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FLUBBER IN REVERSE Remember the old Disney movie The Absent Minded Professor? Fred MacMurray's character invents a substance called flying rubber (or Flubber, hence the title of the Disney remake) that repels all hard objects. Therefore MacMurray coats some on a baseball and strikes out everyone in sight.
I think Albert Pujols has been coating his bats with anti-flubber. He has only one strikeout in 70 plate appearances this year, which puts him in sight of a rare ambition, according to the Post-Dispatch:
First baseman Albert Pujols limited his statistical goals this season to striking out fewer than last season's 65 whiffs and walking 100 times.
How rare is this? Well, it's been done 102 times in major-league history, but only 7 times by active players: Barry Bonds (2002, 2003), Brian Giles (2003), Todd Helton (2000), Gary Sheffield (1999), and Frank Thomas (1993, 1994).
The best recent figures are from Bonds, of course -- namely his 198 BB/47 K combo in 2002. But in 1941 Ted Williams had an even better K/BB ratio: 147 walks, only 27 strikeouts. Pujols is currently on pace for 150 walks, 12 strikeouts.
I think Albert Pujols has been coating his bats with anti-flubber. He has only one strikeout in 70 plate appearances this year, which puts him in sight of a rare ambition, according to the Post-Dispatch:
First baseman Albert Pujols limited his statistical goals this season to striking out fewer than last season's 65 whiffs and walking 100 times.
How rare is this? Well, it's been done 102 times in major-league history, but only 7 times by active players: Barry Bonds (2002, 2003), Brian Giles (2003), Todd Helton (2000), Gary Sheffield (1999), and Frank Thomas (1993, 1994).
The best recent figures are from Bonds, of course -- namely his 198 BB/47 K combo in 2002. But in 1941 Ted Williams had an even better K/BB ratio: 147 walks, only 27 strikeouts. Pujols is currently on pace for 150 walks, 12 strikeouts.