Pujols closes final Wrigley chapter among all-time Cubs foes originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
When Albert Pujols drove that impossible-to-drive pitch into the left-field bleachers Monday night, everybody in the place was shocked. Awestruck. Gobsmacked.
Everybody.
Except maybe one guy.
“If you want to know how to give up a home run to Albert Pujols, I can pretty much write a book about it,” said former Cubs All-Star Ryan Dempster.
Yes, that Ryan Dempster.
Chicago Baseball
The man who has surrendered more home runs (eight) to The Machine than any pitcher in history.
The man who essentially shrugged at Pujols belting that eye-level pitch off Drew Smyly. Because it was nothing new to Dempster — even if Pujols is newly returned to the Cardinals and the National League Central this final season of a Hall of Fame career. Even if he's 42.
Feeling out of the loop? We'll catch you up on the Chicago news you need to know. Sign up for the weekly Chicago Catch-Up newsletter.
“I was carving him up for a while,” Dempster deadpanned. “For a while he was only hitting like .300 off me. I pretty much owned him.”
For a generation of Cubs fans and pitchers, Pujols represented the baseball supervillain in one of the sport’s top rivalries — a perennial MVP favorite who performed even better against the North Siders.
Whether Monday’s shot off Drew Smyly becomes Pujols’ parting shot at Wrigley Field, this week’s five-game series promises to be his last trip to the Confines on his way to Cooperstown — a farewell tour already evoking haunting images for guys like Dempster, who bears the scars of countless duels in their primes.
“It’s hard in baseball to intimidate. It’s not a physical sport. It’s not football,” Dempster said. “Albert can intimidate opposing teams.”
Like that early Monday afternoon in St. Louis in September 2010 before the opener of a Cubs-Cardinals series after the Cards had returned in the wee hours from a Sunday night game in Atlanta.
Dempster, whose well rested Cubs had leisurely arrived in St. Louis late that morning, strolled out to the field for his between-starts bullpen that day to discover Pujols taking early batting practice on short sleep — after a two-homer game and win against the Braves the night before, in fact.
“The dude was the best hitter in baseball,” Dempster said. “And he wasn’t just hitting — he was hitting laser-beam homers to right-center.
“I was like, ‘Really, dude? You’re hitting .330 with 35 and 100 right now, and it’s not good enough?’ ” Dempster said. “Clearly not, right?
“That’s intimidating.”
Actually, Pujols had 39 home runs and 104 RBIs at that point in the season — four and five, respectively, against Dempster in three meetings.
“It was so much fun to battle against the guy,” Dempster said. “I loved it, man. That’s what you want. The best of the best: ‘Let’s go.’
“He’s a stud, man.”
And when it comes to all-time greats who have gone beyond their Cooperstown credentials against the Cubs over the years, Pujols is in especially rarefied air — with his 58 homers and .997 OPS against the Cubs through Monday (30 and .996 at Wrigley).
By the ninth inning of Tuesday's second game of a doubleheader, with Pujols on the bench after playing (and doubling) in the opener, the Cardinals loaded the bases with nobody out, forcing a pitching change to Cubs lefty Steven Brault — and eliciting a "We want Albert" chant from a sizable Cards portion of the crowd.
“He’s The Machine for a reason,” Smyly said.
In recognition of Pujols’ place in a history of Hall of Fame Cubs’ nemeses that goes back to Honus Wagner’s .327 mark in the early days of Wrigley Field (Weegham Park) and .354 performance against the Cubs in 1909 to lead the Pirates past the defending champs for the NL pennant, we offer a few other all-timers who bedeviled the Cubs over the years.
Is it a coincidence that the Cubs never won a championship when these players were in their league?
- Willie Mays. Maybe this shouldn’t surprise anyone, but nobody has hit more home runs against the Cubs than the Giants’ inner-circle Hall of Famer (92). In fact, his 1.000 career OPS against the Cubs is higher than any other opponent — and he was even better at Wrigley (.342 with 54 homers and 1.077 OPS in 179 games.
- Mike Schmidt. The greatest player in Phillies history played more games against the Cubs (269) than any opponent, and it seemed like a lot more to Cubs pitchers — who gave up 78 home runs to Schmidt (.985 OPS). And he especially loved Wrigley Field, where he hit more homers (50) than any other road park and where his 1.048 OPS was better than any other park he played, home, road or Yellowstone. Those of a certain generation will remember the five-hit, four-homer, eight-RBI game at Wrigley Field in April 1976 in which the Phillies came from 11 down to beat the Cubs 18-16 in 10 innings — Schmidt providing the two-run difference maker in the 10th.
- Vida Blue. He only spent six years in the National League, just long enough to go 10-1 with a 2.39 ERA and three complete games against the Cubs — 6-0 2.08 in six starts at Wrigley Field.
- Randy Johnson. Did somebody say undefeated? The Big Unit faced all 30 teams in a career split between the two leagues, and the only team to never beat him (minimum 2 decisions). Was the Cubs. He was 13-0 with a 1.91 ERA and 12.4 strikeouts per 9 in 14 starts (plus a relief appearance). Twenty-eight other teams each tagged him with multiple losses (he was 1-0 vs. Arizona).
- Hank Aaron. Before there were Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder and 2018 Christian Yelich, there was this Hammerin’ fellow who made the drive from Milwaukee to clobber Cubs pitchers for home runs more often than he hit them anywhere else on the road (50 of his 87 against the Cubs coming at Wrigley). A career .305 hitter, Aaron hit .326 against the Cubs — including .337 at Wrigley.
- Dwight Gooden. Nobody liked facing Gooden with the Mets in the 1980s, but nobody had it worse than the Cubs — by far his most commonly defeated opponent. He went 28-4 with a 3.32 ERA and 11 complete games in 39 starts (plus a relief appearance) against them.
- Frank Robinson. The first player to win MVPs in both leagues, Robinson’s favorite National League pitching staff to bully belonged to the Cubs — against whom he cracked 54 homers (more than any other opponent) and produced a 1.048 OPS in 202 games (second only to his OPS against Boston in barely half as many games).
Click here to subscribe to the Cubs Talk Podcast for free.
