October’s Best: Freddie Freeman Receives Hickok Belt Award
Freddie Freeman was instrumental during the World Series for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and because of his performance, he was named the Hickok Belt Award winner for October 2024.
Voting was conducted by a select panel of National Sports Media Association (NSMA) members. Voters selected Freeman for his performance at the plate during the World Series against the New York Yankees.
Other finalists for the month of October in order of how the NSMA ranked them were: Ruth Chepngetich (running), Bakhtram Murtazaliev (boxing), Kiril Kiprisov (hockey), Nikola Jokic (basketball), Giannia Antetokounmpo (basketball), Coco Gauff (tennis), Charles Leclerc (auto racing), Carlos Alcaraz (tennis) and Frederik Andersen (hockey).
Freeman put the Dodgers on top in Game 1 when he hit a walk-off grand slam, the first in World Series history. Freeman went on to break records by becoming the first player in MLB history to homer in the first four games of a World Series.
Freeman’s 12 RBI in the 2024 World Series set a Dodgers franchise record, culminating with the team winning in five games. Freeman earned World Series MVP honors.
The Hickok Belt Award was conceived as a way to honor Ray and Alan Hickok’s father, Stephen Rae Hickok, the entrepreneurial innovator behind the Hickok Manufacturing Company, once the largest and most respected maker of men’s belts and accessories in the world.
The Hickok Belt was awarded annually to the top professional athlete of all sports, as voted on by a panel of 300 sportswriters across the country. For one night each year, Rochester, New York was the center of the sports world, as the top names in sports flocked to the gala Hickok Belt awards banquet.
Efforts to revive the Belt failed until Tony Liccione, president of the Rochester Boxing Hall of Fame, acquired the Hickok Belt trademarks and put the wheels in motion to begin a new era for the Crown Jewel of the Sports World.
On Oct. 16, 2011, past Hickok winners gathered with some of today’s top stars at a banquet at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York. The event was a celebration of past winners and began the countdown to October 2012, when the first Hickok Belt winner in 36 years was named.
Freeman joins eight Hickok Belt winners in 2024
Freemans’ selection as the Hickok Belt winner for October recognizes him as “the best of the best” in professional sports for the month, which makes him the ninth candidate eligible to receive the 2024 overall award.
He joined Shohei Ohtani, Katie Ledecky, Simone Biles, Luka Doncic, Scottie Scheffler, Mikaela Shiffrin, Patrick Mahomes and Jannik Sinner to win this year.
Ohtani won his award in September after becoming the first player to reach the 50 home run and 50 stolen base mark in a single season. He also had the greatest single-game performance in Major League history to reach the mark.
