By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor
(Baseball)—Albert got his. Judge has ten games left to get his. Landmark home runs.
Albert Pujols ended the suspense and the run to 700 home runs with two of them off two Dodger pitchers Friday night, running his season total to 21. It’s the fourth multi-homer game for him since turning 42, the most by player 42 or older in major league history.
The San Francisco Giants, in the field during their game against the Diamondbacks, stopped the action to watch him hit 700. It is his 18th season with 20 or more homers. Only Henry Aaron and Bobby Bonds have more (Bonds, 19 and Aaron 20)
He didn’t get the ball back and that’s fine with him. The fan who caught it got it certified by MLB officials and left the stadium. We’ve heard him say something similar before:
“Souvenirs are for the fans. I don’t have any problem if they want to keep it. If they want to give it back, that’s great. But at the end of the day, I don’t focus on material stuff.”
Babe Ruth is next and out of reach with eight games left.
AARON JUDGE heads into the last ten games on the Yankees schedule stuck on 60 home runs. His last blast was September 20. He needs two to break Roger Maris’ 61-year old American League record of 61. Judge, who is 30, is unlikely to join Pujols in the 700 home run club. He would have to average about 49 homers a year in the next decade to get there.
His home runs might be overshadowing the extraordinary season he is otherwise having. Through the weekend he was hitting .314, with 128 runs batted in. However, his 165 strikeouts are the highest since his rookie season when he fanned 208 times (while hitting 52 home runs). He has 99 walks this year, the most since 127 in that rookie year.
UPDATE: Cardinals head into the closing days of the season with 65 losses. The Royals head into the closing days of the season with 63 wins.
(NASCAR)—Bigger news, probably, than the latest scramble that was the latest Cup playoff race is word that Jimmie Johnson is done as a fulltime driver, regardless of whether the car has fenders. Johnson announced yesterday. His retirement leaves the 48-INDYCAR seat open at Chip Ganassi Racing. Ganassi says the door will be open for Johnson’s return, perhaps for a second shot at the Indianapolis 500.
Johnson, approachable and chatting with fans before the start of the INDYCAR race at World Wide Technologies Raceway near St. Louis, won seven NASCAR championships, five of them in a row, driving the number 48 for Hendrick Motorsports.
Johnson has been promised continued sponsorship support from Carvana for whatever kind of racing he wants to do in ’23. Johnson has indicated he’d like to run the 24 Hours of LeMans but hasn’t said if he’d like another shot at Indianapolis. But, at 47, he says he realizes the value of more time for himself, wife Chani and daughters Evie and Lydia.
Johnson’s INDYCAR career seldom saw him competitive, especially on road courses. His best finish in any race in the two years on the circuit was fifth in one of the double-headers at Iowa Speedway.
(NASCAR—THE CUP)—Tyler Reddick waited a week too long to win a NASCAR playoff race this year. He was one of four drivers eliminated after the first three playoff races. But race four in the playoffs was his to take. And he took it.
(Reddick with fans in the pits before the NASCAR race at Indianapolis this year)
Reddick’s victory at Texas is his first on an oval course. He has two road-course wins. Reddick had moved to the point on the 281st of the 334 laps, gave up the led during last pit stops to Joey Logano, but took the lead back after one lap and beat Logano to the finish by 1.2 seconds. He admitted being concerned about his tires as the laps wound down in a race where tire failures again spoiled several drivers’ days and were a major contributed to the record number of yellow flags—16.
Playoff points leader Chase Elliott was leading when “something came apart,” and he went into the wall, ending his day in 32nd place and dropping from first to ninth in the playoff standings. He’s now just four points above the cut line to advance to the final eight in two more races.
Christopher Bell, the only playoff driver with top fives in the first three playoff races, also was a tire victim. He started the race as the sixth-seed and dropped to 11th in the playoff standings after tire trouble put him 34th at the end.
Martin Truex Jr., and Kevin Harvick also had tire problems while leading.
Chaotic races such as this one often gives drivers usually found in mid-to-back of the field a chance to finish far above their status—Justin Haley, for example, was third, ahead of playoff drivers Ryan Blaney and Chase Briscoe,
If drivers and fans are looking for a reduced-chaos race, they’ll have to wait past this weekend when the NASCAR show goes to the high banks of Talladega.
(Photo Credits: Bob Priddy)