If you haven't yet seen the David Freese mini-profile in the current issue of Sports Illustrated (February 13, Eli Manning cover), you may want to take a peek. Writer Tom Verducci recounts a fun anecdote, perhaps overlooked by the local press (or maybe we just overlooked it), related to our hometown hero's sleeping habits during his historic World Series exploits.
During the home stretches throughout the postseason, all the way up to the night the Cards took the crown, Freese did not spend his nights cocooned inside the cozy confines of his home, nor burrowed within the trappings of a luxe hotel like the Chase. Rather, the man who brought his team back from down-to-the-last-strike purgatory spent each night in an environment not exactly conducive to game-preparation beauty slumber: he was crashing on his old college buddy's sofa.
Blame superstition. And a the need for cable.
The sofa in question belongs to Dan Kriegshauser, who played ball with Freese at St. Louis Community College. Shortly after Freese moved into a new house last September, he realized that cable installation would take awhile. So rather than unwind inside his new digs every night with, say, a book, Freese sought out shelter that would fulfill his ESPN needs. He found it with Kriegshauser, the owner of one "drab olive sofa" that happened to be available for the next 30 days, rent free. Not very long after Freese's move-in date, the Cardinals clinched the wild card after their famed 10-and-a-half-game comeback, and Freese respected the streak well enough to realize that leaving his pal's apartment -- and sofa -- were no longer options.
Writes Verducci:
"When it comes to big names in the pantheon of sofas, Freese is right there with Davenport and Chesterfield.'I can sleep anywhere,' Freese said last month, atop the famous hunk of sagging upholstery, which cannot accomodate his prone 6'2" frame unless he keeps his knees bent. 'We get on the plane, I'm out before we take off and I'm still sleping when we land. This was all about winning, so that's why I stayed put.' "
For Kriegshauser's part, he said his temporary bunk mate made a mess of the place. But that was OK. "He's a cool roommate," said the former junior college ballplayer. "He bought us meals."
