In need of heroes: Pujols and Judge are single-handedly saving baseball
Sometimes, the good guys win.
Even the most avid baseball fans (such as ourselves) will readily admit that the game has been through a bit of rough patch in recent years. With general viewership down, and scandals up, America’s pastime has seen better days. A variety of factors have helped contribute to slumping ratings, and the mark of big data is readily apparent among them. Analytics have their place (we assume), but when obsessions over launch-angle and absurdly complicated infield shifts turn the game into a strike-out laden snooze fest, it might be time to for some self-reflection. These are not just the musings of washed-up sports casters (or angsty Triumph writers), baseball’s offensive collapse is readily reflected in the data.
Starting in 2018, Major League Baseball had more strikeouts than hits for the first time in history, and the league hasn't looked back since. The 2021 campaign saw a new record for strikeouts in a season and one of the lowest league batting averages on record. The major uptick in wiffing and convoluted defensive structures cuts down on balls in play, contributes to longer game times, and gives the viewer less action on the field—not exactly a recipe for quality entertainment.
Now, to be fair, those issues aren’t unique to baseball. The NBA faces a similar identity crisis, largely brought on by the analytical war-march toward three pointers and alley oops. Most other sports, in their own ways, have faced some degree of disruption from the analytical revolution. What does seem to be more unique to baseball, however, is the ever present specter of performance enhancing drugs. Following the dark days of Bonds, Sosa, and McGuire, the sport has tried to clean up its act, but with the later Alex Rodriguez scandals and the recent loss of superstar Fernando Tatís, it’s clear the MLB hasn’t quite arrived.
So with scandals high and offense low, baseball found itself in need of heroes in 2022—more so than ever. The sport has no shortage of superstars, but that's hasn’t proved to be enough. The Angels alone possess two generational talents in Ohtani and Trout, but they’re stuck on a losing team that, despite its talent portfolio, will spend another October at home on the couch.
No, what baseball needed was heroes, the type of feel-good stories that make fans stand and applaud (or at least regularly tune-in). The MLB needed drama, suspense, and all the other theatrical elements that make America’s pastime truly unique and truly great. And boy, oh boy, did the players come through. Two, to be exact—Aaron Judge and Albert Pujols.
Heroes need not always emerge from obscurity. Judge has been one of the better hitters in the American League for several seasons and Pujols—well—is Pujols. Despite his age, the man is an undisputed first ballot hall of famer, and one of the best pure hitters in history. However, none of this past greatness makes what the two men did in 2022 any less heroic—or any less entertaining, for that matter.
Judge, for his part, shattered the American League single season home run record. For those who don’ t take kindly to the pesky PEDs we discussed earlier, the case could be made that he should own the record for both leagues. Whether for one league or both, it remains a tremendous feat, and one Judge did in style. In addition to the record Judge managed to bag, he just missed out on leading the league in all three major batting statistics—the coveted Triple Crown—in what history will have to look on as one of the greatest offensive seasons to ever grace the diamond. While Judge may have (barely) been bested in batting average, homers were never in question. Next best overall was Mookie Betts with 35, and next best in the AL home run hunt was Jose Altuve with 28. Twenty eight. Judge put an entire season’s worth of home runs between the champ and second best.
These were great feats in themselves, but Judge’s knack for the dramatic tossed a bit of icing on an already premium cake. By waiting until the second-to-last game of the season to break the record, Judge helped sell-out stadiums and boost ratings for what would have otherwise been meaningless garbage time games from an already playoff-bound New York Yankees team. Not only that, Judge united generations of baseball fans who watched the torch (cleanly) pass from former 1960s star Roger Maris to the young giant. This was perfectly encapsulated in the photo-op following the milestone, with Roger Marris Jr. hugging an emotional mama Judge in the stands. The anticipation, the history, the emotion—that was beautiful. That was baseball at its best.
“The anticipation, the history, the emotion—that was beautiful. That was baseball at its best. ”
What could possibly top—or at least rival—a historically great offensive season? Well, leave that to Albert Pujols.
In mid June, things looked bleak for Pujols. Batting just a buck fifty-eight, and in one of the worst home run slumps of his career, it seemed as though an unceremonial end was in store for number 5. He even contemplated retiring mid-season, still well short of the coveted 700 home run mark. But, Pujols decided to stick things out, and, in the process, wrote one of the all-time great endings in sports history.
In June, Pujols was just trying to keep his head above water—chasing home run 700 was nothing more than a St. Louis pipe dream. By July, things were much the same, though the Machine was at least out of his profound slump. On August 1st, Pujols sat at 686 home runs, and only the most committed optimist (and maybe a few Cardinals fans) could have believed that Pujols had a shot at 700. As August turned to September, however, the narrative began to shift. Seemingly against all odds (or at least most of them), the Cardinal legend surged to 695 home runs. And as September wore on, history came knocking.
“And as September wore on, history came knocking.”
With fall finally in the air, baseball fans across the country began tuning in to see if Pujols could complete his majestic run, to see if the former perennial all-star had enough gas for one more Hollywood moment. Then, on a beautiful night in Dodger Stadium—appropriately adjacent to Hollywood itself—lightning struck. Pujols sat on a hanger slider, and with one swing, etched his name further into baseball lore. Chavez Ravine descended into bedlam, and number 700 was in the books for Albert.
But—Albert being Albert—he didn’t stop there. Pujols kept right on trucking, hitting 701 in his final at-bat against the division rival Cubbies, launching 702 into the upper deck a few nights later, and finally mashing 703 in the last game of the season–just for good measure. Albert didn’t just eek out the record, he caught fire, and helped catapult his team to a playoff birth in the process. Only one man hit more home runs than Albert in the last two months of the season. His name? Aaron Judge. Now, that’s keeping good company.
Better than good company, it’s clean company. Neither player has been tainted by scandal—not a whiff. On top of that, both men seem universally acknowledged as standup guys—and good guys are easy to root for. As if that wasn’t enough, both Pujols and Judge also find themselves on playoff-bound squads, meaning baseball fans will get to enjoy the excitement right into the post-season.
Sure, both of these storylines make for an entertaining fall, but the ramifications are far wider. These two sluggers, in their respective chases of history gave a transfusion of fresh life to a game on life support. An entire new generation of fans, along with the usual crowd of diehards, will remember Judge chasing down number 62 and Pujols shocking the world with number 700. These players didn’t just boost ratings, they showed that good guys can still win in professional baseball.
Maybe, just maybe, the sport doesn’t have to become a causality to the rise of big data and performance enhancing drugs. Kudos, gentlemen.
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