SB Nation User Blog: bigcardsfan5

pujols

bigcardsfan5 — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:08:56 -0000

this is just a bit about the way i feel about albert, but i think most dont give credit where it is due

derrick goold linked to a column by jonah keri detailing how people take albert for granted, and he also felt this was the same thing that happened with musial, they are so consistent that when they do extraordinary things they become ordinary

this totally expresses the way i feel about both, i feel musial always has received less recognition than he deserved, and i am seeing the same thing happen with pujols

i do feel it is their metronomic excellence that plagues them both

their is a movie that reminds me of pujols, and though i am sure this movie may remind many of pujols, it is only a certain part that always makes me think of albert. the movie is the natural (big surprise there huh!), but the scene in question may not be as simple to think of. it isnt him knocking the cover off the ball, or hitting the game winner, but instead is in the locker room.

Standing at the sink are manager pop fisher and his coach, with pop saying he wanted to win the pennant more than anything in his life, and if he had he would have been a farmer

you then see roy hobbs, and he talks about how great life on a farm is, pop looks at roy and said his mother thought he should be a farmer, roy says his father wanted him to be a ballplayer

pop says, "Well, you are better than any player I ever had," then pauses, and says, "and you're the best goddamn hitter I ever saw. Suit up."(and this part always makes me think of pujols, and maybe to a bit less extense musial)

if their has ever been a player more close to that scene than pujols, i havent seen him (granted, i never saw cobb, hornsby, ruth, gehrig, williams, musial, mays, aaron, mantle, robinson, banks or mccovey) but having seen schmidt, ripken, griffey jr, bonds, arod, ichiro, and gwynn, only pujols fills that for me

some of you may be older and feel aaron was the guy, or williams, or dimaggio, or if even older maybe josh gibson, but i will take albert over all others

stats and records

bigcardsfan5 — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 20:00:07 -0000

there have been some very interesting things happen in this season around baseball this year, some are records, others just points of interest

ryan howard has already broken the strikeout record for a season with 197, and there is a good chance he will be the first with 200

jimmy rollins has 704 at-bats, the record's held by willie wilson, at 705

curtis granderson has at least 23 each of 2b,3b,hr,sb a feat never done before

rollins needs 1 triple to be the only player ever with a season of 30 2b, 20 3b, 30 hr, 30 sb

there are 25 guys with 30 homers this year, 17 from the national league, 6 from the american league, and 1, mark tiexiera who played in both leagues (does this big a difference seem odd to anyone else)

a-rod is having a season for the ages, he has 140 runs, 53 homers, and 151 rbi

there have only been 4 men ever have a season with 140/50/150:
babe ruth (twice)
hack wilson
jimmy foxx
sammy sosa

and lastly, our own albert pujols is now only 3 runs away from extending his record of 6 seasons at the start of his career with .300/100/30/100, he also needs 2 walks for 100, and he also goes into the weekend with an ops of .999

the espn 'face of the franchise' article

bigcardsfan5 — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 06:16:30 -0000

i know the rules were current players, and front office people, but if those rules had not been there, i think the cards hall of famers could easily be the face of this franchise

musial
schoendienst
gibson
brock
smith
sutter

is there any team with as many living hall of famers? or who match up this bunch anyway? i really cant think of one, but there are a few that might come close:

the yanks:
berra, ford, reggie, winfield

the giants:
mays, marichal, mccovey, cepeda, irvin

i also wanted to say that while jack buck was alive, he could have very well been considered the face of the cards, but i just dont think shannon is quite there

also i am only including the guys who have their numbers retired, which leaves out carlton, cepeda, and eckersley

lastly, i will be glad to get to see who larry picks tomorrow

Tony Gwynn

bigcardsfan5 — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 03:35:44 -0000

I don't know how many of you watched the Hall-of-Fame ceremonies, but I was thinking about Gwynn saying he changed the way he hit after 1992, when he had been talking to Ted Williams. After checking the numbers, Gwynn had hit .327 through his first 11 seasons, which as you all know, is very good. In his final nine seasons he hit .356, to bring his final average to .338. The fact that a guy was able to do that much better in the latter years of his career is fascinating, and just shows how much Williams knew about hitting.

BO Jackson

bigcardsfan5 — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 13:37:09 -0000

i dont know how to post a link, but joe posnanski has an article on WWW.KANSASCITY.COM, posted on may 26 about bo jackson, this is just detailing some of the "superhuman" things he did on a baseball field, if you grew up watching bo, it is a must read, hopefully hardcore, val, erik, or larry can make the actual link

<http://kansascity.com/180/story/124608.html>