Marvin Freeman

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Marvin Freeman (born April 10, 1963 in Chicago, Illinois) is a former Major League Baseball pitcher who played from 1986 to 1996 for the Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves and Colorado Rockies. He worked as both a starting pitcher and a reliever in his career. He is currently an assistant baseball coach at Homewood-Flossmoor High School in Flossmoor, Illinois.

[edit] The Jim Rome/Jungle Tour Stop incident

Main articles: The Jim Rome Show and Jim Rome Tour Stops

The San Diego Tour Stop in 1996 is remembered quite fondly by Rome and his early legion of Clones. It was the first Tour Stop to take place in a stadium (the outfield pavilion of Jack Murphy Stadium), thus becoming the largest Tour Stop, with almost 4,000 people (since broken). The Tour Stop was also noteworthy as it took place mere hours before a Padres-Rockies game, thus allowing Rome to have many Padres as his guests including Tony Gwynn, Ken Caminiti, Bruce Bochy and Scott Sanders.

Perhaps most famously, this was the scene of the infamous "Marvin Freeman Soundbite." Early in the show there were no players from either team on the field. Rome's audience was mainly Padre fans and Los Angeles Dodger fans, who, when not listening to the show, stayed busy by hurling the usual taunts at each other. Then the first Rockies player, a pitcher, trotted onto the field, with a Rockie's coach. As soon as the audience, with all the Padre and Dodger fans shouting each other down, saw the first Rockie take to the field, they stopped their infighting and started chanting "CHEATER, CHEATER" referring to the Rockies' home park advantage and alleged juiced stats. As the Tour Stop was taking place close to the visiting bullpen, a few Rockies pitchers decided to have a little fun by throwing baseballs at the crowd, and Rome in particular. Rome invited one of the culprits, pitcher Marvin Freeman, up onto the stage. Upon getting to the interview area, Freeman screamed "WAHHH" into the microphone, making a baby sound, and simply left without conducting the interview.