What were you doing on Oct. 28, 2011? Unless you're very young, you were probably watching Albert Pujols' last game in a St. Louis Cardinals uniform. I know this because you're a baseball fan (or you wouldn't be reading this) and because that was Game 7 of the 2011 World Series. I mean, what kind of fan are you if you're not watching Game 7 of the World Series?
Well, the Redbirds beat the Texas Rangers 6-2 that night at what Baseball-Reference.com calls "Busch Stadium III" because St. Louis keeps giving their stadiums the same name. What if the Cincinnati Reds were playing at Crosley Field III? Or the Pirates at Forbes Field III? Come to think of it, that's a pretty good idea. Anyway, the win capped off the Cardinals' 11th (and, at the moment, last) World Series crown, second only to the Yankees among MLB franchises.
Pujols struck out against Texas' Mike Adams in his last plate appearance that night. He has not played at any of the Busch Stadiums since then. On Friday, that will change -- 2,793 days (about 7.6 years) have passed, but finally, Pujols will make his grand return to the Gateway City. So much -- so much -- has changed, not the least of which is Pujols himself, at least on the field.
There's a lot to be written about this weekend (and I'll be down there to write it) and of course Stan Musial's name will come up time and again. If Stan was the man for the Cardinals' franchise, Pujols was the only one to have ever come close to joining Musial on his perch. As we know now, it wouldn't have happened, as age and injuries began to weigh down Pujols' performance. At the time he left for the Angels, however, it wasn't a slam-dunk argument. With a fantastic finish to his career, Pujols could have made a case as the greatest Cardinal of them all. Maybe, in retrospect, it's better that he didn't try.
As it is, there is plenty of room in Redbird-loving hearts for both players. And, heck, Pujols certainly does not resent Musial's unchallenged status in St. Louis -- he may have been the biggest Musial fan of them all -- and remains in touch with the family to this day. Pujols has never talked about St. Louis in anything but glowing terms, and the family-based foundation he established there has never stopped its work in Missouri, even as it expanded its reach into Southern California. Sure, there was plenty of disappointment in St. Louis when Pujols left, but if you're wondering what his reception will be like on Friday, don't. The love will be so thick you'll need a steak knife to cut through it, and that love will flow in both directions.
While I'm waiting for my anticipatory goosebumps to go down, I started wondering just how unusual Friday's circumstances are in the course of baseball history. Certainly, many great players have changed teams over the eons, indeed most of them have. Many of those players eventually returned to the scene of their former glory. In fact, we see some version of it pretty much every season, with this year's return of Bryce Harper to Washington just the latest example. (Different vibe with that situation, for sure.)
But think of this particular set of circumstances. You had a player who was on an all-time-great track for 11 years with one franchise. During his first 10 big league seasons, all with St. Louis, Pujols put up 77.2 fWAR -- an average of 7.7 per season. (Which happens to be more than the total fWAR of 6.9 he has put up during his time with the Angels.) If you read my Hall of Fame stuff, you probably know I'm pretty big on 10-year WAR as a Cooperstown-worthiness measure. If you are a Hall of Famer for a 10-year span, then you're in, as far as I'm concerned. That bus only moves in one direction -- no matter how long you drag things out after that, it's not going back into the garage. (That's just one Hall path for me -- career value is the other. But I have come to think of them as two different paths to the same place, rather than trying to blend them together. That's just me.) Pujols' peak 77.2 10-year fWAR ranks 15th all time, behind, among others, Musial (83.4, to rank 11th).
In other words, Pujols put himself into the Hall of Fame as a Cardinal, then left both the team and the National League, and didn't come back to St. Louis for 7½ years. That is a long time between Busch Stadium at-bats. And because he has been open about declaring the next couple of years to be his last, Pujols probably won't play in St. Louis again. This will be it.
Since Pujols' pinnacle years are frozen in Cardinal-colored amber, let's consider the entire top 30 on the peak 10-year fWAR leaderboard and try to determine if we've ever seen anything like what we're about to see. You can be the judge, and you'll see why I cut the list off at 30. (Well, besides to keep my editor from jumping out of the window.)
1. Babe Ruth (110.2 peak 10-year fWAR, last season of best 10-year stretch was his 15th in the majors): Ruth's best stretch actually began with his last year in Boston. His return to Fenway came almost immediately -- his third game as a Yankee, in the first game of a doubleheader on April 19, 1920 -- Patriots' Day. The story in the Boston Globe the next day read, "The crowd, attracted by 'Babe' Ruth, had the satisfaction of seeing the big fellow win no hero stripes on the occasion of his home coming." Ruth had three hits in the twinbill, but the Red Sox won both games. Not the same circumstances as Pujols' return.
2. Rogers Hornsby (97.2, 15th): In some ways, the Rajah's return to St. Louis was similar to Pujols'. In more essential ways, it was not. Like Ruth, Hornsby's best 10-year stretch ended with his 15th season. The first seven of those seasons came with the Cardinals, for whom Hornsby played from 1915 to 1926, and again in 1933, before finishing his playing days with the Browns. He ranks second to Musial, not Pujols, in career fWAR as a Cardinal. Hornsby's final game in his first stint with the Cardinals was also Game 7 of the World Series, a 3-2 win over the Yankees in the famous Grover Pete Alexander game that gave St. Louis its first championship.
Like Ruth, Hornsby left the Cards for a team in the same league (the New York Giants), so he returned to St. Louis the next season, on June 15, 1927. As it happened, that very day, legendary Giants manager John McGraw announced that he would retire after the 1928 season and would be replaced by Hornsby as manager. That never happened -- McGraw managed until 1932 and Hornsby spent only one season with the Giants. Which brings us to another chief difference between Hornsby's return, and that of Pujols: Rajah didn't grade out as well for his lovability tool. He was famous for, among other things, skipping his own mother's funeral. They did, however, throw a celebration for Hornsby upon his return to Sportsman's Park, so perhaps he wasn't as bad as all that. Still, not like Pujols.
3. Lou Gehrig (92.8, 14th): The Iron Horse never left the Yankees.
4. Barry Bonds (92.6, 19th): Bonds went from the Pirates to the Giants and as good as his Pittsburgh career was, the San Francisco portion was even better. That in itself makes his circumstances different than those of Pujols. And Bonds played back in Pittsburgh the next season after he left as a free agent in 1992. He was not received warmly.
5. Willie Mays (92.2, 15th): This is a tough one and a pretty unique situation in itself: Mays didn't leave New York by himself, the whole team picked up and left the city. The Big Apple did without a National League team for four seasons, during which Mays continued to consolidate his greatness. Then the Mets were born and on June 1, 1962, Mays made his return to the Polo Grounds. He homered off of Roger Craig in that game. The headline in the next day's Daily News read, "He's Still Their Willie in PG." In the story, it said, "It was as if he'd never been away these five years."
The day was one of absolute adoration, though Mays said all he did before the game was visit his lawyer and get a haircut. This all sounds very much like what Pujols' experience figures to be like, save for the haircut, since he no longer has any hair. As with Pujols, years had passed between Mays' games in the old city. As with Mays, Pujols is returning to see familiar fans and to a familiar venue. Most importantly, there was mutual affection between the player and the city.
Mays returned to New York again and again after that, so it wasn't a one-off event like it figures to be with Pujols. Mays played against the Yankees in the 1962 World Series and visited with the Giants every year until 1972, when he was traded to the Mets to finish his career. That set up a second grand return for Mays, when the Mets visited San Francisco on July 21, 1972. Mays, being Mays, homered.
6. Honus Wagner (90.5, 13th): Never left the Pirates after beginning his career with the now-defunct Louisville Colonels.
7. Ted Williams (88.7, 10th): Always a Red Sox. Always the Red Sox.
8. Ty Cobb (88.4, 14th): Interesting. Cobb moved from Detroit to Philadelphia to finish his career with Connie Mack's Athletics after spending 22 seasons with the Tigers. Since he remained in the AL, Cobb made his return to Detroit only three months after switching teams. So it's not like the long wait for Pujols' return at all. Still, Cobb's first game as a visitor to Navin Field on May 10, 1927 is a curiosity. The version of Cobb that has been passed down to us isn't an admirable one, though he has an almost cult-like following among some Internet fans that say we've gotten it all wrong about him because of the dastardly ways of biographer Al Stump. I'm not going to get into that here, but it does raise the question: How was he received back in Detroit at the time? Well, according to the Detroit-Free Press, which described Cobb as receiving a thundering ovation, here's a list of gifts he received that day: a car, silverware, jewelry, flowers and a five-gallon hat from actor Tom Mix, who had the gift presented by a blond girl in a cowboy outfit.
9. Mickey Mantle (83.6, 11th): Never left the Yankees. Can you even imagine Mantle with another team? Of course, that's what we once thought about Pujols.
10. Walter Johnson (83.6, 13th): Always a Senator without ever running for office.
11. Stan Musial (83.4, 12th): The Man, of course, never left St. Louis, though he was tempted to join the Mexican League at one point. He didn't go, but any remaining Pujols resenters might keep that in mind.
12. Mike Schmidt (78.8, 12th): Always a Phillie. Still a Phillie, actually, since he does some television work for them.
13. Alex Rodriguez (78.4, 12th): Well, A-Rod rose to stardom with the Mariners, then signed a record 10-year, $252 million contract with Texas before the 2001 season. So he was back in Seattle the next season. My favorite line from that Larry Stone story: "The man who would be king -- had he remained in these parts -- was greeted by a chorus of boos that were all but a physical presence in Safeco Field." OK then.
But then Rodriguez ended up in New York, still in the AL, so he had another next-year homecoming, this one in Arlington. That came on May 21, 2004. How did that one go? According to the story in the Austin American-Statesman, A-Rod was "lustily booed" when he stepped to the plate for his first at-bat. Then he hammered a two-run homer. Then he was cheered. That's how you handle that.
14. Jimmie Foxx (77.8, 14th): Connie Mack had a bad habit of building championship teams, running into money problems, and selling off his best players. Thus Foxx was living up to his nickname (The Beast) at the time Mack sent him to the Red Sox. During the four seasons before the deal, Foxx hit .350 and averaged 46 homers and 144 RBIs. Yeah, you don't want to keep a guy like that. His first game back at Shibe Park was April 19, 1936. There was no special mention of his return in the old papers I could find. Foxx went 0-for-2 and walked twice.
15. Albert Pujols (77.4, 10th): We will see.
16. Tris Speaker (76.5, 15th): Speaker is best remembered as a member of the Cleveland Indians, but he was just as accomplished during his time with the Red Sox as the best player in one of baseball's premier outfields of the 1910s. He spent two seasons as Ruth's teammate there. But Speaker was traded to Cleveland for Sad Sam Jones and Fred Thomas prior to the start of the 1916 season. His return to Fenway came on May 9, 1916, three months after the trade. Speaker's return was noted in the Boston Globe, which stated that his supporters rang bells to commemorate the occasion. The paper wrote, "Our Tris (we still have a claim to him) is showing a tinge of gray hair, but he is still very much of a 'kid' in spirit and pep." He must have been pretty peppy because Speaker played for 13 more seasons after leaving Boston. He finished his career with single seasons in Washington and Philadelphia, the latter as Cobb's teammate in what turned out to be the final season for both.
17. Hank Aaron (76.4, 15th): Aaron never really got a Pujols-type return, at least not as a visiting player. He moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta when the Braves relocated, but when Milwaukee returned to the majors in 1970, it was as an AL team. Aaron then moved to that league after the 1974 season, spending his final two seasons with the Brewers. So his homecoming would have been his first home game with the Brewers at County Stadium, which came on April 11, 1975. It was a big deal. Aaron got his first AL hit that day. A story in the Racine Journal included some quotes from fans. My favorite was from an 8-year-old girl, not born when Aaron previously played in Milwaukee. She said, "Hank Aaron is my favorite player. He is such a good player. He could hit 100 home runs."
18. Eddie Collins (76.2, 13th): Collins played 25 years in the majors, his 13 years and two stints with the A's sandwiched around 12 seasons with the White Sox, including the Black Sox scandal season of 1919. (He was not involved.) Collins was part of the first great Connie Mack team that was dismantled when the Athletics were upset in the 1914 World Series by the miracle Boston Braves. He returned to Shibe Park on June 17, 1915, going 3-for-3 with a walk, two doubles and two stolen bases. They waited until the next day to honor Collins, with the Allentown Democrat stating, "From a Philadelphia standpoint, the tribute to Collins is far more important than any similar event ever held in that city."
19. Christy Mathewson (76.0, 13th): Matty spent his entire career with the Giants before being traded to Cincinnati during his final season to take over as manager of the Reds. He did make one start for Cincy, but it was not against the Giants.
20. Cy Young (74.3, 16th): Young played for five teams. His most wins came with the Cleveland Spiders (240), but the Spiders went out of business in the late 1890s. He moved to St. Louis for the 1899 season and returned to Cleveland as a visiting player that season. Young then had an eight-year run with the Red Sox before moving back to Cleveland with the Indians. No Pujols-type homecoming stuff here.
21. Randy Johnson (74.1, 15th): Let's set aside Unit's return to Arizona in 2009 with the Giants because it came just one year after his final season with the Diamondbacks. He didn't pitch against the Snakes when he was with the Yankees. And we can't do Montreal, either, though I'd love to, because Johnson hadn't found himself with the Expos, so the fans didn't know what they had lost until later. No, you have to zero in on Seattle. Johnson pitched for the Mariners from 1989 to 1998 before being traded to the Astros halfway through that last year. The Mariners were still in the Kingdome during his time there. But he ended up pitching in Safeco Park in 1999 -- the very season after he was dealt -- because the Diamondbacks played an interleague game there. I'm sure the fans were happy to see him. Well, maybe not -- Johnson shut out the Mariners in that outing. This isn't a Pujols homecoming, though. It might have worked had Johnson not pitched again in Seattle until joining the Yankees in 2005, but that did not turn out to be the case.
22. Greg Maddux (73.9, 16th): Maddux rose to prominence with the Cubs, then immediately set about torturing them after signing with the Braves in time for the 1993 season. There was a true homecoming vibe when Maddux signed back with the Cubs for the 2004 season, but there was never a Pujols-esque absence from Wrigley Field for Maddux. He started games there in 19 seasons.
23. Mel Ott (72.6, 13th): Always a Giant, always taking aim at the short porch at the Polo Grounds.
24. Nap Lajoie (72.3, 15th): Lajoie was a great player for the Phillies in the 1890s but jumped to the AL's Athletics when that circuit came into existence and never returned to the National League. He enjoyed a 13-year run with the Indians, the team with which he is most associated. Actually, they weren't called the Indians as that point. They were the Naps, named after Lajoie. You can't be much more associated with a franchise than that. He then joined the post-teardown Athletics in 1915 as Collins' replacement, and finished his career with two seasons playing for Mack. So he didn't have to wait long for his return to Cleveland, which came on May 9, 1915. Eddie Murphy -- not that one -- led off that game for Philly. The old papers I saw did note that it was Lajoie's first game back, but didn't mention any special ceremonies or anything.
25. Eddie Mathews (71.5, 11th): While Aaron got his homecoming in Milwaukee, Mathews never did. He played with all three flavors of the Braves -- one year in Boston, all 13 in Milwaukee and the first in Atlanta. But he was out of baseball before the Seattle Pilots moved to Milwaukee after the 1969 season.
26. Bob Gibson (70.9, 14th): Never left the Cardinals.
27. Pedro Martinez (70.7, 14th): Martinez became a star in his last season with the Expos by posting a 1.90 ERA and winning the NL Cy Young award in 1997. Then he was traded to the Red Sox. He pitched once after that at Olympic Stadium, on June 9, 1999. So it wasn't a long wait for Montreal fans to see Pedro again. The Expos weren't too welcoming that day. Montreal's four runs against him were the second-most he allowed in a start that season and the Expos went on to win 13-1. But Martinez added another Cy Young trophy that year with a 23-4 mark for the Red Sox. Martinez pitched for Boston from 1998 to 2004, then made one last start at Fenway for the Mets on June 28, 2006, so not a long wait there, either. He gave up six runs in three innings and New York lost 10-2. Homecomings were not kind to Martinez.
28. Rickey Henderson (70.3, 12th): Rickey played and referred to himself in the third person for nine teams. Did you remember that he spent part of a season with each of the Angels, Dodgers and Mariners? Good for you. He played for the Padres twice and the Athletics four times (and counting). Rickey had his own style with this homecoming business, and pretty much everything else.
29. Joe DiMaggio (70.0, 10th): See the Mantle comment. Though I will note that Pujols, Teddy Ballgame, Joe D and the next player on this list are the only ones here whose 10-year crest came in their first 10 seasons. Pujols is the only one of them to switch teams.
30. Mike Trout (70.0, ninth and counting): And here is why we pushed the list to 30 and leave it off here, though you can see by now that the circumstances surrounding Pujols' return are truly unlike any we've ever seen for a player of his pedigree. Never have we seen a player build a Hall of Fame resume with one club, then many years later return to that city for the first time, with his skills not totally intact, but that city's affection for him very much as strong as ever. Truly, it's going to be a special weekend.
That fWAR figure for Trout is through Wednesday, when he hit two homers and drove in seven runs in Toronto. With that, he moves into a tie with Joe DiMaggio for the 29th-best peak 10-year fWAR. But Trout is in just his ninth season, so he has more than half of this season and all of 2020 to pad the figure. He's on pace for 11.0 fWAR this year. So let's say he gets that and matches the number next year. His peak fWAR figure would then be 87.0, which would vault him all the way past Pujols and Musial on this list. He'd settle in right between Cobb and Mantle. Keep in mind: This would mean that Trout had compiled the ninth-best 10-year stretch of any player in history. Any 10-year stretch. For him, it would be his first 10 seasons, so it's entirely possible he could establish new 10-year peaks with each passing season.
But also keep in mind that before this season, Trout signed a 12-year, $426.5 million extension with the Halos. If he plays that out, it will keep him in an Angels uniform through 2030. He'd have 20 seasons with the franchise by that point. A homecoming like the one he'll share with Pujols on Friday will likely never be possible for Trout. For fans in Southern California, they get to treat Trout like the returning prodigal son every game day for the next 11½ years. At least.
This is what Pujols gave up when he left St. Louis. Rather than making a long-shot bid at supplanting Musial as the best Cardinal ever, he moved to a team that may feature the best player ever, period. Pujols will never be Mr. Cardinal nor Mr. Angel. He'll simply be The Machine, one of the greatest players ever and, hopefully, a unanimous, first-ballot selection for Cooperstown. That's pretty good, too.