It started with Peoria: Inside the first pro home run for Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols
PEORIA — Albert Pujols' 23-year professional baseball journey has taken him to 700 Major League home runs.
And it all started with the Peoria Chiefs in the Midwest League, with whom he hit his first pro home run in his first pro game in 2000.
"Over the course of that season, you are watching the guy play and you could tell he was going to be good," former Peoria Chiefs president and co-owner Rocky Vonachen said. "I don't think anyone could tell he was gonna be that good that quick. But it was just a matter of when.
"Then in 2001, if Bobby Bonilla hadn't been hurt they might not have kept Albert around initially. Things could have worked out differently."
Instead, Pujols spent his only year in the minors in 2000, primarily with the Chiefs, then launched a 22-year big-league career with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2001. That has included 11 All-Star honors, six Silver Slugger awards, three MVP selections, Rookie of the Year honors and a litany of other hardware that will send him to Cooperstown.
Pujols on Friday night became only the fourth in MLB history to reach 700 home runs in a career when he hit his milestone home run against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Earlier in the night, Pujols hit career homer No. 699.
More coverage:Ex-St. Louis Cardinals prospect, Peoria Chiefs player shocks baseball with 527-foot homer
April 6, 2000, Albert Pujols' first home run
Pujols made his pro debut in the Peoria Chiefs opening day lineup at Kane County — then a Florida Marlins affiliate — on April 6, 2000, in the low-A Midwest League.
Pujols was Baseball America's No. 42 prospect that season. He faced future major league pitcher Josh Beckett and ripped the first pro pitch he saw for an RBI double over third base.
In the sixth inning, with the game tied 1-1, Kane County sent in lefty reliever Hector Manuel Henriquez. Pujols belted a two-run home run to right-center for a 3-1 lead and his first pro jack.
"I wasn't nervous, I was ready to play," Pujols told the Journal Star after his pro debut. "On the home run, I just tried to go with the pitch. He threw me an outside fastball."
It was a laser shot, called by then-Peoria Chiefs broadcaster Ed Beach.
"His first home run was gone in an instant," said Beach, now an assistant athletic director at Drury University in Springfield, Mo. "Albert's home runs were like that. Line drives with extreme velocity on them. He hit balls that would hurt someone if they got in the way."
Henriquez is out there in the world somewhere, perhaps with no idea he gave up Pujols' first pro homer. He surfaced briefly in a 2016 published story about The Clasico De Vitilla, a Dominican Republic-style stickball tournament outside Yankee Stadium. He lived in Queens, N.Y., at the time.
As for Pujols, the Cardinals figured out quickly what they had.
"He's that kind of a player," Chiefs manager Tom Lawless told the Journal Star after the 4-3 win on opening day. "He'll have to carry (an offensive) load for a while. I don't know if that's fair to him, but he'll have to do those things to bring everybody else's game up."
Minor league baseball:8 moments and milestones for Cardinals prospects with the Peoria Chiefs in 2022
The legend of Albert Pujols began in Peoria
The Chiefs went 63-74 in the Midwest League in the summer of 2000. Eliezer Alfonso, Chris Duncan, Coco Crisp, Tim Lemon were all teammates.
So was Johnny Hernandez, the Chiefs left fielder and batting second on opening day. He was on base when clean-up hitter Pujols hit his first pro homer.
"He kind of knew where he was going and he just went about his business a certain way," Hernandez told veteran baseball writer Rob Rains in a story this month on stlsportspage.com. "He hit the ball different than anybody else. The separator was his mindset."
Hernandez talked about the time in 2000, when the Cardinals' roving hitting instructor came to Peoria and let Pujols run the hitting meeting.
"We were facing a kid on the Beloit Snappers. I forget his name, but he had a good changeup," Hernandez told Rains. "(Albert) said, 'I’m going to scoot up in the box, he's going to throw me a changeup and I'm going to hit a home run.'
"Sure enough Albert comes up to bat, he scoots up in the box and the guy throws a changeup and Albert hits an absolute scud missile over the center field fence. It was one of the coolest things I had a chance to witness. Everybody was laughing, but at the same time we were saying, 'Holy crap, this guy’s legit.' "
'There was a buzz'
Pujols hit .324 with 17 home runs and 84 RBIs in 109 games with the Chiefs in 2000 while making $1,000 per month.
"There was a buzz in the organization while he was in Peoria that he was going to be the next superstar," Beach said. "The Cardinals actually had a third base prospect they liked better, Chris Kelly. But Albert did so well, they kept him at third and moved Kelly to first. Then Kelly hurt his shoulder and they brought in Chris Duncan to play first.
"So that season, the Chiefs had a corner infield of Pujols and Duncan. Then Bobby Bonilla got hurt in 2001 and Albert made the Cardinals team. They couldn't get him out of there after that."
Minor league baseball:St. Louis Cardinals prospect, ex-Peoria Chiefs player hits historic home run cycle
A private Hall of Fame
Vonachen remembers Pujols' work ethic was unmatched in Peoria, on and off the field.
"I remember Albert as one of the hardest workers I've ever seen," Vonachen said. "He was first to the ballpark and first in the cage every day. You watched him work and you couldn't tell if he'd had no hits or four hits the night before. His intensity, his focus, was the same either way.
"That carried over off the field. If I ever needed someone to go on an appearance in the community, Albert was the first one to raise his hand, especially if it was kids."
Pujols wore No. 21 for the Chiefs in that 2000 season. No doubt it will one day be among the retired numbers on the outfield fence at Dozer Park.
But he already has a place in Vonachen's mind.
"Albert and Greg Maddux are 1-2 in my personal Chiefs Hall of Fame," Vonachen said. "They were once-in-a-lifetime talents. We were lucky to see him here when it all started."
Elite company
Albert Pujols became just the fourth player in baseball history to join MLB's 700-homer club:
762 — Barry Bonds, hit 700th on Sept. 17, 2004.
755 — Hank Aaron, hit 700th on July 21, 1973.
714 — Babe Ruth, hit 700th on July 14, 1934.
700 — Albert Pujols, hit 700th on Sept. 23, 2022.
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men's basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @icetimecleve.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Inside Albert Pujols' first pro baseball home run with Peoria Chiefs
