SAN DIEGO — When the bat of Albert Pujols caught fire in early August, and it appeared the St. Louis Cardinals slugger would make an improbable 11th-hour run to 700 homers, Mark McGwire began tracking his long-ago teammate through the MLB app and tuning into as many Pujols plate appearances as he could.
"His at-bats, he looks like he's 25 again," McGwire said of the 42-year-old Pujols, who was a Cardinals rookie when McGwire hit the last of his 583 career homers in a St. Louis uniform in 2001. "This guy is a born hitter."
But it wasn't until McGwire returned to Busch Stadium for Matt Holliday's Cardinals Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Aug. 27 that he truly grasped — literally, not figuratively — how Pujols, in his 22nd and final big league season, has recaptured the thunder in his swing.
