back, and you have to be patient."