Twenty-two years. 700 home runs.
Albert Pujols achieved a level of greatness that only three other players in the history of the game have matched when he hit No. 700 on Friday night: his second home run of the night at Dodger Stadium. He joins Barry Bonds, Henry Aaron and Babe Ruth as the only players in the exclusive 700 home run club.
While the Cardinals hitter from St. Louis made his march into history, ESPN’s Jesse Rogers, Buster Olney and Alden Gonzalez asked current and former teammates, opposing pitchers and other greats of the game to describe their favorite moments and what it’s been like to play, throwing and simply witnessing an all-time home run great during Pujols’ two decades in the majors.
The home runs we can’t forget
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Mike Trout: “That’s for 600. That’s gonna be sick right here”
“The grand slam, when he hit 600. Just the situation. I mean it was a great place in the game, and everybody was thinking the same thing. ‘That’s for 600. That’s going to be sick here.’ And then he hit him. He loves the moment. And that’s the thing: People were asking me, “Hey, do you think he’s going to make it.” [700]?’ For sure. The way Albert prepares: He doesn’t change his approach, he doesn’t try to hit a home run. He’s just trying to take a good swing at the ball. That’s big.”
Manny Machado: Game 3 of the 2011 World Series? “You could even throw the rosin bag and it was probably going to hit him”
“That was amazing. I mean, he didn’t miss. You could throw anything at him and he was going to hit him. You could even throw the rosin bag and he was probably going to hit him. Just that sweet swing. Until and everything. all his home runs, coming back — his first home run. I just admire that swing, how smooth it is, how long it stays on the path. It’s impressive.”
Tony La Russa: “This gave us life”
“In 2006, we had a big lead and everybody got hurt, so it came September and we were fighting to get into the playoffs. San Diego came to town and it was a Wednesday night, we had lost both first game of the series, for a run in the eighth inning, the Padres brought in a good pitcher (Cla Meredith), and she hit a three-run homer and won the game. That gave us life.” .
2 Related
“His real claim to fame is that he’s a high-average hitter who has extra-base power. He plays in the bullpen. With a runner on second, he tries to hit a line single and then he can get it all out for a Two-run homer. He’ll go foul line to foul line and hit all different pitches. When he gets that spin on his swing, he gets that carry.”
Paul Goldschmidt: “If you wrote it perfectly, this is what you would write”
“There have been three or four home runs that have absolutely blown me away [Drew] Smyly one in his eyes was awesome. The Pittsburgh one. That one passed A-Rod (on the all-time home run list) and was a game winner. There was another game winner when it was 0-0 and he hit a home run. And then the ones against the Padres. A game of two home runs…like a storybook. This is what I will remember. If you write it perfectly, this is what you would write: Albert with the game on the line, and he actually succeeds. Unbelievable.”
The secret to hitting 700 home runs
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Nolan Arenado: “Don’t think about hitting home runs”
“I’ll probably say something that people don’t like, but they don’t think about hitting home runs. That’s what he tells me, and I believe him. With the way he swings, the way he works, talking to him. , he says he never thinks about it. And he’s not going to change what’s worked for him. It’s about getting on top of the baseball, spinning the baseball and wherever he goes, he goes. He talks the talk and walks the walk with it. saying these things. And I really believe him.”
Mark McGwire: It’s all in the hands
“I’m a true believer that bottom hands are the key to swinging the bat. Look at Albert. He never lets go of that bottom hand until he has to run. To me, that’s the driving force behind his swing and why he one of the best ever.”
Chris Carpenter: The machine makes its own shot
“There were several times he would go up there for his first at-bat and come back and tell us he was going to hit a home run next time. I couldn’t tell you how many times that happened and he would. It happened a lot of times because he understand after one time how they attack him. It was amazing to watch him play.”
Matt Holliday: And he’s earned the right to admire his home runs
“When you hit 700 home runs, you know when it’s going and when it’s not going. The guy that bothers me is the guy that [has three career home runs] and it hits the wall and a single one comes out. This guy needs to run. But when you hit 700, you know how it feels. If anyone can give advice on when a ball is going to go over the wall or not, that’s right at the top of the list.”
Mike Matheny: ‘He went up … like his family wasn’t going to eat unless he paid for a pitcher’
“You’ve run out of ways to describe how unique and different and special he is. He’s relentless. I’ve never seen a hitter who didn’t, couldn’t give away an at-bat. It didn’t matter if he had four. [hits] that night, he approached the fifth as if his family wasn’t going to eat unless he paid for a pitcher. The intensity he was able to maintain from the first day of spring training until they sent him home at the end … the consistency stands out.”
Jim Edmonds: “If Albert doesn’t get hurt, we’re talking about 800 or 850”
“If Albert doesn’t get hurt and plays three-quarters of what he played here in Anaheim, we’re talking 800 or 850 [home runs]. When he first came back here, your brain is telling you what everyone else is telling you: “You can’t hit righties anymore and you’re swinging for the fences.” Well, he’s become a pure hitter again.”
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“He’s not going to back down. I’ve seen him take a knuckleball to right field and I’ve seen him take a 102 mph fastball to left field. This guy is relentless in his approach to the plate. Kyle Farnsworth the year 2004 at 100 mph and I’m sitting on deck thinking “Wow”.
“What’s been interesting is watching him grow this year — from the leg kick to the overswing to chasing pitches and becoming a hitter again. When he did that, he started hitting home runs … He’s got another year for sure. I. know he’s not going to play, but he could.”
What it’s like to face Pujols
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Brad Lidge: ‘I made a mistake and it wasn’t too surprising that it wasn’t wrong’
Lidge broke into the big leagues the year after Albert Pujols, and initially, he had some success against the Cardinals hitter. But around his second or third year in Lidge’s career, teammate Roy Oswalt mentioned that there had been an evolution in the challenge of pitching to Pujols: The holes he could attack as a pitcher were no longer available
“All of a sudden, it started to feel like he knew what you were going to throw before you did,” Lidge recalled. “You felt you had to be perfect. … He had so much plate coverage, whether you were throwing a 97 mph fastball or a slider down and away, you had to be perfect.”
Lidge feels this is the part of Pujols that is often not fully understood. He was strong, had big hands, big eyes, but he could also anticipate what the pitcher was going to try to do against him with a high degree of success. “If there’s one thing I know about going up against him, it’s that he’s going to win the chess match a lot more than he should,” Lidge said. And if the pitcher was able to execute a bastard pitch, Lidge said, Pujols was adept at missing the ball to continue the at-bat. Or, if the pitcher did something with the glove or hands to give away the identity of the next pitch, “I’d be the first one to see it,” Lidge said.
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The Astros won the National League title in 2005, leading in Game 5 of the NLCS, and Lidge, the Houston closer, was called up to close out the Cardinals. With two outs and two on, Lidge swung a nice slider and Pujols chased it down.
“I tried to come back with [the slider]” Lidge recalled. “I made a mistake” — the ball was low in the strike zone, but over the heart of the plate — “and it wasn’t very surprising that it wasn’t.” Pujols blasted a three-run homer over the train tracks in Houston’s left field, the ball crashing hard into the protective glass.
Lidge bumped into Pujols occasionally after that home run, saying hello at the All-Star Games, not talking about the home run. What he feels now about Pujols is that he was a hitter “stuck” for greatness, physically and mentally.
Greg Maddux: ‘Hit it for the Waveland Avenue Shit’
“The first time I faced him I threw him a changeup that he missed by 2 or 3 feet. And I’m like, ‘Wow, OK, we might have something here.’ The next time, I threw exactly same change and he hit it down Waveland Ave. And I said, ‘Oh s—, they might have something here. This guy is pretty good.”
“If you walked him or gave up a single, you beat AB. He covered half the plate as well as anybody. My game plan with him was to give up a single or less.”
Glendon Rusch: ‘He was the best slugger I ever faced’
“He was the best slugger I faced and he could do the most damage in the most different ways. He could hit a home run off any pitch, an infield error or off speed at the plate the other way, he could do everything. When I faced him, he was at his best. He’s the guy you had to watch out for…