Michael Kay made a really good point during the Yankee game the other night. Don't laugh. It does happen from time to time. Anyway, it was right after they showed an Angels highlight of Albert Pujols hitting his 599th career home run. With his next homer, Albert will become just the ninth player in history with 600. So how come no one is excited about it?
Maybe it was the Steroid Era. Three of the players above Albert on the all-time home run list are Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and Sammy Sosa, all of whom have had the legitimacy of their home run totals questioned (you know my thoughts on that, so I'm not getting into it).
Or maybe it's the fact that the 600 home run club suddenly seems less exclusive. For the longest time, the 600 home run club consisted of just three people--Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays. Frank Robinson was fourth with 586 career homers. He's now 10th. That's because five players have hit their 600th since 2000. Albert will be the sixth. The fact that the 600 home run club has tripled in size over the last 20 years doesn't make it any less of a feat. And that feat is something that should be celebrated.
I have a feeling the West Coast factor is coming into play here, too. Most Angels games are obviously very late at night. If he doesn't homer in his first at bat or two (when the other games are still going on), the number of people who actually see that home run live will be very small. Especially if he were to do it in the seventh or eighth inning at 1-1:30 in the morning, a lot of people probably aren't going to see or hear about it until the next morning.
The Angels are Mike Trout's team, too. Trout's obviously on the DL right now (prediction: he still finishes first or second in MVP voting, which I think is a Major League rule). But he's the face of the franchise. People are coming to Angels games to see Mike Trout, not Albert Pujols. Maybe that's contributed to there being less buzz around Albert's pursuit of 600.
Would things be different if Albert was still playing for the Cardinals? St. Louis is a baseball mad city. They worshiped Albert during the 11 years he played there. If he was a member of one of the sport's marquee franchises, playing in a baseball-loving Midwestern city with convenient game times, would people be paying more attention to his quest? I think so. After all, remember what it was like with his predecessor as the Cardinals first baseman in 1998?
Albert Pujols is no longer the superstar he was in St. Louis. So what? That doesn't change the fact that what he's about to achieve is special. He's a first-ballot Hall of Famer who's been slowed by injuries over the past couple years (which is why he's not a superstar anymore), but is still an offensive force in his 17th big league season. And this is his sixth year with the Angels, so it's not like he just went there to tack on numbers at the end of his career.
He's, of course, going to finish his career with well more than 600 home runs. And that plaque in Cooperstown (which will undoubtedly include a Cardinals hat) will include whatever that final number is. But before getting to that final number, Albert first has to hit number 600. He'll be the ninth person ever to do that. And the next player to get to 600 probably won't get there for a while (Miguel Cabrera and Adrian Beltre are second and third on the active list with 451 and 445, respectively).
Of the thousands of men to have played Major League Baseball in its 150-year history, just eight have hit 600 home runs. When Albert Pujols makes it nine, we should celebrate it for the milestone that it is. Because who knows when we're gonna see somebody get there again?
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