2011 World Series: Game 3

Posted on October 23, 2011

Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals hits a three-run home run in the top of the sixth inning of Game Three of the 2011 World Series against the Texas Rangers at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington on Saturday, October 22, 2011 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Brad Mangin/MLB Photos)

 

Last night I had a chance to witness history. You never know what is going to happen in any given baseball game, let alone a World Series game, and last night was one for the ages. St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols went nuts by hitting THREE home runs as he led the Cards to a 16-7 drubbing of the home standing Texas Rangers at the Ballpark in Arlington. Pujols became only the third man in baseball history to hit three home runs in one World Series game, joining Reggie Jackson (1977) and Babe Ruth- who did it twice way back in the day.

It was fun to get to Texas on Friday as we knew we would see some nice warm weather, and the bats were due to heat up as the crappy pitchers would start taking the hill after the dominant pitching we saw in St. Louis. They have some crazy weather here in Texas, and the oncoming thunder storm that hit last night after midnight pushed some fun clouds our way before the game, making for some nice pictures of the ballpark before the game (see above).

Once the game got going you just knew that this would be a crazy, out-of-control, high-scoring, four-hour game. I was shooting from outside third base next to the great John Biever from Sports Illustrated, and we had a bunch of fun during this ballgame. Between the bad pitching, the songs we kept hearing about Texas, more bad pitching, and more songs about Texas we were a little nutty by the time everything ended.

Things started to get more comical the more I talked to the fan sitting next to me- a minority owner of the Cardinals. The guy was super funny and each time Pujols went deep I would reach over the rail near his pocket and tell him Albert just took another wad of cash from him. You see, Pujols is a free agent at the end of the season, and last night’s performance might have increased his demands to $30 million a year. OUCH!

When Pujols came up in the 9th inning of this crazy game you just knew he would go deep, and when he did for the third time of the night I started to do some math. I knew Reggie was the last person to do this in 1977 during Game 6 at Yankee Stadium against the Dodgers. I was 12-years-old watching at home on television. I then figured out the answer to a great trivia question that only fellow photographers would care about: Who is the ONLY photographer to have photographed both Reggie and Albert’s historic nights, 34 years apart? That’s right sports fans, my boss at Major League Baseball Photos… Rich Pilling! Rich was shooting his FIRST Fall Classic back in 1977 when he documented Mr. October becoming “Mr. October.”

I will be moving over to shoot from the super-cool inside first base tonight, and you can bet all eyes will be on Albert. With young lefty Derek Holland toeing the slab for the Rangers it could be another long night for the Ranger’s fans. However, the Cards aint exactly throwing John Tudor out there. Could be another track meet in Arlington tonight. I am ready!