Admiring Pujols and loving Manny

By Armando Soldevila

As of May 30, Albert Pujols was one home run from reaching 600. Forget for a moment that reaching that plateau would elevate him into a select group of nine All-Star sluggers and bolster his credentials for entry into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

For some, it barely gets him in the conversation alongside Manny Ramírez, Sammy Sosa, Vladimir Guerrero and others as the best hitter from the Dominican Republic.

If you think that we’re joking, listen to Kansas City Royals pitcher Kelvin Herrera, 27, who grew up in the small town of Tenares admiring all of them.

“Pujols is going to the Hall of Fame,” said Herrera. “But Manny is Manny. You ask people anywhere and they will answer Manny. They love him. Loved how he played. Every little kid wants to hit like Manny.”

This debate is serious business. Despite that Quisqueya’s two Hall of Famers, Juan Marichal and Pedro Martínez, were pitchers, this is an island-country proud of its lineage of sluggers.

long legacy of Hitters

Mateo “Matty” Aloú was the first Dominican batting champ, averaging .342 for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1966, followed by Rico Carty, who loved boxing, slashed searing line drives and hit .366 for the Atlanta Braves in 1970.

Pedro Guerrero was co-MVP of the 1981 World Series, helping the Los Angeles Dodgers win in six games with two home runs and seven RBI. George Bell was voted the American League MVP in 1987 after hitting .308 with 47 home runs and a league-leading 134 RBI for the Toronto Blue Jays.

During his heyday with the Chicago Cubs, Sammy Sosa became the only player ever to blast 60 home runs in three separate seasons. He’s also the first Latino to 500 and 600 career dingers. Vladimir Guerrero, bad-ball hitter extraordinaire, averaged .318 and hit 449 home runs, falling 15 votes short last winter in his first year of eligibility for the HOF.

Then there are two recently retired legends: David “Big Papi” Ortiz, who totaled 541 home runs and 1,768 RBI. And Alex Rodríguez, born in New York to Dominican parents. Almost forgotten among A-Rod’s multiple controversies is that he and Henry “Hank” Aaron are the only players in history to surpass 600 home runs, 3,000 hits and 2,000 RBI.

Manny, Sammy and Vladdy

So, if you believe that Pujols is still better, know that back home, he’s having a hard time winning the popular vote.

“Manny Ramírez,” says Minnesota Twins outfielder Miguel Sanó, 24, born in San Pedro de Macorís, the cradle of many great Dominican batsmen, and himself another promising slugger. “He’s a great hitter. Pujols, too. He has great numbers. But I take Manny because there were situations in the playoffs where he was, forget it! He was always ready to hit the ball. For me, he’s the best hitter.”

“Best bad-ball hitter: Vladimir Guerrero, no questions asked,” adds Twins pitcher Ervin Santana, 34, of La Romana. “In big situations, I like Manny Ramírez or Albert Pujols. My God, I’ll have to go with Albert Pujols.”

“Oh, my, you´ve asked a tough one!” says retired reliever Francisco Cordero, 42, who played 14 seasons through 2012. “There are so many amazing hitters from the Dominican Republic: David Ortiz, Adrián Beltré, Vladimir Guerrero, Miguel Tejada, Alex Rodríguez, Sammy Sosa and so on. It´s kind of hard to answer the question, but the best Dominican hitter I ever faced was Manny Ramírez. As a closer, he was the one I feared in the ninth with the bases loaded and two outs. He was extremely dangerous.”

This gets to the heart of baseball, of all sports, for that matter, where the definition of a GOAT, the Greatest of All Time, depends on the eye of the beholder. Or on the amount of swag.

Pujols, 37, is the atypical Latin American hitter, a player who moved to the United States with his father at the age of 16 and who readily adopted the philosophy of his generation, working the count and swinging only at pitches in the strike zone, a contact hitter with power and patience.

The start of an historic decade

He played high school baseball in Independence, Mo., and spent a year at the neighboring Maple Woods Metropolitan Community College before being drafted in 1999 in the 13th round by the St. Louis Cardinals.

Pujols was so good that in 2000 he jumped from Single-A to Triple-A in his first pro season. The following year, he made the Cardinals’ major league roster out of spring training.

Playing first and third base and the outfield, he was the unanimous choice for National League Rookie of the Year. He totaled 130 RBIs — still the National League rookie record — to go along with 37 home runs, 47 doubles, 112 runs and a .329 average. Not a bad start at all.

It heralded one of the best decades in baseball history. In each of his 10 first seasons, Pujols surpassed .300, 30 home runs and 100 RBIs, throwing in for good measure nine seasons with a .400 OBP.

And despite a gradual decline since moving to the Angels in 2012, he opened the current season with a 100.9 WAR — 30th best in history — and leading active players in most of the important offensive categories. As of May 30, his lifetime line was .308/.391/.569 with 1,855 RBI and more walks than strikeouts. Barring injury, Pujols is almost certain to join A-Rod and Aaron in the 600-3,000-2,000 club. We’re talking about a player who is already a 10-time All-Star, six-time Silver Slugger, three-time MVP, two-time world champion and the 2003 National League batting king.

In comparison, Ramírez needed two summers of seasoning before taking off in 1995, driving pitchers crazy with his bat and managers nuts with his behavior. Over 19 seasons, most of them with the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Red Sox, he hit .312/.411/.585. Ramírez and Pujols are the only two Dominicans in a very short list of six Latinos who rank among the top 100 career OBP leaders.

Manny added 555 home runs and 1,831 RBI, but two suspensions for PED violations leave a large stain on his legacy.

What About A-Rod?

You could say the same about A-Rod, who admitted to PED use and was suspended for his involvement in the infamous Biogenesis steroid scandal in 2013.

Without a doubt, A-Rod’s numbers are out of this world: 3,115 hits, 696 home runs, 2,086 RBI and 2,021 runs over 22 seasons. Throw in his .295/.380/.550 line, and it’s easy to see why his 117.7 WAR is the 16th best in history. But back in the Dominican Republic, he’s rarely mentioned in the same sentence as Pujols and Ramírez when it comes to clutch hitting and control of the strike zone.

“A-Rod played a premium position — shortstop — during the first half of his career, and his stats are more amazing than Albert’s. But judging them as pure hitters, Pujols will end up as the better one,” says Enrique Rojas, ESPN Deportes’ lead baseball writer and a Dominican native who has covered sports for nearly three decades.

“With Manny, it’s a different story,” says Rojas. “He ends up behind Pujols as an all-around player. And because he played less than Alex and Pujols, in part due to his mistakes off the field, he didn´t have the opportunity to match the numbers.”

But Manny’s idiosyncrasies, like sneaking into the Green Monster at Fenway Park in between pitches reportedly for a bathroom break and other bonehead acts in the outfield, is exactly what endears him to many. Manny was playful, funny, difficult, obnoxious, real. At age 45, he’s still playing ball in Japan. Meanwhile, Pujols was initially near-perfect, nicknamed early in his career “The Machine.”

“If we talk about pure skill, Manny has been the best Dominican hitter. Manny was the second-best in batting average and the best in slugging, OBP and OPS”, says Kevin Cabral, MLB analyst and broadcaster for the Águilas Cibaeñas, a team that has won 20 Dominican Winter League titles and sent the largest number of players to the major leagues.

home runs vs. swag

To try and settle this debate, we’re paring the list down to two hitters, Pujols vs. Manny, or dare we say, two distinct criteria, home runs vs. swag?

“What Albert did in his first 10 years in the majors, no one has done it. He is already close to 600 home runs and he is the best hitter I have seen in baseball,” chimes in Miguel Cabrera, who would know about these things. Cabrera is arguably the best hitter ever out of Venezuela, a four-time batting champ, two-time MVP and winner of the Triple Crown.

“Manny Ramírez was the toughest out you could find at home plate. He was such a clutch hitter, he could change the outcome of a game at any time,” counters Cordero, who in his career gave up two home runs to Manny and none to Pujols. “That´s my opinion — Manny was the best.”

Pobrecito Pujols, for some, reaching 600 home runs isn’t enough. Admired, but not loved as much as they love Manny. Only in the Dominican Republic.

Featured Image: Bryan Yablonsky (left) and David Maxwell / Getty Images Sport