Alexander: Albert Pujols returns to Dodger Stadium and makes history
LOS ANGELES — Albert Pujols returned to Dodger Stadium on Friday night, back in a St. Louis Cardinals uniform and in the home stretch of a Hall of Fame career, and reflected before the game that his five months as a Dodger last year rejuvenated his enjoyment of the game and helped him decide to keep playing.
Funny way to show gratitude, right?
The Dodgers gave Pujols and fellow Cardinal future Hall of Famer Yadier Molina golf bags before Friday night’s game, and then Pujols made history, smacking his 699th and 700th career home runs and becoming the fourth major leaguer ever to reach 700.
Dodger fans not only saw history and appreciated it, but they recognized it came from a guy who was one of their own for the last five months of the 2021 season. The accomplishment probably would have been celebrated by the locals wherever it had taken place, but this probably would have been the next best place to Pujols’ home park in St. Louis.
Pujols whacked a 1-and-2 pitch from Dodgers starter Andrew Heaney deep into the left field pavilion, 434 feet away, for a 2-0 lead in the third inning. And he came up in the fourth against reliever Phil Bickford with two on and hit a 1-and-1 slider into that same pavilion, 389 feet away, for a 5-0 lead.
That brought the Cardinals out of their dugout en masse. And it brought Dodger fans to their feet, after they’d already lavished a couple of standing ovations on Pujols. This time they chanted his name, and Pujols doffed his helmet in recognition.
We shouldn’t have been surprised, I suppose. Going into Friday night he’d been on a tear, with six hits in his last 13 at-bats, and he’d had four homers and 12 RBIs already in the month of September.
He’s no longer strictly a platoon player in the twilight of his career. Friday night was Pujols’ 101st game this season, and he’d had more plate appearances against right-handers than left-handers this season.
“When my swing is locked in, it doesn’t matter who I’m facing – lefty, righty, sidearm, whatever,” he said before the game.
So maybe that settled it. Before the game, the question was whether his five-plus months as a Dodger in 2021, after being released by the Angels last May 13, was more beneficial for him or for them.
Pujols, beaten down by years of losing in Anaheim and then unceremoniously dumped by a rookie general manager, rediscovered the joy of the game when he moved up the freeway.
And along the way, providing advice and setting an example – and delivering more hugs than at any time since Tommy Lasorda left the Dodger dugout – “]Tio “]Albert, made a huge impression on his teammates, both veterans and youngsters.
Reaching 700 home runs, and joining a fraternity that until Friday night was comprised solely of Barry Bonds, Henry Aaron and Babe Ruth, seemed far-fetched when the Angels let him go, with his career total at 667.
But the numbers – a .759 OPS and 12 homers in 85 games with the Dodgers last year, 19 homers and an .845 OPS with the Cardinals this season before Friday night’s bombardment – only tell a little bit of the story.
“It brought me so much joy, not just to me (but) to my family,” Pujols said before the game of his time with the Dodgers, specifically the idea that they “didn’t bring me in just because I was a veteran guy. … They believed in me. They knew I could help that organization to win.
“… It kind of changed my mind. I thought about retirement last year, and obviously the DH made a lot of difference this year. But really, having that opportunity to just be (two wins) away from being in the World Series was pretty special.”
You could tell what it meant to him, Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner said, by “just seeing him in the dugout and the constant smile on his face and how much he enjoyed it. And it’s been great because it seems like it’s carried over into this season.”
The impact worked both ways. Pujols talked of the relationships he’d built with young players like Will Smith, Gavin Lux and Austin Barnes. And Turner noted the example Pujols set, not only the frequency and volume of his work but the way he accepted the input of the Dodgers’ hitting coaches.
“(He was) open to maybe some tweaks and some changes (where) you probably would assume that most Hall of Famers would just kind of be in the mindset of, ‘Leave me alone, I know what I’m doing,’” Turner said. “It really set the tone for a lot of guys in here to understand that you don’t just show up and have these things happen. There’s a lot of work that goes into it.”
Pujols is not the first midseason acquisition to note that joining these Dodgers, and walking into such an inclusive clubhouse, rejuvenated his enthusiasm for the game.
“Obviously none of us know what happened with the Angels and how that ended,” Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw said. “But I do think that maybe it didn’t end as well as he would have liked or they would have liked.
“And so for him to come here … he was really excited about the opportunity. And then just to see how much fun that we had, I think maybe he fed off that a little bit. Then, in turn, his personality came out. He started having a blast, and it really helped our clubhouse, too. So I think it was mutual. And yeah, who knows? Maybe he thought about playing another year because of that.”
It’s fair to say a lot of that has to do with the tone set by Manager Dave Roberts and strong leaders veterans such as Kershaw and Turner.
“We don’t care what everybody does,” Kershaw said. “We want everybody to be themselves. There’s no rules. You just be yourself, do whatever you need to do. But just do what you have to do to win the game, and everything else is kind of irrelevant.
“The things that matter matter, and the things that don’t don’t, and sometimes clubhouses lose that perspective. But at the end of the day, we’re here to win games, and winning is a lot of fun.”
Then again, Friday night one guy had all the fun.
jalexander@scng.com