Freddie Freeman walked into the interview room at Truist Park on Friday afternoon and couldn't contain his emotions. He took a deep breath, turned away from the cameras, crossed his hands above his head and walked out. "Gimme a second," he said. "Hold on."

A few minutes later, Freeman returned and did his best to navigate an emotionally charged interview that marked his return to the place he still adores. Through quivered speech, shaky hands and welling eyes, Freeman -- a lifelong member of the Braves until signing a six-year, $162 million free-agent contract with the Dodgers on March 17 -- did his best to express what this city and those fans and that team still mean to him.

When Sandy Koufax joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1955, he was in awe of being on the same team with Jackie Robinson.

Now 67 years later, the two are immortalized in bronze at the entrance to Dodger Stadium.

Koufax's statue was unveiled on Saturday in the Centerfield Plaza before the Los Angeles Dodgers faced the Cleveland Guardians. It is the second sculpture the Dodgers have commissioned after Robinson's in 2017.

"At that time sharing this space with him would have been absolutely unimaginable," the 86-year-old Koufax said. "And today, it's still one of the greatest honors of my life."

Seventeen years and 11 days after Ryan Zimmerman was the first player ever drafted by the new-to-town Washington Nationals, and a little more than eight months after he appeared in his last game for the franchise, his No. 11 became the first jersey number retired by the club.

During a ceremony before Saturday's game between Washington and the Philadelphia Phillies, the man known as "Mr. National" removed a blue uniform shirt with "11" on the back and handed it to his father, who handed it off to clubhouse and equipment manager Mike Wallace.