Columnist Dean Juipe: Elusive goal is within Pujols’ grasp

Dean Juipe

Friday, Aug. 15, 2003 | 9:25 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

When Funny Cide won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness this past spring, the sports world was aglow with the prospect of a Triple Crown champion. Simply put, it's something everyone wants to see.

It didn't happen, of course, as Empire Maker won the Belmont, the final leg of the three-race series. The fans at the track that day were so distraught many of them booed as the champion entered the winner's circle.

Horse racing has now gone 25 years, or since Affirmed in 1978, without a Triple Crown champion. Overall there have been 11, but millions of sports fans have been born since the last one.

Millions more have been born since baseball's last Triple Crown winner, Carl Yastrzemski in 1967.

As is the case in horse racing, there are occasional Triple Crown threats in baseball. No fewer than five hitters made serious challenges in the 1990s, including Albert Belle in '98, Larry Walker in '97, and Belle, Jeff Bagwell and Frank Thomas in '94.

Of those, Bagwell came the closest to pulling it off, finishing second in batting, second in home runs and first in RBIs in the National League.

Nonetheless, the NL has not had a Triple Crown winner since Joe Medwick in 1937. That's 36 years and counting between AL Triple Crown winners and 66 years since there has been one in the NL.

Say neigh, Albert Pujols.

Baseball's best young hitter, the great St. Louis left fielder has picked up where Funny Cide left off. He could, with a little luck, take the coveted batting average, home run and RBI crowns and end baseball's Triple Crown drought.

It would be a delight to see him do it.

Pujols has all the right qualities in all the right proportions. Polite, sociable and relatively soft-spoken off the field, his hand speed, strength, patience and bat control make him an ideal subject for a how-to-hit video.

He's more dangerous at the plate than Refrigerator Perry.

The famed stat analyst, Bill James, likens Pujols to Joe DiMaggio at comparable stages in their careers. But neither Joe D. nor anyone else who has ever played has done what Pujols has dones: hit at least .300 with at least 30 home runs and at least 100 RBIs in each of his first two seasons.

Now 23 and in his third season, Pujols has a flare for the stunningly dramatic hit and a place at or near the top in every major batting category. With a single in the Cardinals' 4-3 win Thursday at Pittsburgh, he has also hit safely in 28 consecutive games.

He leads the NL in batting at .368, is second to Barry Bonds in home runs with 34 and is second in RBIs to Preston Wilson with 108. He's close enough to Bonds and Wilson in the latter two categories to realistically have a shot at the Triple Crown.

He's also first in the league in hits, first in doubles and second in runs scored.

As the season nears the finish line there are pennant races to follow, idiosyncrasies such as the Detroit Tigers' quest to lose a record 121 games to amuse, and individual achievements such as Pujols chasing the Triple Crown to ponder.

I give him a better chance to pull it off than I gave Funny Cide, if for no other reason than the fact Pujols -- who has a wife and two kids -- presumably is not a gelding.