Associated Press
National League's Prince Fielder lets one rip en route to victory in home run contest.
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Prince Fielder is home-run king in St. Louis
ST. LOUIS - It had all the ingredients to be a fairy-tale story. Phillies slugger Ryan Howard returns to his hometown for the All-Star Game. He also competes in the Home Run contest where, cheered on by the crowd, he wins the event for the second time in his career.
There were only two problems with that happily-ever-after ending.
One is that he wasn't the fan favorite. Not even close. Howard, who won the 2006 contest at Pittsburgh, got a nice ovation. But the crowd was openly pulling for Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols.
The other, of course, is that he didn't win.
Milwaukee's Prince Fielder did, outslugging Nelson Cruz of the Rangers in the final round. Cruz hit five; Fielder hit his sixth with three outs to spare.
Much of the starch already had gone out of the crowd of 45,981 by then since neither Pujols (who leads the majors with 32 homers at the break) or Howard (the fallback rooting interest) made it to the finals.
As it turned out, Pujols barely survived the first round. He hit two homers with one out remaining to force a tie-breaking "swing-off" after tying for the fourth and final spot with Tampa Bay's Carlos Pena and Minnesota's Joe Mauer.
Cruz and Fielder foreshadowed the ultimate showdown with 11 homers each in the first round and Howard comfortably qualified with seven.
Also eliminated early were San Diego's Adrian Gonzalez (2) and Detroit's Brandon Inge (0).
Pujols and Howard exited in the second round as Cruz and Fielder were able to build on their first-round success to square off in the finals.
Before the event, all the participants were asked if they had arranged for security to leave the stadium in case they happened to beat Pujols.
"Growing up here and being a Cardinals fan when I was younger, the fans here love their team first and foremost," Howard said. "They love the Cardinals here. They live and die the Cardinals here.
"The one thing I can say about the fans here is that they appreciate good players. And you know that if somebody were to knock off Albert, I think they would be cool with that, they would appreciate that, because they know what level Albert is at."
Howard said that, win or lose, he planned to have a good time competing. Making it more special was having his high school summer league coach, Deron Spink, as his pitcher.
"He's special to me," Howard explained. "He's helped me get where I am today. I just felt it would be a special moment for us to kind of share because it all started here for me and he was there from the get-go." *
