In the long history of the Major Leagues, only four players had been able to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in the same season. Neither short nor lazy, the Venezuelan Ronald Acuña Jr. He chose to go two floors higher. and has just inaugurated the 40-60 Club.
“I always wanted to make my people proud and I feel like that is the case,” he said after Wednesday's game against the Washington Nationals. A game where in the same first inning He hit a slider from left-handed Patrick Corbin hard and sent it over the left field fence.
Until that moment he had 68 steals and 39 homers. On September 19, in front of his Braves fans, he had hit a couple of home runs against the Phillies pitching, and since then there was nothing in his head other than the idea of get the round number.
A World Series winner and two-time All-Star, the veteran Corbin will be remembered as much for his achievements in the box as for this time at bat when the ball came out at 116.3 mph and caused the fastest return to the frame (just 22 seconds) in the race of the wonder from La Guaira.
No less than 35 years before, the Cuban guy Jose Canseco had opened the doors of this VIP Lounge, a conjugator of two virtues that are not usually married in baseball. Power and speed. Speed and power. Only the chosen ones have been able to display them together in the pack, but the majority never achieved the 40-40. Griffey Jr couldn't... Mike Trout couldn't... It's so hard!
After Canseco, only Barry Bonds (1996), Alex Rodríguez (1998) and Alfonso Soriano (2006) achieved it. And all of them, with the exception of Soriano, They lived on the crest of the wave of the doping scandal. Acuña no. Acuña has had to complete the feat in times of more reliable brands, with athletes better controlled by the organization. But Acuña, ambitious, did not want to stay at 40-40, nor at 40-50. What's more: very soon he will steal two new bases and we will be talking about an amazing 40-70.
Braves manager Brian Snitker put it best: “Ronald could be opening paths that no one will travel again”.
What do you think?
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