Baseball Musings: Pujols Perez Feud

April 25, 2006

Pujols Perez Feud

Oliver Perez upset Albert Pujols last week when Perez did a dance on the mound after getting the St. Louis slugger on a comebacker. Perez danced before after a Pujols strikeout, and Albert had enough:

"He struck me out last year and did all his dancing and I remember that," Pujols said. "That's what happened in Pittsburgh. I hit that ground ball back to him (in the first inning) and he did his little dance again and I got real upset. I went to the video room and told my guy Chad (Blair), 'I'm going to hit the next ball and I'm going to hit it a long way. But don't look at the ball. Look at where the bat is going to land.'"
When Pujols kept his promise, he provided fodder for talking heads in both cities. Pujols' wife, Deidre, informed him Monday of the ongoing debate on local sports talk.

"He got a little cocky out there, and so am I," Pujols said, adding, "If he does strike you out, you need to respect the game and not show people up. ... I respect the game so much. I'm sorry if I disrespected the game that day, but that's the way I feel."

So last night, he just hit another home run off the pitcher. I don't really care about the bat flip. I'm impressed that a batter decided to take a ball out of the park and did so. The moral of the story: don't get Albert upset! I suppose Perez is lucky Albert didn't decide to line one off Oliver's head.

Posted by David Pinto at 08:57 AM | Players | TrackBack (0)

Comments

WHAT????

I LOVE Pujols. But, he takes longer than Bonds when he's admiring any one of his homeruns that hook inside the left-field foul pole and he always takes time to turn and flip his bat a coutnry mile, I'm not sure anyone would notice a difference. Give me a break.

Brian

Posted by: Brian at April 25, 2006 10:13 AM

Perez is an idiot...after all he started this whole thing after the strikeout last season. He had to know that he would lose this confrontation in the end, and it would only result in negativity for his team. I agree, he is really lucky that Pujols aimed for the fences instead of his dome. The way Albert is swinging the bat these days, he could've knocked his head off.

Posted by: Adrian at April 25, 2006 10:17 AM

Brian's comment is spot on - the man watches his homeruns more than the fans do.

Posted by: JC at April 25, 2006 10:27 AM

Pujols has a lot of nerve criticizing Perez, and then against the Cubs asking the ump to check the ball on Greg Maddux.

Posted by: dave at April 25, 2006 12:34 PM

I may be wrong, but it's my understanding that it was the Cards' bench asking to check the baseballs Maddux was throwing. That makes much more sense, as La Russa is into that annoying gamesmanship stuff.

And I have to disagree with you, JC, about Brian being spot on. I've probably seen 95% of the home runs Albert Pujols has hit over the past two or three seasons, and he only admires his home runs under certain specific situations -- he's really all over the map, and if you think he's that different from most big leaguers, I'd wager it's because his home runs (i.e., the one off Lidge in the NLCS, where he really did take his sweet time) are more memorable. And what Brian said about Pujols always flipping his bat is simply untrue (although I admit he HAS done it more this season).

Posted by: Brian Gunn at April 25, 2006 01:58 PM

I'll admit to using a little bit of hyperbole in using the word "always". However, just about every homerun I've seen him hit this year, he has made a much bigger "show" of it than any other hitter.

I'm not faulting him for it, I dont' mind it, and I love Pujols. However, it's a bit absurd and rather hypocrtical of him to get upset at a pitcher who gets excited about striking out the best hitter in the league, while he, himself, is acting as if nearly every HR he hits is a Game 7 winner.

Heck, I'd love to see a pitcher just flip his glove off and leave it on the mound when strking one of these guys out for the third out. Let them show some emotion, please.

Brian

Posted by: Brian at April 25, 2006 02:07 PM