{"id":931,"date":"2009-07-13T22:39:46","date_gmt":"2009-07-14T03:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/?p=931"},"modified":"2009-07-13T22:42:40","modified_gmt":"2009-07-14T03:42:40","slug":"the-prince-just-got-kinged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/?p=931","title":{"rendered":"The Prince just got King’ed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prince Fielder<\/a> <\/a><\/span>beat the hometown boppers on their own turf. <\/em><\/p>\n

With Albert Pujols<\/a><\/span> and Ryan Howard<\/a><\/span> eliminated early, Fielder won baseball\u2019s Home Run Derby on Monday night with a steady power display that included a jaw-dropping drive estimated at 503 feet.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Milwaukee Brewers<\/a>\u2019 first baseman outslugged Texas outfielder Nelson Cruz<\/a><\/span> 6-5 in the finals at Busch Stadium to take home a title that St. Louis fans surely hoped would go to one of their own.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s what I expected. This is Albert\u2019s stadium and Ryan is from here,\u201d Fielder said. \u201cI was just happy I was able to put on a show and I\u2019m glad I won.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Pujols, the Cardinals\u2019 big first baseman, and Howard, who grew up in the Gateway City, were knocked out in the second round.<\/em><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s All-Star festivities were supposed to belong to Pujols in his home ballpark. But Fielder snatched the spotlight in the annual warmup for Tuesday night\u2019s Midsummer Classic.<\/em><\/p>\n

With three outs remaining in the final round, Fielder smacked a drive onto the grassy hill in center field to clinch the crown. He posed for a moment with his bat held high, then embraced Brewers teammate Ryan Braun<\/a> near home plate.<\/em><\/p>\n

Pujols, who leads the majors with 32 homers, needed a late rally just to avoid elimination in the first round. With one out to work with, he connected on consecutive swings to force a three-player swing-off for the final spot in round 2, sending the red-clad crowd of 45,981 into a high-fiving frenzy.<\/em><\/p>\n

One fan in the bleachers lent a helping hand, too, appearing to reach over the fence in right-center to catch one of Pujols\u2019 homers. During a game it might have been ruled fan interference, but there\u2019s no video replay in the derby.<\/em><\/p>\n

Carlos Pena<\/a><\/span> hit one homer in the five-swing tiebreaker and Joe Mauer<\/a><\/span> was shut out. So when Pujols homered twice he moved on\u2014but not for long.<\/em><\/p>\n

Looking tired, he managed six homers next time up for a two-round total of 11, easily surpassed by Fielder, Cruz and Howard, the 2006 derby champ.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I would have put a better show for our fans,\u201d Pujols said. \u201cI was nervous a little bit.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

After his final swing, he received a warm ovation anyway.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThank you so much for your support,\u201d Pujols told the crowd.<\/em><\/p>\n

The two-time MVP also failed to come through for a fan right before the contest. With a chance to win an attractive prize package, Mark Weinberger of Philadelphia pointed to left field a couple of times\u2014calling Pujols\u2019 shot.<\/em><\/p>\n

Alas, the St. Louis slugger was unable to clear the fences.<\/em><\/p>\n

Fielder hit the longest shot of the night, a 503-foot drive to right-center that disappeared between two sections of bleachers.<\/em><\/p>\n

During the first round, Cruz hit a drive into the fourth deck in left field, never accomplished during a game at 4-year-old Busch Stadium.<\/em><\/p>\n

Fielder and Cruz both have 22 home runs. Cruz, enjoying a breakout season, was a late addition to the All-Star roster because of an injury to Los Angeles Angels<\/a> outfielder Torii Hunter<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Brandon Inge<\/a>,<\/span> Adrian Gonzalez<\/a>,<\/span> Pena and Mauer were knocked out in the first round. Inge, the Detroit Tigers<\/a>\u2019 5-foot-11 third baseman, became the eighth contestant to get shut out since the current format was adopted in 1996. Jason Bay<\/a><\/a><\/span> was the previous one in 2005.<\/em><\/p>\n

None of the participants were able to match Josh Hamilton\u2019s<\/a><\/a><\/span> amazing performance last year at Yankee Stadium, where he hit a record 28 homers in the first round\u2014including 13 in a row.<\/em><\/p>\n

Despite an injury-plagued first half, Hamilton was elected by fans to start in the outfield Tuesday night. But he skipped the derby this time, honoring a request by Texas manager Ron Washington.<\/em><\/p>\n

Minnesota slugger Justin Morneau<\/a>,<\/span> the 2008 derby champion, also sat out.\u00a0 -yahoo.com<\/em><\/p>\n

Well our own Ryan Howard did well.\u00a0 I tell ya what, I cannot stand these rules.\u00a0 So someone gets up and hits 25 home runs in round 1.\u00a0 Then hits just 1 home run in round 2 (hypothetically speaking) .\u00a0 And lets just say that someone else hits 11 home runs in round one and 14 home runs in round 2 hes out because they take the COMBINED home runs from round 1 and round two.\u00a0 So the player who his 25 and 1 has a total of 26 meanwhile the more consistant player who has 11 and 14 has a total of 25 gets to sit down and watch.\u00a0 Meh so be it I guess.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prince Fielder beat the hometown boppers on their own turf. With Albert Pujols and Ryan Howard eliminated early, Fielder won baseball\u2019s Home Run Derby on Monday night… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=931"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":935,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931\/revisions\/935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.homeboyznetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}