For those who have forgotten, in early December, Canadian Ryan Reynolds posted his now-annual video announcing the yearly fundraiser for Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto, which ran until Christmas 2025. The
short video featured guest Freddie Freeman, who is also famously Canadian and is generally considered one of the nicest people in baseball.
Freeman gets roundly heckled by several children before he sheepishly leaves. Eric Stephen previously covered this video back when it debuted in early December 2025.
Admittedly, I was initially quite annoyed with the bit upon first glance for several reasons.
First, cringe humor has never been my forte. Second, as we have covered, apart from his Game 3 heroics, Freeman went mostly quietly during the 2025 Fall Classic. Now, if this bit was with a bunch of kids from the Bronx after Freeman’s herculean 2024 heroics, then you would have one heck of an apt joke.
Folks like actor Nick Turturro and radio personality Rich Eisen would likely be re-traumatized, but it would be a small price to pay for an apt comedic bit.
As we have covered, the appropriate person for any Torontonian to heckle was Yoshinobu Yamamoto, whom I have dubbed the Bane of Toronto. To be fair, while Yamamoto does not yet have the reputation of Freeman, one needs only view Yamamoto outside of a baseball context to see some key similarities in personality.
As a recent example, Yamamoto recently had dinner with his former Orix Buffaloes teammates, where he discussed numerous topics (with English subtitles), including the 2025 World Series and his failed no-hitter on September 6 in Baltimore. One does not need encyclopedic knowledge of Nippon Professional Baseball to understand the bond and the interactions over dinner, especially when Yamamoto praises current teammate Mookie Betts’ efforts to communicate and be hospitable.
The main reason that the original joke did not land was that picking on Freeman, even as a joke, feels like picking on a puppy or Mister Rogers — you just don’t do it.
As an aside, Rogers famously once had his car stolen in Pittsburgh (where he lived and the children’s show was recorded) and returned after news reports of the theft went out with a note of apology. The story is not an urban legend, but the dispute is whether the police or the car thieves returned the car.
“It is true,” said [former co-star/company PR rep David] Newell, “but I think it’s been embellished.” He couldn’t remember whether it was the thieves or the police who finally returned the car to Rogers, but he said the perpetrator(s) did indeed leave an apology behind.
“There was a note to something along the lines of, ‘if we knew this was yours, we wouldn’t have stolen it.’” Newell remembered, noting that Fred was somewhat amused. Whitmer said Rogers was also slightly concerned; he didn’t like the idea that if the car hadn’t belonged to him, the criminals might have kept it.
Gripes about the joke’s immersion aside, upon repeated viewing, I did come around, as it is a funny bit. What most people do not know is that Freeman recorded two additional videos with the kids from the Sick Kids commercial, who quickly glommed onto him like ducklings to a mother duck.
First, to everyone’s amusement, the kids got Freeman to do the Gen Alpha 6-7 bit, much to Freeman’s complete and utter confusion.
The kids and teacher from the commercial did tell Freeman that maybe one day he would play for the Blue Jays, prompting a firm but gentle reminder that the Jays still have Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. Those assembled did not seem persuaded, which is no slight against Guerrero, but attests to the “aw shucks” decency of Freeman and his status as a native son, even if a bit prodigal.
For those who have forgotten, Freeman became more involved in these sorts of events after his son had a scare with Guillain-Barré syndrome in mid-2024, leading the first baseman to donate to help those in similar situations.
