The Chris Moeller Archives

When I got Albert Pujols on the line

The Great Pujols returns to play at Busch Stadium tomorrow for the first time since the Cardinals’ victorious Game 7 of the 2011 World Series. For 11 seasons in a Cardinals uniform between April of ’01 and October of ’11, Albert Pujols was the greatest right-handed hitter in the history of baseball. His exploits were a popular topic on this blog during its first seven years.

Through a scheduling quirk-- an inexplicable one, Pujols’ second MLB team, the Los Angeles Angels, have not been scheduled to play the Cardinals in St. Louis during the last seven and a half years. Albert returns now five home runs short of a career total of 650, a member of the exclusive 2,000 RBI club (5th all-time), as well as the 3,000 hit club, but with a combined WAR (wins against replacement) that is less than what it was when he left St. Louis. It’s been-- quite famously-- a tale of two Alberts. In 11 seasons with St. Louis, he batted an average of .328; with Los Angeles, .258. His slugging percentage in St. Louis was .617, with Los Angeles, .453. The home runs and RBIs are still there. The singles, doubles, and walks, not as much. More importantly, he has never played in a winning playoff game as a member of the Angels. With the Cardinals, he won 40 of them, along with three league pennants, and two World Series. He also had three league MVP awards with St. Louis. For their part, the Cardinals have not won the World Series since Albert left (though they returned to it in 2013). As columnist Bernie Miklasz pointed out today, they have only won one World Series championship (1982) in the last 41 years that Albert Pujols was not on their team.

I was at the park for many of Albert’s great exploits-- the day the Cardinals presented him with the team Rookie of the Year Award; his first home World Series game in 2004; his last grand slam at Busch Stadium II and his 40th home run of 2005; the 2009 All-Star Game, hosted by the Cardinals, that was Albert’s great All-Star spotlight; a four-hit, two-HR game in Kansas City twice; a 3-HR, 2-walk game at Wrigley; and his walk-off grand slam on Easter Sunday 2006 to conclude the first-ever home stand at Busch Stadium III-- the house that Albert built. Would you believe?-- That one was the first time in MLB history that a player turned a deficit into a walk-off victory with their third home run of the game.

And with that introduction, let me tell you about the time I was on the phone with him.

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I was working in radio in Des Moines and it was the morning following the 2003 All-Star Game, which had been played at Chicago’s Sox Park, and which featured Albert as a member of the visiting National League squad. I must have been chatting with someone about Albert, or the Cardinals, or the previous night’s game, when Outdoors Dan came to my desk armed with several orders of commercials for his hunting and fishing show. Outdoors Dan had previously done his syndicated show from St. Louis.

“Albert Pujols,” he said, “He buys bow hunting equipment from me. Him and (former Cards catcher) Eli Marrero would come into my store all the time.”

“That’s great,” I said.

“Look,” said Outdoors, gesturing, “I’ve got his number here in my phone.” And he showed it to me. “Right here. ‘Albert,’” he said, “we’ll call the number.”

“No, that’s alright,” I objected.

“It’s okay, he won’t pick up, but you’ll hear his voice on the voicemail message. You’ll see.”

“Yeah, but how do you know he won’t pick it up? And it’s early. We shouldn’t be calling this early.” Keep in mind that this is a Wednesday morning, about 9am. The All-Star Game the previous night probably commenced with the first pitch at nearly 8pm, and was a 7-6 slug-fest, and it’s customary for the baseball stars to fly back late after the game so that they can maximize at home the limited amount of time they’re allotted during the league’s All-Star break. Note that just getting selected to play in the game basically cuts a player’s mid-summer break in half.

“He won’t pick up,” Outdoors repeated, “If he does, just hand me the phone.”

 And with that, Outdoors dialed the number, and handed the cell over. I put it to my ear.

One ring.

A second ring.

A third ring.

Then, in a very deep-- and very groggy-- voice, I hear on the other end, “Hello.”

I passed the phone to Outdoors as fast as a I could. “Hey Albert, hey man. It’s Outdoors Dan. How are you doing?... Oh man, did I wake you? I’m sorry... Hey, buddy, I got some new stuff I think you might be interested in.”

And the one-sided conversation I could hear trailed off as Outdoors walked away from my desk towards the studio…

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Albert Pujols will get an extraordinary ovation when he comes to the plate the first time tomorrow night. He will likely get one every time up through Sunday night’s game, which is broadcast nationally on ESPN, but that first one, during the first or second inning Friday, may just be like no ovation you’ve ever seen or heard. We might be able to hear it crackling all the way to Des Moines. 

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Addendum: Every word of the preceding anecdote is true except for the following ingredient: Outdoors Dan’s friends and colleagues, then and presumably now, refer to him in short as “Dan,” not “Outdoors.” In this text, the references to the person and the dialogue have been changed as a tribute to the late Super Dave Osborne, who died on January 2nd of this year, and whose friends, colleagues, and interviewers referred to him in short as “Super.”

posted by CM @ 10:47 PM